Us airways - changing connecting flight?

[loobylou44]

We are flying Manchester-Philly-Orlando in December with US Airways, when we arrive in Philly we have just over 4 hours before our connecting flight, I know that there are a couple of flights to Orlando before ours which we might have time to catch, and I'm just wondering if anybody has been able to get on an earlier connecting flight than the one they are booked on? If so, what was the procedure? thanks

 

[All Star Paul]

I doubt it. You probably don't want to change to the earlier flight before you leave to make sure you have enough time for your connection, so if your flight to Philly gets you there on time, and if the earlier flight has spaces and is ontime, your problem will be your bags. I think they will struggle to get your bags on the earlier flight and I am not sure they will let you go before your bags. Even if they do then you have to hang around Orlando waiting for them to arrive. Sorry if I sound negative. I have tried this a couple of times when travelling on business and the only time I managed it was when I only had carry-on. However it does not hurt to ask.

 

[Tiggernut_jadie]

Give them a ring and ask! We're going to Phoenix in October and they changed the Heathrow to Philly plane so that we ended up with over 5 hours to wait - meaning we'd not arrive in Phoenix until 11pm their time. DH had a look on the website and there was an earlier flight which would give us just over 2 hours to wait and get us to Phoenix for 8.30pm which is much more reasonable. He gave them a ring (on the UK line) and they changed it no problem. He also asked what would happen if our first flight was late and they said they'd put us on the later (our original!) flight instead.

So give them a ring - look up the number on the UK version of the website and ask.

 

[loobylou44]

Thanks for your replies guys, I have checked flight times and there is a flight from Philly to Orlando which would give us 1hr 55 mins between flights, so I might ring US Airways and see if we can swap - that should be enough time without it being too stressful don't you think?

 

[iluvtot]

Thanks for your replies guys, I have checked flight times and there is a flight from Philly to Orlando which would give us 1hr 55 mins between flights, so I might ring US Airways and see if we can swap - that should be enough time without it being too stressful don't you think?

Hi, I really don't want to be a killjoy, but we've just got back having flown US Airways via Philly, and it was a nightmare! Probably we were just unlucky, but we arrived at Gatwick to be told that we had been removed from our connecting flight (which was a 5 hour wait at Philly) and changed to a flight the following day
Luckily, we had booked in online the previous eve, and had the boarding passes to prove it! After about a half hour wait, the girl came back and said they had managed to book us on the earlier connecting flight, which would've meant about 2hrs between connections. However, she had already told us our flight out of Gatwick was delayed, so I was concerned we would miss the connection. She assured me that if we did arrive late, there would be someone waiting for us to ensure we got through immigration quickly, and to our connecting flight.
Unfortunately that wasn't so. We arrived about the same time the connecting flight was supposed to leave. No-one was there to meet us, we missed the flight,and then just by chance as we were following the crowd(because we didn't know where to go), my DH heard his name mentioned, and went over to query it. We were just given a food voucher, and told to go to the front desk to organise a hotel, as our flight wasn't untill the following afternoon She wasn't interested in helping us, and told us to sort it with the front desk.
Anyway, we decided to not do as she told us,(I'm such a rebel!) and as I still had our original boarding passes, we went to checkin instead. The girl there looked at them and after I had explained, she just said "that's your flight, you just go get it girl!!" Probably she was passing the buck, but we checked in our luggage and went for it!
That flight was also delayed, our boarding passes didn't work, and though we tried to explain, no-one wanted to know. Eventually when everyone had boarded, there were some spare seats, so we were allowed on the plane, but had to all sit separately. It arrived at MCO about 3 hrs late, but at least we were there!
Anyway, the first thing is as someone has already said you could miss the connection, the second thing, immigration was a nightmare and took over an hour (obviously I don't know if that is normal), and there is an awful lot of walking between leaving the plane, getting through immigration, and then getting to the next checkin and on to the departure lounge. So less than 2 hours could be cutting it fine.
Finally, I had checked on the US Airways website, and they give information on how often their flights leave late. The plane we were booked on from Philly to MCO left late over 50% of the time. When I queried it, I was told it was usually minutes, and the time was made up before they reached MCO, but in our case that wasn't true; so that may be worth looking into aswell.
Anyway, once we got to Disney we had a great time, so we didn't let it spoil our vacation
Hope this helps,

Jules x

 

[loobylou44]

Hi, I really don't want to be a killjoy, but we've just got back having flown US Airways via Philly, and it was a nightmare! Probably we were just unlucky, but we arrived at Gatwick to be told that we had been removed from our connecting flight (which was a 5 hour wait at Philly) and changed to a flight the following day
Luckily, we had booked in online the previous eve, and had the boarding passes to prove it! After about a half hour wait, the girl came back and said they had managed to book us on the earlier connecting flight, which would've meant about 2hrs between connections. However, she had already told us our flight out of Gatwick was delayed, so I was concerned we would miss the connection. She assured me that if we did arrive late, there would be someone waiting for us to ensure we got through immigration quickly, and to our connecting flight.
Unfortunately that wasn't so. We arrived about the same time the connecting flight was supposed to leave. No-one was there to meet us, we missed the flight,and then just by chance as we were following the crowd(because we didn't know where to go), my DH heard his name mentioned, and went over to query it. We were just given a food voucher, and told to go to the front desk to organise a hotel, as our flight wasn't untill the following afternoon She wasn't interested in helping us, and told us to sort it with the front desk.
Anyway, we decided to not do as she told us,(I'm such a rebel!) and as I still had our original boarding passes, we went to checkin instead. The girl there looked at them and after I had explained, she just said "that's your flight, you just go get it girl!!" Probably she was passing the buck, but we checked in our luggage and went for it!
That flight was also delayed, our boarding passes didn't work, and though we tried to explain, no-one wanted to know. Eventually when everyone had boarded, there were some spare seats, so we were allowed on the plane, but had to all sit separately. It arrived at MCO about 3 hrs late, but at least we were there!
Anyway, the first thing is as someone has already said you could miss the connection, the second thing, immigration was a nightmare and took over an hour (obviously I don't know if that is normal), and there is an awful lot of walking between leaving the plane, getting through immigration, and then getting to the next checkin and on to the departure lounge. So less than 2 hours could be cutting it fine.
Finally, I had checked on the US Airways website, and they give information on how often their flights leave late. The plane we were booked on from Philly to MCO left late over 50% of the time. When I queried it, I was told it was usually minutes, and the time was made up before they reached MCO, but in our case that wasn't true; so that may be worth looking into aswell.
Anyway, once we got to Disney we had a great time, so we didn't let it spoil our vacation
Hope this helps,

Jules x

Gosh Jules, what a nightmare for you.Perhaps I will just stick with my 4hrs and 15mins wait rather than try and complicate matters!!! Louise x

 

[disneyholic family]

2 hours is not enough time to clear immigration, pick up your luggage, clear customs, return your luggage, and get to the gate..

it simply is not enough time for a plane change that includes immigration/customs.

we never schedule less than 3 hours when entering the US for a plane change/immigration/etc.

 

[iluvtot]

Gosh Jules, what a nightmare for you.Perhaps I will just stick with my 4hrs and 15mins wait rather than try and complicate matters!!! Louise x

As I said, I think we were just unlucky, but it it did take a long time to get through immigration and the walk after! I thought they'd cancelled the flight and we were on the road to Orlando! (might've got there quicker if we'd kept walking!!)
One thought, there were some others' waiting to get on the flight aswell, but their luggage had already gone off to Orlando, and they were on 'standby' for a seat. Don't know if I would fancy that though. DH was worried about our luggage going missing, and so stood at the window and watched them load the plane. The only probem was that we have black suitcases!! Do you have any idea how many black suitcases were on that plane??!! DH was saying "I think they're ours.... no, there they are.... hang on, there they are....
Kept him busy for a while though....

Jules x

 

[loobylou44]

2 hours is not enough time to clear immigration, pick up your luggage, clear customs, return your luggage, and get to the gate..

it simply is not enough time for a plane change that includes immigration/customs.

we never schedule less than 3 hours when entering the US for a plane change/immigration/etc.

Thanks that has made my mind up, I think by the time we have done all of that and had a drink/eat and gone to the loo(!!) 4hrs will fly by!

As I said, I think we were just unlucky, but it it did take a long time to get through immigration and the walk after! I thought they'd cancelled the flight and we were on the road to Orlando! (might've got there quicker if we'd kept walking!!)
One thought, there were some others' waiting to get on the flight aswell, but their luggage had already gone off to Orlando, and they were on 'standby' for a seat. Don't know if I would fancy that though. DH was worried about our luggage going missing, and so stood at the window and watched them load the plane. The only probem was that we have black suitcases!! Do you have any idea how many black suitcases were on that plane??!! DH was saying "I think they're ours.... no, there they are.... hang on, there they are....
Kept him busy for a while though....

Jules x

Yes most of our cases are black, so we have tied pieces of red fabric to our cases now they really stand out on the carousel - although we often do still manage to miss one!!
Louise xx

 

[disneyholic family]

i should clariy - you can do it in less, if everything goes along swimmingly - plane arrives on time, zip through passport, luggage comes out quickly, no customs line, etc etc...

we've done it in 90 minutes on a perfect day.
but i would be so majorly stressed about it..
plus some airlines refuse rechecking the luggage if there's less than some minimum amount of time until the flight...

bottom line, 1 hour and 55 minutes would have me stressed to the breaking point...
4 hours might be too much, but it's better than stressing over 2...

when we fly into JFK, we usually arrive about 5 am...our flight to MCO is often at 9 am.......4 hours....too much time, but that's what's available..
at least we don't sweat when it takes forever for the baggage to come out...
we take the whole thing at a very leisurely pace..

of course, we're wiped out by the time we get to the hotel...but at least we're near the mouse by that point

 

[loobylou44]

i should clariy - you can do it in less, if everything goes along swimmingly - plane arrives on time, zip through passport, luggage comes out quickly, no customs line, etc etc...

we've done it in 90 minutes on a perfect day.
but i would be so majorly stressed about it..
plus some airlines refuse rechecking the luggage if there's less than some minimum amount of time until the flight...

bottom line, 1 hour and 55 minutes would have me stressed to the breaking point...
4 hours might be too much, but it's better than stressing over 2...

when we fly into JFK, we usually arrive about 5 am...our flight to MCO is often at 9 am.......4 hours....too much time, but that's what's available..
at least we don't sweat when it takes forever for the baggage to come out...
we take the whole thing at a very leisurely pace..

of course, we're wiped out by the time we get to the hotel...but at least we're near the mouse by that point

I stress far too easily so DH will definitely want us to stick with the 4hours!