BWI or PHL - evening flight / rush hour question

[vallamen]

We will be flying to Disney on a Friday afternoon. We live in Harrisburg and map quest indicates that both PHL and BWI are the exact same distance. We have the option of a 6:55 pm flight out of PHL or a 6:55 pm flight of BWI. We typically would pick BWI; however I'm not sure this time due to the rush hour traffic issue. Any advice?

TIA,
Val.

 

[partypa]

I vote BWI
You will be traveling a bit before rush hour, getting there no later than 5:00 for a 6:55 flight, yes ? Philly can be a nightmare anytime of the day or night, IMHO. PHL is our last choice, all the time

 

[mb187143]

I'm assuming you'd be taking the turnpike to Philadelphia from Harrisburg, remember that to get to PHL you'd have to also switch to the blue route (I 476) and then I 95, which can be VERY crowded from 3:00 to 7:00 PM nightly. I fly out of Philly all the time, always the first flight out though. I come from north of the city, but I commuted from Philadelphia to Wilmington DE for 3 years for work, and there was never a good way to go around rush hour near the airport. You're probably better off at BWI. I will say, for the record, I have never had a problem with actually flying out of Philadelphia, but like I said, I usually take the first flight out in the AM.

 

[DCTooTall]

I Also highly recommend BWI.

The way I see it, Even if you consider rush hour increasing traffic, with PHL you end up having to deal with the turnpike followed by another 2 lane interstate with typical PA exits (No merge lanes) during heavy traffic to get to the airport.

With BWI, As you approach Baltimore 83 jumps to 3-4 lanes that moves pretty smoothly, and then get on the beltway which is another 4-6 lanes of traffic. Maryland also seemed to understand that traffic merges into traffic much easier when they don't have a blind ramp directly into the traffic flow.

The end result is that in times when traffic starts to increase, I'd expect Baltimore roads to be able to handle the increased traffic much better than Philly roads.

 

[vallamen]

Thanks everyone. I switched to the BWI flight.

 

[Checkers]

Thanks everyone. I switched to the BWI flight.

I think you made the right decision. We also live in the Hbg. area and fly out of BWI and it is much easier than Phila. Recently we have been flying out of HIA on AirTran and the only complaint we have is the return flights are so darn early (8am) which means we are checking our bags at RAC at 5am and then boarding the ME almost immediately.

 

[dthogue]

My vote would be for BWI - traffic issues aside it is a much nicer airport than Philly. Just make sure you leave enough extra travel time to allow for traffic issues.

 

[Lady Lady]

Have you booked your flight already? Have your considered flying out of Harrisburg? I checked and Airtrans has direct flights to Orlando.

Also you can check Allentown for AirTrans also. They have an afternoon flight for 6:00 pm. They also have an earlier flight in the day. All the AirTrans flights are non-stop. The flights back from Orlando start in the afternoon, so no earlier return flight. The airport is smaller than Philadelphia or Baltimore.

 

[vallamen]

We would have booked AirTran out of Harrisburg, but we had enough southwest miles to fly for free. Wish they had merged their rewards program already!

Thanks again

 

[MEK]

Glad you picked BWI. It's further for me, but the airport is so much nicer and it runs on time, which PHL never does.