philadelphia airport

[iluvtot]

Hi,
Have been looking at flights (23rd Aug-4th Sept), and have found some for £339, but it means a 5 hour wait at Philadelphia Airport.
We haven't flown indirect before, and so wondered if this is a good idea or not?
Next best I can find is a 2hr stop in Charlotte for £369; but as there are 5 of us, That's a £150 difference which could be put to better use!!
Has anyone had a stopover in Phili? Are there any shops, or a foodcourt; or is it dire?! With 3 wingey teens, I don't think I could cope waiting around for hours with nothing to do!
Thanks,
Jules x

 

[jackieleanne]

We have had a five hour stop over in Philly 2 years ago and it really isn't that bad, it's a huge airport with plenty of shops, bars that play plenty sports including English Sports we watched the F1. Lots of different food places.

 

[Goofyish]

Haven't flown indirect before but here is a link to the Philledelphia airport website:

http://www.phl.org/index.html

There seems to be a large foodcourt and shopping mall to keep you busy

 

[iluvtot]

We have had a five hour stop over in Philly 2 years ago and it really isn't that bad, it's a huge airport with plenty of shops, bars that play plenty sports including English Sports we watched the F1. Lots of different food places.

Thanks for that Def sounds like it is worth considering. Will run it by DH later!

Jules

 

[iluvtot]

Haven't flown indirect before but here is a link to the Philledelphia airport website:

http://www.phl.org/index.html

There seems to be a large foodcourt and shopping mall to keep you busy

Thanks! When the kids were young, we would get off the drive, and 2 mins down the road they would all be saying "are we nearly there?"
DD's(twins) are 15, and DS is 17; and I have to say, things haven't improved much!

 

[wayneg]

Our longest stop over was Philly, not sure if it was 5 or 7 hours.
For 5 hours by the time you have gone thru immigration and had a nice relaxing meal a few hours have passed, nice not to rush thru an airport.
You just have to decide if an extra 3 hours of your time is worth £150. for some it is, others it isn't.

 

[karriemouse]

On our last trip we went via philadelphia, and we thought it was a much nicer airport than chicago or newark which we've previously been through.

Getting off the first plane, through immigration & customs, back through security and to our next gate took just under an hour and was very smooth with nice staff.

There were lots of shopping and eating facilities and my teenager actually wanted to stay longer as she didn't get nearly the amount of shopping done that she wanted to!

I can't compare it with charlotte as we haven't been through there, but personally I would be happy to save the money and wait. On the other hand DD15 could easily spend that £150 in the 5 hour wait so maybe it's not such a good idea!!!

 

[iluvtot]

On the other hand DD15 could easily spend that £150 in the 5 hour wait so maybe it's not such a good idea!!!

easily, and more!!
Last year we flew Virgin, and were really delayed (we were actually given food vouchers!!) We arrived at Pop Century at 1am on the morning of the Black Friday sales. DD's persuaded me to go straight to the outlets!

 

[Disbabe]

We've also flown to Philly and then down - we found it to be an OK airport - plenty of shops etc. We're flying Heathrow to Washington and down this year as it was even cheaper. We live in Staffordshire and looked at Birmingham to Philly etc. cost for 5 was £2970 - next morning was an extra £3000 ontop! - so I checked out United Airlines from London Airports and came up with the one from Heathrow to Washington - has cost us £2783 for 5 with good flight times, so we're chuffed after having to cancel our Mexico holiday :-(

 

[tezza_init]

Never done Phillie but gone a number of times indirect via Dallas, Twin Cities, & Detroit. Always been lucky with transfers and saved considerably on tickets. Would do it again no problem.

However, must say watching the Virgin atlantic *direct* boarding at Orlando I'd be lying if we weren't rather jealous.... with the stop off its a *long* trip home.

 

[karentan]

we're stopping over in atlanta for 5 hours, we're flying out on a saturday, so for us to have flown direct would have been an extra £400 for 2 of us!!!
so we're going the indirect route this time! but i have found out that there's a TGI fridays in atlanta airport so thats us sorted!

 

[juliebro]

We've always flown indirect with US Airways via Philly on every one of our trips.

As other posters say, by the time you get through immigration, baggage collection, customs, handing your baggage back in, going through security and getting something to eat, you may find that you only have a couple of hours at most to browse the shops. Also, the international flights land at one terminal and internal flights at another. You may find you have quite a trek across the airport to the gate for your onward flight.

There are plenty of shops, eating options (not just in the food court) and bars. There are also rocking chairs scattered around too. Some giving good views of the planes taking off and landing.

If you have executive lounge access, the US Airways Envoy lounge is excellent. As frequent flyers with US Airways, we've upgraded a couple of times and had access. It does spoil you though.

 

[jackieleanne]

US Airways were great as well one of the best companies Ive flown with.

 

[iluvtot]

Hi,
well I've booked it! YEAH!!
Finally decided to go with U S Airways direct. It was cheaper than most of the other sites. (£1726.50 for the 5 of us)
So anyway, just wanted to say thankyou to all who answered my question.
Cheers

Jules x

 

[wayneg]

Well done, thats a great price for 5 of you.

 

[baboons]

US were really good - we had a much shorter connection at Philly and they held the plane for about 10 of us connecting. On the way back, the internal flight was late coming in and they managed to get us transferred to Virgin Atlantic's direct flight from Orlando to Manchester.

 

[rsbuxt]

Hi

Is the baggage collection in Philly in the same terminal as the departures for Orlando - daughter and friend going on the 29th August?

Thanks

Rich

 

[karriemouse]

Hi

Is the baggage collection in Philly in the same terminal as the departures for Orlando - daughter and friend going on the 29th August?

Thanks

Rich

When we did Man/Philly/MCO we came in at Terminal A West and did immigration, customs, baggage collection, re-drop and security all in Terminal A West. The domestic flight then left from Terminal B (B8).

Here's a link to the Philly Airport Terminal map. http://www.phl.org/terminal_map.html .

It didn't seem far on the way out, but on the way back we had a tight connection and we were late coming in - we arrived at the far end of B then had to walk to the far end of A (A23) listening to them paging us! Got off 1st plane at 8.50, arrived at 2nd plane at 9.10, began to push back at 9.30. Nothing like a power walk through the airport to work off the Disney calories!!

 

[Lightning_McQueen]

We are flying from Glasgow to Philly then to Orlando for the first time in September.

I used up my airmiles, never used US Airways, so it's good to hear good reviews of the airline and the airport!

 

[juliebro]

we arrived at the far end of B then had to walk to the far end of A

Always seems to be the case.