indirect via philadelphia - new questions post 8

[disneyholic family]

US Airways has just come onto our radar..

so (for the zillionth time no doubt) what is US Airways like?

but more importantly, what is philadelphia airport like?

the background - my mom is a platinum frequent flyer with Delta, so naturally that would be her first choice.
But delta has been busy cancelling it's convenient flights from here, leaving only the flights that go through JFK.

My mom, who needs assistance going from plane to plane (and getting through customs), would like to avoid JFK (a wise choice on her part)...

so the TA suggested she fly US Airways via philadelphia...
she would be connecting to Detroit..

i looked at the connecting flight- it's on one of those toy planes....
so i wonder if she'll have to switch to a smaller terminal.

anyway, the question is, how complicated is it to clear customs in phily and how difficult is it to get to your next plane?..

 

[disneyholic family]

i've been looking at the US Airways website as well as seat guru and i see that their business class seats are really nice....nicer than the lousy planes delta has been putting into the air recently...

so that's an advantage for US air for sure..

but i wonder what the airport situation is like..

she'd have to switch to US air express -actually operated by either air wisconsin or republic airlines...both on toy planes...

 

[dixonsontour]

We flew US airways from manchester vis Philly in October.

Staff were excellent.

We were delayed on the way out meaning we had to run (like I haven't run for years) for the connection so my only memory of philly is a blur. Immigration was no line, security maybe 10 mins.

Would go with them again no problem (were too dear this year for our dates)

 

[MrsFerrell]

Philly isnt bad to pass through... Parking however is a nightmare there lol My husband has flown through there (military) going overseas and had no issues... My grandparents have flown through there to visit us and had no issues and my grandmother is a very novice flyer... She said they pointed her where she needed to go nicely

 

[Apopper74]

Philly is a nice airport, not as nice as some of the other large city airports but nice. Philly is also a HUB for US Airways so you can get a lot of direct flights through there. I flew US Airways out of Philly a lot in the past and never had an issue. Only time I experienced issues with US Airways was flying into Atlanta (Direct or Connecting) and that is only because Atlanta for some reason gets a lot of storms that delay flights in/out of that airport.

 

[Apopper74]

Philly is a nice airport, not as nice as some of the other large city airports but nice. The staff is really friendly and helpful (most). Philly is also a HUB for US Airways so you can get a lot of direct flights through there. I flew US Airways out of Philly a lot in the past and never had an issue. Only time I experienced issues with US Airways was flying into Atlanta (Direct or Connecting) and that is only because Atlanta for some reason gets a lot of storms that delay flights in/out of that airport.

Can't speak to customs, but all US Air flights fly out of one of 2 terminals which are next to each other. If you need help getting from one terminal to the other, the flight crew can cordinate assistance at the gate prior to unboarding.

 

[disneyholic family]

thanks for the responses!!

i just looked on wikipedia and i see that if she waits for the second plane out of philly to detroit, she'll go on republic - which goes out of either terminal B or C...
that's not bad..
if she takes the earlier connection, she'll have to go out of terminal F and i see that you can only get to terminal F by bus - definitely not good..

her plane will arrive from overseas at 5:10 am...
the first plane to detroit is at 7:30 - so that's 2 hours and 20 minutes...
the 2nd plane is at 9:30.....so 4 hours and 20 minutes, but much more convenient to get to..

 

[disneyholic family]

for those of you who have flown indirect via philadelphia airport - was there a desk just after customs where you could give back your checked luggage?

i think it's called a connecting desk or something like that?

does US Airways let you give your luggage right back after customs?

Also, has anyone had wheelchair assistance with US airways?
Delta is very good about wheelchair assistance, so i'm wondering how US Airways is.

 

[Bonnie151]

for those of you who have flown indirect via philadelphia airport - was there a desk just after customs where you could give back your checked luggage?

i think it's called a connecting desk or something like that?

does US Airways let you give your luggage right back after customs?

Yes, you go through some double doors and the recheck place is right there on the right.

I thought it was a great indirect route (we did Glasgow/Philly/Tampa).

 

[disneyholic family]

Yes, you go through some double doors and the recheck place is right there on the right.

I thought it was a great indirect route (we did Glasgow/Philly/Tampa).

i know the international flights come into terminal A - did you continue out of terminal A or one of the other terminals?
if you had to change terminals, how difficult was it to get from terminal A to your connecting terminal?

 

[Bonnie151]

i know the international flights come into terminal A - did you continue out of terminal A or one of the other terminals?
if you had to change terminals, how difficult was it to get from terminal A to your connecting terminal?

We flew out again from terminal B which was pretty close to the international arrivals. We had a couple of hours to spare so headed up to the food court for a bit.

As a complete side note - Philadelphia also had the friendliest immigration officer ever! I bounced up to him in the US citizen line with my 2 kids & husband and announced "We have an alien with us!" He laughed and said, "You?" (eeek- I've been here if people think that!). I shrieked and pointed at DH and said, "Noooo! HIM!" The guy then chatted with the kids and told them how great it was to have dual citizenship & mock glared at DH while he processed his UK passport.

 

[disneyholic family]

We flew out again from terminal B which was pretty close to the international arrivals. We had a couple of hours to spare so headed up to the food court for a bit.

As a complete side note - Philadelphia also had the friendliest immigration officer ever! I bounced up to him in the US citizen line with my 2 kids & husband and announced "We have an alien with us!" He laughed and said, "You?" (eeek- I've been here if people think that!). I shrieked and pointed at DH and said, "Noooo! HIM!" The guy then chatted with the kids and told them how great it was to have dual citizenship & mock glared at DH while he processed his UK passport.

that's funny!
i remember that story! they sometimes can be friendly, but you have to get them on a good day..
i came through JFK once (i always go through JFK), and it was HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT....and the airport was a hell hole....hotter than hades and it seemed the a/c was broken.....
so when i got up to the immigration guy, he started laughing when he saw the address on my entrance form - florida!! he thought that was the funniest thing ever.....that i was going some place even hotter...
he wished me luck and sent me on my way...

this past summer, we went though JFK with my son in law, who's an alien...
JFK has a fastpass line at immigration, which is a uniline for both americans and aliens....when you get to the head of the line, you tell the guy what you are and he sends you to the appropriate line...
so we said we were 3 americans and an alien, so all 4 of us were sent to the alien side....
no big deal, as we were being sent to the front of the line anyway...so it didn't matter which side we were on....
he processed us quickly, then did the other stuff he has to do with aliens and then we were done...
we were in a mad dash anyway....our flight had arrived an hour late so we had only an hour to make it to the domestic flight...
you haven't lived until you've made that mad dash through JFK, switching terminals as you go....not for the fainthearted