Advice on connection time in PHL
 

My grandparents (one requires wheelchair) are flying SXM-PHL-RDU in February. Right now they have a 1.5 hour connection in PHL. I assume they have to clear immigration and customs in PHL before going onto RDU. Is 1.5 hours sufficient time? The next flight PHL-RDU gives them a 4 hour connection and arrives at midnight in RDU. So I am thinking of the 1.5 hour connection but since I've never done this routing through PHL need some of your advice.

Thanks.

That's what we thought this past weekend having a 1.5 hour connection time in PHL from BGI (Barbados). However, we were delayed leaving BGI by 1.5 hours due to the aircraft arriving late from PHL due to weather and an ATC hold in BGI. The Captain explained that parts of the Caribbean are not under radar control and planes are dispatched at 10 minute intervals and we were #5 in the queue. He also said this time of year the Caribbean airspace is clogged with planes (private and commercial). I'm sure BoeingBoy can comment further on this.

Long story short, we ended up arriving in PHL with 10 minutes to connect to our BOS flight. They held the flight for us (since it was the last one out), but our bags did not make it (no way they can clear customs and get to the plane in 15 mins from Terminal A to C). We ended up getting them the next morning around 9am, so it wasn't a big deal.

If I were you, I'd risk the 1.5 hour connect time since there is a later flight in case they miss their connection.

I do BWI-PHL every week and while I've never had close calls, I wouldn't dare book a flight with less than 1.5 hrs to connect. My BWI-PHL seg NEVER leaves on time. I even asked one of the CS rep about it - they said in the 3 months or so they've worked the BWI-PHL leg, maybe 3 times it was actually on-time.

It would be tight, but just make sure the later flight has open seats. Try to catch the earlier one - worse comes to worse - the later flight would work.

And just like LGA/JFK, PHL can have quite long lines for takeoff.

What may be an advantage of being in a wheelchair is that your grandparents would probably be processed expeditiously though customs/immig in the special lane reserved for Crew, etc

I think 1.5 hours is tight for PHL connection, but I would do it, knowing that there's another flight later I could possibly get on if I misconnect. If they have US status, they could call for "protection" on the next flight at the first indication of a misconnect.

I haven't flown into SXM so can't comment specifically on that airport's ATC operations or procedures, but in general the Caribbean operates with the same "no problems, mon" attitude that makes vacationing there so relaxing. Most airports there are basically single runway operations and "unhurried" arrival and departure sequencing is the norm.

There are areas without radar coverage where aircraft utilizing the same routings are spaced by time, and even where radar coverage is supposedly available local outages are not terribly uncommon (along with the relaxed pace of restoring service).

All that said, I agree with others that the 1.5 hours should be ample as long as the flight to PHL is close to on time.

Jim

I once had an "illegal" connection in PHL (Europe-PHL-TPA) of less than an hour and it worked. Indeed wheelchair may be an advantage.
We recently arrived with about an hour delay in PHL because of rain, with horrendously long lines before security, but the rain delayed everything so we had plenty of time catching our delayed connecting flight.
With another flight as a backup a couple of hours later I would not worry too much.