My first rule of NYC was spend a few bucks to make the experience better. Grand scheme of things it doesn’t move the needle and will be the difference between an awesome experience in your life vs a dreaded grind. Most of the griping you hear comes from the penny-pinchers that couldn’t let go and enjoy it. Nothing better than running the loop in Central Park before going to work.

NYC is what you make of it. A couple thoughts:

JFK-LGA or vice versa - Uber or taxi. I’ve done the bag drag on the bus/train and it’s just not worth it. If you NEED to save that extra $10 I’d suggest looking elsewhere in the budget. Do yourself a favor and don’t “split” a cab with 5 FA’s. If you do, just pay for the cab. Nothing worse than seeing a WB captain squabbling over $3 with a bunch of flight attendants.

JFK-EWR - as the previous poster said this is pretty easy. Airtrain-Jamaica-LIRR-Penn-NJ Transit-EWR Airtrain. Always LIRR. You can take the subway (E?) but may get stuck on the local and spend half your day stopping all the way to Manhattan - guilty! Yes it’s a bit of a grind and not exactly cheap. But I’ve also tried ubering it and spent a small fortune and a couple hours gridlocked in Brooklyn. It’s just not a quick trip.

My preferred way to do an early-ish EWR was to get a hotel near Penn and enjoy the city the night prior (vs a parking lot near EWR). Get up like a reverse commuter and take the train to EWR. Surprisingly you can find really good deals on nice hotels in Manhattan the day of; almost always cheaper than near the airports. EWR has the cheapest hotels, followed by JFK and then LGA (usually.)

Download the Priceline app and become adept at filtering ratty hotels. I think my limit was 3.5 stars or better. There’s a nasty Ramada in flushing that has/had 3 stars (and no hot water) which I think is how I came to that.

Go in with a little adventure in your outlook and it’s a hell of a good time. Best flying, crews and experience in the system.