AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

How To Purchase 10 Trips On AirTrain in New York For Only $25.00: A Step-By-Step Guide

Train yourself to ride AirTrain at a significant discount.

When the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey increased the rate of using the AirTrain at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York from $7.75 to $8.00 back in January of 2022, that meant that another 25 cents would come out of your pocket or purse every time you used it between the airport itself and two stations: Howard Beach and Jamaica…

How To Purchase 10 Trips On AirTrain in New York For Only $25.00: A Step-By-Step Guide

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

…but the good news is that if you plan on using AirTrain up to ten times within 30 days, you only need to pay $25.00, which is as low as $2.50 per ride — or you can purchase a pass for an unlimited amount of rides within 30 days for $40.00.

The problem is that although the official Internet web site of AirTrain informs you that you can save money on AirTrain with either of the two aforementioned options, it does not exactly specify how to obtain those deals.

This step-by-step guide will show you with photographs how easy is obtaining one of the two deals — in this case, ten rides for $25.00.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

First, use a machine which dispenses MetroCards for use with AirTrain. The fee for a single ride is currently eight dollars.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

Touch the black Start button at the top right corner of the monitor to begin the purchase. Note that up to a maximum of four users per one trip may use the same MetroCard for entry, which means that if you and three other people use the AirTrain round trip, you will use up eight out of the ten rides and already save money on on what a single ride costs.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

Next, choose English — unless you would rather use another language.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

You only have one choice here at the time this article was written: touch the MetroCard button.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

When prompted to please select a transaction, choose Get New card, which will cost you an extra dollar.

Important to note is that if you already have a MetroCard for the New York City subway system and want to save a dollar, you cannot purchase a special ticket for AirTrain by refilling your MetroCard. This is because the special ticket of ten rides for $25.00 requires its own MetroCard and cannot be mixed with any other use on the same MetroCard.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

At the next screen, you should see the option for purchasing a MetroCard called AirTrain 10-Trip $25 in the upper left corner of the choices. Touch on that button.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

Then, choose your method of payment. Credit card was chosen in this example.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

The credit card was “dipped” upon request. No choice was offered for sour cream and onion, chocolate, or swimming.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

The machine will then warn you that your credit card will be charged $26.00. Press the black OK button to continue.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

The payment from the credit card will be processed.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

Once the credit card — which will be charged $26.00 — is removed when prompted, your new MetroCard will be available.

AirTrain John F. Kennedy International Airport
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

Final Boarding Call

Remember that you cannot mix the ten rides for $25.00 on AirTrain with other funds on the same MetroCard. If you attempt to do that, you will pay $25.00 to add the funds to your MetroCard — but the system will not recognize the discount; and you will be charged the regular fare of eight dollars per ride when using the MetroCard for riding on AirTrain.

Hopefully, this article put you on the right track towards saving money whenever you are in New York and need to use AirTrain for at least four rides…

All photographs ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

  1. If 2 people travelling together are making a round trip to JFK, it’s worth it. $26 for two of them. If paying separately, it would be $8 x 4 = $32.

    Even cheaper is to jump the turnstile. However, a few months ago, someone did that in Queens. His foot tripped on the turnstile, sending his head crashing to the concrete. He died. All to get a free subway ride.

    I have taken the Q10 Limited bus from the free AirTrain station at JFK (the one by the parking lot and before the Howard Beach AirTrain station). The Q10 Limited’s last stop is the Kew Gardens Union Turnpike subway station where the E train to heads towards Midtown East then south.

  2. Does an existing empty ($0.00) Metrocard work for purchasing the 10-trip option as a ‘Refill’? What about when you get a new Metrocard from this machine issued as a free exchange for an expired Metrocard? After you use up the 10 trips, can you refill that same card with another 10 trip package?

  3. super cette procédure en images, bien expliquée.
    je vais a new york très prochainement(juin 2023).

    je comptais bien acheter une carte air train 10 trips car nous sommes 2.

    donc aller et retour je vais dépenser 4 voyages sur cette carte.

    je me demande juste…de quel façon passer les portiques a deux avec une seule carte ??

    dois je passer le premier et me retourner vers ma conjointe, pour lui donner ma carte de la main a la main pour qu elle valide dans l appareil ?

    ou alors dois je swipper 2 fois la carte ???
    ca semble bizard de se refiler la carte ????

    merci pour les reponses apportées

    1. Vas-y en premier, dom de grenoble france; et une fois passé le tourniquet, donnez la carte à votre conjointe et laissez-la l’utiliser comme si c’était la sienne.

      Bienvenue aux États-Unis; et passez un bon moment à New York!

      Si vous avez d’autres questions, n’hésitez pas à me le faire savoir.

  4. super cette procédure en images, bien expliquée.
    je vais à new york très prochainement(juin 2023).

    je comptais bien acheter une carte air train 10 trajets voiture nous sommes 2.

    donc aller et retour je vais dépenser 4 voyages sur cette carte.

    je me demande juste…de quelle façon passer les portiques à deux avec une seule carte ??

    Dois-je passer le premier et me retourner vers ma conjointe, pour lui donner ma carte de la main à la main pour qu’elle valide dans l’appareil ?

    ou alors dois je swipper 2 fois la carte ???
    ça semble bizard de se refiler la carte ????

    merci pour les réponses .

  5. merci beaucoup pour les reponses.
    votre site est tres interressant
    bonne continuation a vous.

  6. Welcome,
    If a family of 4 is traveling together, it can also be done with a 10 pass. Back there the 8 way for $25

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