Anyone in Philadelphia??

[raykay23]

I am looking at flights at the moment and a good contender seems to be US Airways, this involves a plane change in Philly. Anyone know how much time I would comfortably need to get through that airport with a jetlagged five year old??

 

[Sheriff Woody]

Virtually all the USAir flights arrive / depart from the same terminal. So it is unlikely that you will have to run from Terminal A to Terminal E to catch a connection. I'd say the furthest you'd have to go from one gate to the next is maybe 300 yards in most cases.

 

[AllMixedUp]

Unless they are coming in on one of the smaller regional flights. These come into terminal F which is connected to the other terminals via bus. I always give myself at least an hour.

 

[DeadHead]

USAIRWAYS operates out of Concourse B & C for most of the flights, also Concourse F for regional flights. If connecting from B to C or vice versa it should take 15 minutes to walk between the 2, there is a moving sidewalk between the 2 terminals. There is a shuttle bus from Concourse F to B & C.

 

[uva185]

Virtually all the USAir flights arrive / depart from the same terminal. So it is unlikely that you will have to run from Terminal A to Terminal E to catch a connection. I'd say the furthest you'd have to go from one gate to the next is maybe 300 yards in most cases.

Wow, absolutely incorrect!!

US Airways flights depart from A, B, C and F.

OP, I fly over 100k miles per year with US Airways. Avoid PHL at all costs, route via CLT or DCA. That airport is so prone to delays it is not even worth it.

Also, its over a mile from A West gates to F gates!!

EDIT: Cool my 1,000th post!

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

I have never had good luck changing in Philly. Twice in my life I missed connections and both were in Philly on US Air. First time we missed a connection, our luggage was left outside during a thunderstorm and the bags were soaked... got home and my friend had stuff stolen out of hers!

 

[raykay23]

Ok wow thanks, looks like I am back to the drawing board. I will be coming from Ireland so an international flight- I don't know if there are flights to Charlotte or Reagan from here.

 

[PSUGuy]

I wouldn't avoid PHL at all. USAir has a commuter flight to PHL from our small local airport which we've used several times without any issues with connection time. When the flights from here got too expensive we started driving to PHL to catch a direct flight to MCO, we're very comfortable with this airport.

Bill From PA

 

[uva185]

Ok wow thanks, looks like I am back to the drawing board. I will be coming from Ireland so an international flight- I don't know if there are flights to Charlotte or Reagan from here.

There are no nonstop flights from Ireland to Charlotte or Reagan. What is your final destination? Washington Dulles might be an option.

If you arrive in PHL from Ireland you will arrive in the A-West terminal. You will have to clear immigration, claim your luggage, clear customs, re-check your luggage, re-clear security, and go to your connecting gate (B or C terminal for mainline flights and F terminal for regional flights.) There is a bus running airside between C and F. You should leave a bare minimum of 2 hours to connect International to Domestic and 90 minutes from Domestic to International.

Aside from PHL being spread out (it can be a long walk between the International gates and domestic gates), there is just a lot of traffic at the airport. It is not unusual to push back and wait 30-60 minutes for take off. When flying into PHL it is not unusual to circle the airport for a bit....or not be cleared for takeoff from your originating airport until PHL can accept you (this happens for airports nearby like DCA where I fly from).

Your connection could work out just fine, this is just my experience as a frequent flyer through PHL. It is not a pleasant experience but even I decide to to it sometimes to get a flight at a better time or on a nicer plane.