PHL Airport Time Question
 

Hello. Next month I’ll be flying to Philadelphia for the first time and I had a question about my flight leaving Philadelphia. My Delta flight leaves at 6:10 am going to Detroit and I was planning an taking the SEPTA train from Jefferson Station to the airport, but the earliest train arrives at 4:50 am to the Delta terminal. I do have TSA Precheck, but I do have to check in a bag. Since I have no familiarity with this airport, I thought I’d ask here to see if people think that 80 minutes is enough time or if I should consider getting an Uber/Lyft? I’m someone who arrives early by nature and I hate the feeling of being late, but since I’m not dealing with traffic or parking, I think 80 minutes is doable for most airports I’ve been to in the past. Thanks for any help.

Yes, you are fine.

But, if this stuff makes you nervous, just take the Uber and your stress level drops.

Thanks for the reply. If I was flying out of a familiar airport, I probably wouldn’t think anything of it, but I just don’t know what things are usually like there. I’ve flown that early out of MCO in Orlando and I wouldn’t think twice about 80 minutes.

Plenty of time. You can use the kiosks to do whatever you need, then hand your bag in. You’ll be through with tons of time to spare.

Thanks for the reply

Bumping this thread to see if anyone has more recent data points. I'm traveling mid-week at 3pm on AA from PHL. Will have two small kids with me, and masks are still a struggle for them at times - they'll be fine with an iPad to distract them on the plane, but we're trying to minimize the amount of time we have to wait around in the terminal with masks on and nothing to do. Trying to figure out how close we can cut it if we need to check bags. I am Gold, so hopefully the check-in line will be shorter, but we can't do precheck with the kids so will need to wait in the security line. Obviously, there's personal taste involved and everyone's comfort with cutting things close may be different, but it would help to get a sense of how long the checkin and security lines tend to be mid-day on a weekday. Likely flying out of F given our destination (SDF) so if anyone has insight into how things are over there I'd be especially grateful.

You should be able to check in at F. Security there is much quieter than elsewhere so you shouldn’t have long lines to get through.

We have a trip scheduled end of December, starting the track in central jersey (1.5-2h) to parking, then PHL (AA).

I was planning to book a hotel the night before, but every "reasonably" priced one nighter in airport vicinity is a terrible dumpster dump according to reviews.. So I am back to thinking of starting the track at 5am directly to parking lot.

Is this unwise?

everyone is GE/precheck in the party, no bags checked most likely

My experience with stay/park & fly was not at PHL but BWI: what I discovered is that depending upon the time of the flight it's simply not worth the effort. For an 8am Sat intl flight we decided to stay overnight at hotel next to airport. To avoid rush hour delays we left about 8pm, arrived at hotel at 9pm. To be at airport at 6am meant catching 5:30am airport shuttle which meant waking everyone up at 4:45am. On the return we had to wait about 45 minutes for the hotel shuttle to bring us back to our car. We could have stayed home and left for the airport at 5:15 to be there at 6, and caught the ever present long-term parking lot shuttle bus on the return and overall been more comfortable and still spent the same amount of time/money on parking.

So, yeah, depending upon the time of your flight, I recommend taking the mass transit the morning of.

Unfortunately, mass transit to the Philly Airport sucks if you’re not in the specific line going to the airport because you have to change trains in Center City. I’ve got a SEPTA station a 10 minute walk from my house and I drive to PHL because it’s at least double the amount of time to take SEPTA due to the transfer.

I'm not sure what your definition of "reasonably" priced is, but have you checked hotels in Center City? I've generally found the price/quality ratio there to be excellent over the years. A few years back I stayed at the Residence Inn right across the street from City Hall for no more than $120/night the weekend before Christmas.

By the way, I did make it easily to my flight the other day. Security line wasn’t bad at all in the morning. Thanks everyone

If you're leaving home at 5am vs staying at a hotel, I would leave at 5am. As far as hotels, the only one I think worth it is the Marriott that is connected to terminal B. But, if it were me, I would just drive early that day.

Greetings, Philadelphians, young and old. I’ve got a challenging connection via PHL later today. My flight from Venice is very delayed, and it currently looks like I’ll arrive an hour even before my connecting flight to SFO. I have a checked bag which I’ll need to re-check. On the plus side, I have Global Entry, Clear and PreCheck.

Think I’ll make it? Any tips? Thanks.

Here are the things that will be required for you to make this connection (it is possible, but challenging):

- you’re sitting in the front of the inbound plane
- you have nothing to declare at customs
- there is no/minimal line at the airport counter to re-check your bag
- there is no/minimal line at Pre-Check security
- you are a brisk walker

If even one or two of these things isn’t true, I don’t think you want to stick with this connection. I’m assuming your connection is on a single ticket, so it would probably be a good idea to check now on what the options are (later flights, other routings to your destination city) in the event that you miss it and have to work quickly with an agent to change it.