US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Philadelphia Connect Time

USAIR.Com lets me put through a BOS-PHL-MCO connection with only 30 minutes in philly. Is that enough time? I've never actually connected in philly as it is my home airport. There is a flight that is an hour early, but USAIR.com doesn't pick that flight for the ticket.

My goal is to fly down with a group of people all on the same PHL-MCO flight in May.

Chris

That's cutting it close - especially if you have to go from C27-30 to B11-15. Considering they shut the door 10 minutes before departure, that leaves you 20 minutes to hussle, not taking into account a delay. Don't even think about checking baggage.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by catwood:
There is a flight that is an hour early, but USAIR.com doesn't pick that flight for the ticket. </font>

Perhaps build it as a "multiple destination" ticketn with BOS-PHL and PHL-MCO on the same day (and choosing the hour earlier BOS-PHL flight) and then MCO-BOS on your return date... ????

Connecting through Phe||adelphia is a NIGHTMARE! I had a 100 minute connection on Wednesday, and thought that was more than enough. Our plane left Pittsburgh on time. We taxied and waited. Ground-stop at Philadelphia, update in 15 minutes. Pilot was remarkably candid 'The skies are crystal clear in Philadelphia. It is a beatiful day. We are delayed solely due to congestion in the area'. After 15 minutes, we have to wait another 20 minutes. After another 20 minutes, we are told we are cleared to go. We are #1 for takeoff, engines power up, and then power down. Ground stop back. Another 40 minutes go by and we finally take off. We then circle around Philly for another 15 minutes before we land.

Flying time from Pittsburgh to Philly is only 35-40 minutes. We left the gate from Pittsburgh at 5:45 (on time) and arrived in Philly at 8:30, or in other words we spent more time on the ground than in the air. I missed my connection and arrived at my destination over four hours late.

I had a seething hatred of flying through Philly before, now my cup runneth over.

With BWI now a shadow of its former self I am forced to connect just about everywhere I go. I avoid Philly whenever possible because even when you are early or on time you seem to spend an excessive amount of time waiting for a gate (express excluded) so you are almost always running for/missing connections.

I tried geo's suggestion and couldn't get it to work right. I think I may recommend they either connect through PIT and not fly with my friends and I, or call RES directly to book the earlier flight to ensure connect time.

A lot of times Orbitz will give you more options.

Expedia.com is also pretty flexible. It usually offers the shortest connection and the next-shortest connection, but if not, multi-stop will do the trick. Usairways.com can price a multi-stop as a roundtrip, but it's harder to set it up.