Bad Connection in Philly

I live in Philly & travel a great deal, so (unfortunately) YES, you have every right to be concerned!! US Air sucks, as does PHL in general! For example, my bf is travelling almost every week now for work & EVERY SINGLE WEEK, I'm on the internet trying to rebook him for flights & hotels. (Forget about trying to get US Air on the phone!)

She'll probably arrive in the C terminal, then have to hike it to A. And it IS a hike! I've literally RUN it before & it felt like I was running about 3 miles! The good news is that almost ALL of their flights are late departing, so her flight leaving PHL may be delayed as well. However, the bad part is that US Air likes to do the "pull away from the gate so we can say we've departed" thing! So u'll leave the gate by about 2 feet & sit there forever.

What day is she flying? That can make a difference.

Oh if she does actually make it to Zurich, rest assured the bag won't be there! I definitely suggest having her carry it on if at all possible.

I was told by the people in Philly that work in the airport that it is a 5-10 minute trip from gates B and C where the food Mart is to gate A-West where she will be leaving. I noticed that todays flight from Seattle was suppose to arrive at 4:34 pm and it was at the gate at 5:13pm. Then the Philly to Zurich flight was to leave at 6:10pm but actually left at 6:40pm. Does that mean that they waited for the Seattle people or that they were just delayed? What a mess.

Yea right 5-10 mins! Ha, that's funny! I told my bf that & he just cracked up! He said maybe if she has a Jetsons car, she could make it in that time! And that's also from the food mart which is at the FRONT of the terminal (& that STILL wouldn't be under 10 mins!). She won't be arriving at the front of it - she'll have to walk all the way to the front, then over to A.

Take a look at the terminal map...(& if it looks to you like it's a long way, that's b/c it is!)

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

And for the times, the Zurich flight u mention was probably just delayed (they don't hold flights for anyone!). That is a plus in her favor - all the flights are usually delayed, so her Zurich one has a good chance of being as well.

I was looking at an earlier flight and there is a red-eye that leaves at 11:05 from Seattle and gets to Philly at 7:15 am in the morning. That would give her 11 hours to walk from Gate C to the A-West terminal. That should be enough time. The cost is $400 less too. That is probably why they would never do it. I am thinking just canceling for now and using the ticket maybe next year when she can go with me or her brother or mother.

Even a short delay will most likely cause her to miss the connection. If she doesn't mind the long delay (maybe a day pass to Airclub?), take the earlier flight. If she does take this flight and misses her flight to Switzerland the ticketing agent will tell her to come back the next day. DON'T believe it. Have her check with a gate agent about the next flight before she leaves the gate area. She can probably fly through either Paris or Amsterdam or even Brussels now. If at all possible have the gate agent print tickets. If she's going through Paris have her make sure her tickets are correct before leaving Philly since the agents at CDG speak very little English. If this sounds like the voice of experience, it is. Flying through Philly and dealing with USAir there is a lesson in lousy customer service. You may even want to be sure she has a cell phone and the USAir number since the customer service people you deal with by phone are tremendously better than any in Philly.

I'm thinking of just canceling this flight and hope for another day...

Oh, don't get me started either on the Philadelphia airport (my original hometown) or US Air. From experience, I would not trust US Air with anything less than a 4 hour layover. I've missed my connecting flight with that lousy airline enough times and experienced very little help arranging another flight. I've been tempted by cheap US Air tickets since, but knowing how bad the service is, I usually pay a little more money on a more trustworthy airline.

I've never connected through Philadelphia (I usually departed from there), but the waits both in the ticket and security line can be some of the worst in the US (Dulles would be a close second, though!). But if your daughter is connecting, this should not be as much of a problem.

Can you get a refund on the ticket? I see that Northwest flys out of Seattle direct to Amsterdam, then KLM to Zurich. My first international flight was with KLM and they were wonderful.
I flew last Sat with a woman from Austria that now lives in the US. She is in the travel industry. I asked her which airline she likes the best. She likes the British Airline. If the money was right, it would be good for her to change planes in an English speaking country, London. Air France has flights also, but the Paris airport was a mess when I was last there.
What if you changed the leg from Seattle to Philly on another carrier? Good luck. I know she will be so dissappointed if she doesn't get to go.

Thanks for that information. I think that she sees our love for her coming through all of this. I feel bad for our friend in Switzerland who made all the reservations and rail psses etc. To cancel now would be tough on her the most I think. She is our good friend, I hope she understands but I don't trust US Airways with my daughter.

Oh ya the tickets are non-refundable, but we will use them to go to Hawaii next May so that she can watch her brother graduate from Hawaii Pacific University