Is your daughter travel-savvy? If yes, and the flight arrives on-time, I see no real problem with that time-frame.

Agreed. Plus 3047 is PHL-BWI, correct? There are plenty of flights to BWI/DCA after hers and worst came to worst she could always take the train. I'd stick with what you have.

I just arrived at 2:30 or so today from Madrid and the security line to check back in was deadly. Almost an hour. The TSA claimed it was just as bad at the other terminals, but if the line is up the ramp into A, she might consider leaving A, walking to B or even taking a cab to F, to check in there. There are a bunch of TATLs that seem to get in around then.

Sorry if I misread and its domestic to domestic, which would be no problemo.

Yes, it's a international flight. What is the exact procedure?

1. Passing Immigration
2. Pcking the luggage
3. Clearing customs
4. Giving back luggage to some US Airways staff
5. hopping on to the shuttle and
6. checking back in at Terminal F?

What is the alternative you propose?

You are missing the key, painful step. After giving the luggage back, you must clear security back to airsde -- you have had access to your checked bag, and you must reclear security. This line was awful. If it looks awful, you could try reclearing security elsewhere. It's a crap shoot, might be just as bas elsewhere, but with 2 or 3 (or maybe more) TATL heavies trying to reclear the ugly checkpoint (where they seem not to have AC), I cant imagine 2 or 3 in the afternoon on a weekday is worse at F. So you'd leave the building as if you were not connecting, and walk to your choice of B/C or cab to F -- the walk there is a bit long. If you are savvy enough, you can look up at the bridges from the terminal to baggage claim. When bad, the security lines for the regular checkpoints back up across the bridges.

Oh, I heard all the transfer from international A to domestic F was done airside, so no need to reclear security archs...

But if you need to, I may imagine it would prove to be more secure to go directly to F, check in and clear security. If there's any delay in clearing security, at least you're already checked so the departing plane knows you're coming... right?

Assuming you're checked in before your first flight, there would be no need to check in again at F. FYI, the walk from A to F landside would be completely outside (although I guess you could walk into D, over to E and then on to F...actually, that option gives you the chance to look at D/E security and possibly go through there).

US might consider this a legal connection, but I would prepare for the worst. Hope the arriving flight is early, CBP is empty, and the departing flight is late.

I'm going to read this as you aren't too experienced in international to domestic connections. When you check in for the flights, you're checked in for all of them -- the international flight to philly and the connection. So there is no check in. You'll already have boarding passes for everything. As the 4-some in front of me in the line experienced, the fact that the plane knows you're coming does not mean they will hold it for you.

When you arrive in Philly from the international flight into A terminal, you clear border protection (passport control) and then customs -- so you have to grab your checked bag, bring it through customs, and then give it back to the airline - it's one continuous movement, no carrying it to a ticket counter or anything-- it will already be tagged for the next flight.

Then, since you've been in customs where you can touch a checked bag which might contain a 4.2 ounce toothpaste or some other dangerous item, you must re-clear security. This is pretty standard anywhere where you clear a passport check into a country - you then re-clear security to make youtr domestic flight. Passport control and customs always dumps you OUT of the sterile area, and I doubt thats different anywhere US or other, but some experts may have other experience.

If you re-clear security at A terminal the way it is set up, you can then get to F airside with the shuttle. What I was saying is that when I was there yesterday, the line was insane to re-clear security, and there was no AC (this seems normal at the A recheck). I doubt (but not sure) that it could possibly be worse at a regular security checkpoint mid afternoon on a weekday. Thus I suggest eyeballing the line, and considering reclearing security elsewhere.

I think the walk to F would not only be outside security (you can walk to E airside) but outside as in outdoors, in the heat/rain/whatever, and looooong. MAYBE you can make it indoors, but I dont think so. I would leave A, walk towards or into the B/C combined ticket area and check out those lines -- you can see the B line from the sidewalk as you're walking up from A, you have to walk further to see the C line. I'd either reclear at B/C or take a cab straight to F. I wouldn't walk to F. Too painful. If you have the time to walk to F, you have the time to sit in the A line, IMHO.

If the OP's daughter went through D/E security, she would have to backtrack to C16 in order to get the bus to F.

There is an indoor connector between E and F, but it is landside. On the other hand, there is no way to get between any of the other terminals landside without going outside. I have never had to reclear security in International Arrivals in A, but I would still think the best bet is either to reclear at A and get the bus at A1 or walk no further than B and then get the bus at C16. In my experience, security lines at either A-West or A-East are rarely very long.

If you don't want to risk the great outdoors, I think the only option is to go to the parking garage and then back into B (you can't get any further than that because the airport Marriott is in the way).

I can't imagine any Philly cab driver would be very happy about accepting a fare going from A to F. It would probably be easier to wait for the economy parking shuttle and just take it to F, although the stop at F requires walking through a rather long connector to get across the service roads and back to the terminal.

All good points. I had not thought about going out to avoid the International re-entry security point and just coming in from A as if you checked in there -- not a bad idea. It's really just getting out of the throng of 6-800 people who just got off 3 or 4 A330s from Europe who are all in line for the same handful of WTMDs.

B and C checkpoints are very close and connected by the indoor ticketing area -- escalator on the right (facing check in) is B, left is C - so you've got access to both.

The cab option would probably involve just giving the guy a $20 or something -- a desperation move to make a tight connection.

Or hop on a hotel shuttle at zone 4 and ride from the A pickup to the F pickup and give the driver a $5 bill and everyone wins.

So help me out. How can someone walk landside from A to F? I'll update the first post.

I think:

- Walk outside from A ticketing to B ticketing (outdoors)
- Enter B/C ticketing and walk from under the B security line to under the C security line (indoors)
- Walk outside from B/C ticketing to D ticketing (outdoors)
- Upstairs from D ticketing, walking past D/E security over E ticketing (indoors)
- Staying upstairs, walk toward the E garage and take the walkway over to F (indoors)

- alternately, just walk the entire length outdoors along the sidewalks just outside ticketing for each terminal
- alternately, walk the entire length by the passenger pickup area just outside baggage claim (is this really possible? and safe?)

IMO, these are the better options, or within the parking garage. I have walked many times from F down to A in the garage with no problems.

As far as taking a cab from A to F, that's not going to work. The cab drivers don't even want to drive me home (I live 10 minutes from the airport, but outside the "center city" flat rate zone) - I have to haggle with them every time. They only get a certain number of airport runs a day, and they are not going to waste one driving from A to F, and then return back to the holding zone. From what I hear they sometimes can wait almost 2 hours for a fare, depending on how many taxis are waiting and the time of day.

Connecting flight after I return to PHL is now 7 hours and 10 minutes after arrival of my flight from FCO, but there is a flight from PHL that departs exactly one hour after scheduled arrival in PHL.

Since I have run pretty fast before to get the earlier flight, I wonder what the official time allowed is now. Is one hour just out of the question? The last time I ran to get that flight, I made it, but the flight was full, and I wish I could just book it.