I went to New York last December, admittedly a very popular time to go to New York, but only decided to go in October so had difficulty finding ANY flight! I basically just trawled the internet before getting a flight to Newark, which actually was more convenient for the hotel as I could get the bus from Newark airport to the Port Authority which was 2 blocks from the hotel, so check out flights to Newark aswell as JFK. The hotel I stayed in was the Madison Plaza, only 1 block from Times Square and very safe as you need to show your room card to even get into the lifts. You can often get cheaper flights the sooner you book so I would suggest having a good look now, I ended up paying �400 ish for my flight but I'm sure you'll be able to get cheaper.