Whats your experience at Philadelphia Airport and US Airways?

I just don't trust that airline. Their attituded seems be "Oh, you missed your connection after we assured you there would be no problem? Here's a voucher that won't pay for a night at Motel 6 or breakfast at McDonald's. We can book you on another flight in 6 weeks, because our policy is to never give you a ticket that costs more than the one you already paid for, even though its our fault you missed your connection. Or, we can fly you to an airport 200 miles from your destination, but we can't reimburse you for the costs of ground transport." This has happened to me on more than one occassion. I won't shed a tear when US Airways goes into liquidation.

Last year I flew Seattle to Philly to Glasgow. I knew that because of thunderstorms on the East Coast that the flights were running late. Had less than an hour between my flight from Philly to Glasgow so I looked at flights after mine left. Found one to Dublin that left a couple hours later so that became my backup plan, knowing that there were several flights from Dublin to Glasgow the next day. Anyway I left Seattle about an hour late and when I landed in Philly I had about 5 minutes to catch my next flight. Had to run to get there but made it and then sat there another hour until some other passengers arrived. End of story - not the best flight though the pilot was one of the best - any bit of turbulance, he found a better spot to fly. Got to Glasgow on time - please don't cancel your daughter's plans. I waited years to take this trip and it changed my life in so many ways. Find a plan B and let her go.

Several years ago wheh returning to the US from Paris, we had quite the time with US Airways and the Philadelphia Airport. First, there was no available gate for us to deplane, so we sat on the tarmac for a long time. Then they FINALLY transferred all of the passengers off the plane and into some sort of van that took us to a gate. However, when we got near the gate, we just sat and sat and sat...no, make that stood...it was packed shoulder to shoulder with irate passengers. Then we heard the crew yelling that somebody forgot an EXTENSION CORD!!! So we all were trapped another half hour until somebody got the power plugged in. Then we had to go through a long wait at security again and our 3 1/2 hour time window disappeared. We RAN to our gate, just to find out that our plane was taking off. We learned to try to sleep under the arm rests on the benches until our next plane 6 hours later. A BAD experience, especially when traveling with kids.

Funny you should ask this. We missed our connection coming back from Paris at this airport on US Airways, because there just wasn't enough time to get through customs and make the connection. There were no apologies, and even after we made a fuss, all we got was put on the next flight several hours later.

I had a bad experience with US Airways at Philadelphia last year. We left Pittsburgh late because of lightning and arrived in Philadelphia with only about 30 minutes to make our connecting flight to Rome. Although the flight crew was aware of the need of a few of us in the back of the plane to get to the Rome flight, there was no effort to let us get off the plane first--we were told that we'd have to hurry. (No kidding!) Our gate agent did not call the agent at the Rome flight's gate to tell them we were on our way (which they should have known anyway if they had bothered to do a little checking), but, to their credit, US Airways provided a cart to drive us to the gate. Even using that mode of trnasportation, it took awhile. When we arrived, the agent at the Rome flight's gate was calling our names and telling us it was the "last call." Needless to say, I was frustrated. This year, we booked a different airline (Delta through JFK) and had a more pleasant experience.

I ran out of room above, but want to add that I do all I can to avoid the Philadelphia airport. As a loyal user of the Pittsburgh airport, I must lament the fact that US Airways pulled Europe-bound flights out of our convenient, nice airport in favor of Philadelphia and Charlotte.

In March 2004 we flew Nashville to Philadelphia to Paris (and back) on USAir. I guess that we weren't as discomfited as some since we had planned for delays, though this did mean several hours waiting in the terminal at Philly to connect. Wandering airports can be enjoyable, too. In faded memory I can't say that the USAir personnel were more or less attentive than other airlines.
What I do remember best though, is that the Sunday flight from Paris back to U.S. was overbooked. Desk agents made several trips down the line looking for volunteers to give up their seats, in return for flying next day and about $500 cash. We had other commitments but I still regret not taking advantage of the situation.

Bob