US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - PHL Customs Horror Stories?

Some members of my family just arrived (actually, this was last weekend), on the US nonstop Rome to Philly. The flight was delayed on the ground of FCO due to a "lack of slots on the north atlantic track system". That's ok. Arrived more or less on time into PHL, but had to wait on the ground for 30 minutes for an available gate. Terminal A is beyond capacity gate-wise, what are you going to do, so ok. Finally deplaned, but from the moment they stepped off the plane to the moment they passed through customs and stepped onto the curb, it took one hour and thirty-five minutes!! The immigration hall was filled to the brim, so all the people from FCO flight were put into a hallway, and let into the immigration hall twenty at a time. After finally clearing immigration (an hour or so wait), baggage claim was total chaos. If they were connecting, they surely would have missed their connection. Is this a fluke or normal at PHL? My sister is flying back from Europe to PHL connecting onward, and she only has 1:30 cnx time. After hearing this story, is there any way she can make her connection?

It depends on her arrival time. I'd encourage her to consider booking a later one if her connection is only 90 minutes. But than again, intl. arrivals tend to land early, so she might *JUST* make it. Who wants to deal with that stress?

The overcrowding in the intl. arrivals lower hallway is no fluke - PHL and their respective tenants of terminal A have always known their gate capacity there, plus the amount of people that the immigration hall can handle in an hour(about 700), yet they still have allowed more and more flights to arrive. Sure, they'll tell you that they have them scheduled such that there shouldn't be a big wait, but we all know how 7-8 hour flights tend to come in up to an hour early, or late. And anyone who's arrived to PHL on an intl. flight in the past 6 months will tell you what your parents endured is not uncommon.

Of course, any complaints to PHL would get a response touting the new international terminal opening next Spring. I look at it with oooooh and ahhhhh every time I depart there (which is about twice a week).

In June it took me about an hour to complete the whole customs and baggage claim/re-check process coming from FCO. It didn't help being Canadian and having to line up with the foreigners!

PHL really needs an INSPASS machine!

This summer has been a true nightmare for FIS at Philadelphia. Gone are the days when arriving internationally at PHL was a 10 minute ordeal, now that there are so many international flights (not just US, but also BA x2, LH and AF). One day last week there was a total of just 8 inspectors working immigration, since they had staff out on vacation. It was taking people over 2 hours to get through.

Those passengers with domestic connections on the 6pm bank often misconnect as a result of the mess. Sadly it's not much better in the evenings when the Carribean inbound flights arrive.

I usually don't fly into PHL. However, my 9/00 trip LGW-PHL was the fastest that I've gone through customs/immigration. The wait was 3 seconds, the interrogation 6 seconds, and the passport handed back in 1 second, 10 seconds total.

At CLT, they also make people wait and let people enter the hall 10-20 people at a time. They gave the excuse of having to meet fire regulations.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by FlyerAl:
In June it took me about an hour to complete the whole customs and baggage claim/re-check process coming from FCO. It didn't help being Canadian and having to line up with the foreigners!

PHL really needs INSPASS machine!</font>

INSPASS would help a lot; U ought to push for them at all the international airports -- PIT, CLT and PHL

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Skylink USA:
At CLT, they also make people wait and let people enter the hall 10-20 people at a time. They gave the excuse of having to meet fire regulations.</font>Who are the ad wizards who came up with that one? "umm... yes, this is where we will filter all of our international arriving passengers, but only 20 at a time..."

I guess I have been lucky that my two trips through PHL's Immigration and Customs have been a breeze.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chexfan:
Originally posted by Skylink USA:
At CLT, they also make people wait and let people enter the hall 10-20 people at a time. They gave the excuse of having to meet fire regulations.</font>Who are the ad wizards who came up with that one? "umm... yes, this is where we will filter all of our international arriving passengers, but only 20 at a time..."

I guess I have been lucky that my two trips through PHL's Immigration and Customs have been a breeze.


I'm guessing that part of the problem at PHL is the same problem we have at CLT - not enough inspectors. In fact, in Charlotte, we're not even close to being fully staffed - despite the efforts of Senator No and others to get staffing commensurate with the number of flights. Of course, like PHL, CLT will trot out the "wait 'til our new Int'l Concourse is ready" line. We have the problem of 3 US European flights, plus 1 BA flight and other US Carribean flights making a hash of things here - not to the level of PHL's problems, but you got to start somewhere.

For PHL, my last trip through (granted last Nov.) the delay was not in Immigration - but in getting bags. Otherwise, Immigration and Customs took maybe 30 seconds at each spot (with little to no line).

My last trip PHL customs was bad.. I use to breeze thru w/no one in line, and was able to go thru, recheck my bag and be outside smoking in less than 10 mins....

This last time, we got in like 1 hour early, and I think every flight in the world landed at the same time, and it was a sea of people (wall to wall) and baggage was screwed, etc..... Had to wait for my Hungarian friend to pass thru which took him over 1 hour to get thru... not a good scene....

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"We are dimming the cabin lights to enhance the beauty of our flight crew" - Actual Quote from USAirways F/A: CLT-BNA.

Chairmans: USAir, Gold: NWA, Diners, HH, Gold: Marriott

After just flying back from PHL (domestic) and dealing with the _wonderful_ people who work there yet again, I must say that my one and only experience connecting through PHL transatlantic was pleasant. Flight landed on time (would have landed 30 minutes early but we circled due to traffic). Being in Envoy I was one of the first out of the plane, booked my way and was out through customs in under five minutes.