us airways one hour connection time in Philadelphia

One thing you can always count on in Philadelphia is that departing flights will leave late. International flights leave from Terminal A. The farthest gate from Terminal A, using the moving walkways, is about a 15 minute walk away.

I'm in the same boat as you ... well, we have an hour and twenty-five minutes, but still. I posted on here and was assured that, all things being equal (assuming your original flight isn't delayed, etc), it's enough time. I'm trying to think positively! Also, it's true departures are almost always delayed through Philadelphia. So keep your fingers crossed but be prepared, I guess. Check and see about later flights, too, just in case. In my case, we had to jump on the tickets ... they were a full $400 cheaper (each) than anything else we'd seen. Now, to calm my nerves up until we leave in a few weeks ...

1 hour is not enough time. I had booked perfect flight times with USAirways, but then the screwed up my schedule and moved me to different flight so that I, like you, had a connection time of 1 hour. We are also a group of 14. I called USAirways and told them that I had perfect times until they changed my schedule. I told them 1 hour was not enough and they agreed and moved my schedule around to accomodate us. BTW we are flying from the Southeast to Venice via Philadelphia.

I flew through Philadelphia in 2007 on my way to Munich. My flight came in at one of the farthest concourses from A-West, from where my flight departed. I seemed at the time like an endless progression of moving walkways. I would say it took longer than 15 minutes.

At the time, I decided PHL was the worst airport in the world. So next time I flew through Newark. Now that's my least favorite airport.

I have to say this about Philly. Although it is a long trek from one end to the other, at least you stay in one security zone.

Unfortunately, that is not true of international arrivals. Immigration and customs dumps you outside the security zone, so you have to go back through for a departing flight. That was a very unpleasant experience. Half the TSA personnel at Philly have only one job, to scream at passengers.

I think that if your flight from Atlanta comes in on time, you will have time to make it, particularly if you don't come into concourse F. You can see a map of the airport here.

On what airline are you coming from Atlanta. Looks like Delta uses concourses D & E. Pretty bad. USAir uses B & C. Not bad. USAir also uses F. Terrible.

BTW, I had four hours for my connection. I know I had an awfully long time with nothing to do in A-West.

I'm sorry to say that there is a good chance you won't make your flight. For one thing, there are lots of delays in Atlanta due to storms, etc. (I flew through ATL twice a week for years and can't tell you how many times I was delayed).Next, the Philly airport is my choice for worst airport in a developed country.It's quite a hike from the USAir gates to the international ones. Lastly, domestic flights may be delayed but I've never had an international flight depart late in Philly or anywhere else for that matter. If there's a weather delay, they have takeoff priority.The only international flight I've ever missed was to Rome out of PHL - weather delay, long distance to the gate, missed my flight. Now the good news. There is probably a flight to Rome connecting thru Paris or Amsterdam. The gate agent for your flight may tell you that you have to reschedule with a ticket agent.DO NOT GO TO THE TICKET COUNTER!!. They'll tell you to go away and come back the next day. Find the gate with a departing flight to Paris or Amsterdam. That gate agent who will usually be friendlier and will try harder to get you out later in the evening. Then the worst thing that will happen is that you get to Rome in the afternoon. Call the airline, be pitiful and they'll change your return ticket without cost to let you recoup your lost day. Now, don't worry about it. Don't get upset if you miss your flight. Roll with the punches and have a great time when you get to Rome.

I looked up flt departures and arrivals for PHL on their website. Of course, this is just for today. The USAir flight to Rome is scheduled to leave at 6:10 from A25. There is a Delta flight from Atlanta scheduled in at 5:07, Gate D14. I think that's doable, in an hour. Not as bad as a USAir flight into Concourse F. Unfortunately, that flight's arrival was delayed until 6:09 - Not Doable. Perhaps you should start watching arrival times and decide from that.

In 2007, I booked a USAir flight to Munich, then started watching arrival times in Munich. In the first couple of weeks, it was 10 and 12 hours late! Fortunately, when I flew, we were right on time. I noticed that the flight seemed to leave from different gates, and, when late, it was due to mechanical difficulties. I finally decided that Munich was a low priority, and if any aircraft had difficulty, they assigned it to Munich.

Well, I was fat, dumb, and happy until I read this post!

We fly from PDX to Philthydelphia next month on our R/T to Rome. We have 1hr 20 min "layover" on our way over the pond, and almost two hours on the way back. I sure hope flights from Portland are not relegated to terminal "F"!

Lee, Teena, thanks for the tips. Forewarned in forearmed.

Is 1 hr, 57 minutes enough time in Philly?

We connected through Phil to Rome on US Air two summers back. Think Lee and I would on the same flight. Now US Air and Phil are on my list of never use regardless of price. We have done 12 European flight it was without question the worst experience both airline and airport. The only bright spot was a guy driving one of the electric carts. After a loong walk we asked if we were still headed in the correct direction to the international terminal as we were getting close to the departure time. He said, you will never make it walking. Hop in. And we were off -- light flashing, horn honking. It seemed like another ten minutes in the cart. We made it with about ten minutes to spare. And the return connection through Phil was even worse. A $200 ticket could not get me to fly or use Phil again. Good luck with the hour. Try to find the guy with the electric cart.

I flew through PHL to CDG last fall. Experience was so bad (USAir), I wrote to and called a VP of cust srvc. He said they are trying to improve the culture of service in PHL, but it has been challenging.

I did get a $200 voucher for my trouble.

Flying USAIR internationally next month but going through CLT, instead of PHL.

I am so grateful (and impressed) by the wonderful feed back you have all provided. I am switching my flight even though I will pay a penalty. Lesson learned! Thank you
Lisa

Frank, I agree about "never use regardless of price", but I've added another A/P to the list, Newark (EWR). At least in Philly, you stay within the same security zone going from concourse to concourse, so you don't have the security delay. Not so for EWR. You have to leave security to take the people mover to the Int'l terminal, then go back through security. The TSA people at EWR were particularly inefficient. There was a huge line for the metal detector, because all the gray bins were on the other side of the xray. No one thought to bring them back until they noticed no one was going through to metal detector.

Oh boy, can't wait to fly US Air thru Philly.

Now on the next question; How are they for "lost luggage"? We fly with them from Portland to Philly, and then transfer to the plane that takes us to Rome.

Do they have any problems transfering luggage?

How are they on lost luggage - absolutely horrible! Try to carry on your important things and buy baggage insurance if you must check a bag.

1h57m is plenty of time in PHL, IF the flight arrives on time. If your flight is 1½ hr late, 27 min is not enough time.

This was my experience: I flew home from London to Philly. I left ON TIME from Heathrow and arrived ON TIME in Philly. I had 1 hour, 45 minutes until my connecting flight to Denver.

I had to retrieve my checked luggage (I got lucky that nothing checked got lost since US Air, Heathrow and philly airports have horrible repuations for losing bags) go through customs, declarations, I think security again, and then find my gate for my next flight.

By the time I did all that and found my gate, they were already lining up to board in my zone (zone 3). If I had arrived at the gate about 10 minutes later, I would have missed my connection.

I had no delays or anything holding me up and yet I was still cutting it close. I didnt realize how close because I was jetlagged and confused with time change since my watch (and brain) was still set to UK time.

I would give it at least 2 hours unless you have no checked baggage. Let me also state that this was in the first week of December, and it was off peak.

Warren, it's all about the arrival of your domestic leg of the flight. If you're on time, you're fine. If not, be ready to run. And as far as the nice little carts, even they can't help you if you're too late. My daughter and I ran thru the terminal as fast as we could and we had a plan. Since she could waaay outrun me,she was to fall entering the plane and lie in the door grabbing her ankle until I could catch up.(JOKE!!!!) Unfortunately, when she arrived at the gate she met a cartful of passengers from other connections that had also missed the flight. No save for any of us that day. But we did get on a later flight thru Paris (CDG is my next least favorite after Philly) and arrived late the following day. Of course, our bags did not arrive with us. That's the last time I checked a bag going to Europe. The bottom line is: pray for good weather and no mechanical delays!