phlwookie

News article link (KYW 1060 Radio Philadelphia)

You know what they say about lies and statistics, but this is an impressive feat by someone.

EAL

I have to admit, it is a REALLY easy airport to connect in...especially when flying International. I've connected in IAD and ORD before for International and they're both horrible! PHL was SO easy and a very nice airport. That airport has come a LONG way! Congrats PHL! Let's just hope if the UA-US merger goes through they don't dump the PHL hub...that would devastating!

PhxITGeek

WOW. We connected through PHL last summer it was a DISASTER. No working bathrooms in customs. 2.5 hours though customs (and no they did not search anything. Just waiting in line) 1 hour though the rudest security I have ever encountered and no chairs in the waiting area. NEVER AGAIN!!!!

SS255

I think they forgot to release this on April Fool's Day.

PHL has improved over the past year or so, but not to the point where I would give it the #1 spot. Its location alone is reason enough to knock it out of the top spot.

kudzu

I agree. But JD Power is a well-respected org, so apparently enough folks were satisfied to vote PHL # 1.

I would have voted CLT # 1, but what do I know....

violist

Does this mean that we'll have President Kucinich next year?

tealeaf99

As someone who flies to PHL on a weekly basis, I have to completely disagree with this article.

iztok

So would I

Last week I was in IAD and the US counter was weird to say the least. I was first in "first & preferred) line and it took about half an hour before my turn. They've serviced a group already at the counter forever, then talking on the phone etc.

hsh101

As someone who flies out of PHL on a weekly basis, I'm on the same page as you.

Biggest issues for me are the bathrooms. Almost every one I frequent has the water temp very hot, no soap in the dispensers, and half the paper towel dispensers are empty. And let's not talk about the cleanliness...

The only things I've seen that are an improvement are the number of parking spaces in the garage and economy lots (although they should space out the buses), US Air on-time departures (although I still wait quite a bit on the tarmac), and the shorter lines at B/C security. Better? Yes. Deserving of #1rating? Hardly.

LateatPHL

Someone received a lot of money on this one

What a joke.....

belynch

As a wise person said over on the CO boards, the only reason why PHL is #1 is because travelers are so ecstatic to get off their US flights.

jerseyfinn

Take a closer look at the full JD Powers report to see the context of PHL's rating.

Bottom line is that the survey measures overall airport satisfaction with 27 specific attributes. The survey is measured on a 1000 point scale for the period of April 2007 to May 2008. This year's overall average for all airports was a score of 675 . . . this is a 14 point drop from the previous year. So people are increasingly dissatisfied with airports and flying in general.

PHL, LAS, & MCO are the top-rated "large" airports with scores of 690, 688, and 688 respectively. The "average" large airport score was 674. For comparisoon, JFK gets a 680, EWR a 677, ORD a 671. MSP, SFO, and SEA fill out the bottom three at 647, 652, and 656. I guess that folks who fly these airports can make better comparisons.

So I don't think that the survey means that PHL is the "best" big airport. PHL has indeed tried to clean up it's act and things do seem to have improved in terms of the shopping mall and central food courts. Likewise A-west is a clean and neat terminal which would catch the eye of folks transiting through it. Keep in mind that with things regarding PHL, if you don't get screwed, you feel like you're on top of the world, so even a modicum of improvement can make a big difference. They've tried to spruce up the terminals and create a softer impression.

Of course it only take ATC or weather delays at PHL or any other airport to turn one's airport experience from indifferent to gnarly or gruesome. So it sounds as if PHL's rating is the real thing, but measured in the relative sense of what flying is like today and how PHL has finally tried to put some things in order.

Barry

CPRich

So I read through your explanation and can't see how you come to this conclusion, unless you're defining "best" other than "the highest rated in the evaluation". If it scored more points, where more points are typically meant to be better, in a set of identical questions asked for all of the large airports in the country, how can it not be best.

No, it's not an absolute evaluation, and many of us may strongly disagree, but I can't argue that it's not ranked best according to this survey.

Perhaps there's been a complete turnaround since I last flew through there, almost a year ago, and all of the ongoing anecdotes on flying there are just aberrations. Or not.

jerseyfinn

Yeah, I know I sound a bit murky, but so too is the survey.

The survey does indeed say PHL is the best according to the survey. But the survey's purpose was to identify the highest scoring airport ( which does not necessarily equate with the "best" airport in the truest sense of the word ).

Given the sorry state of the flying experience now-a-days & the fact that the average airport score in the survey has fallen from the previous year suggests that " not as bad" might be a more instructive way to describe PHL given the uneven airport experience that many flyers have there and elsewhere.

That's why I throw out those other airport scores for folks to gage PHL's relative placement and see what they think of the rankings from top to bottom in the full report. For example, I was surprised to see that PBI ( an airport that I feel is first rate ) did not even make the list in it's category.

PHL has indeed improved, but given my own subjective experiences at other airports, I'm surprised to learn that PHL is judged number one as from an ops perspective, it's "lights out" when the weather hiccoughs & flights back up anywhere in the northeast.

The JD Powers survey is intriguing, but I'm not sure if it reflects what's really going on out there. Then again, the people answered the questions put to them and PHL floated to the top.

Barry

BoeingBoy

No need to be surprised - operations didn't enter the picture except through possibly the "Baggage" categories. Only six areas were measured - airport accessibility; baggage claim; check-in/baggage check process; terminal facilities; security check; and food and retail services.

Jim