Immigration at Philadelphia

It's been many years since we flew to the US and my memory is of running through Philadelphia airport to catch our connecting flight. This time we land at 1.35pm on Friday afternoon in March, and our connecting flight to Miami is at 3.36pm. Is this likely to be long enough to get through immigration, customs and security? I assume we have to collect our luggage and hand them over at the domestic flight carousel? If the worst happens and we miss the second flight, I assume the airline (AA) will put us on the near available flight? Lots of assumptions here, not least that our first flight from the UK will arrive on time!

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2 hours should be fine. Yes, you need to claim your bags, and they will recheck right after Customs. Standard procedure.

If the worst happens and we miss the second flight, I assume the airline (AA) will put us on the near available flight?

The "next available" part is quite relevant, as opposed to merely "next".

Thanks both. We've allowed two days before the cruise so we "should" be ok

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2hrs should be fine.

If you are flying business/first class or have oneworld Sapphire status you can use the Admirals Clubs to resolve any issues. The agents there are less harried and so can spend more time looking at options. If you have an AMEX Platinum/Centurion card there is also a nice AMEX lounge that recently opened in PHL.

https://thecenturionlounge.com/locations/PHL/

Plain old cattle class and no status I'm afraid. No Amex Platinum /Centurion card either

Plain old cattle class and no status I'm afraid. No Amex Platinum /Centurion card either

Maybe worth buying a club day pass in that case if you are flying on American. Just an idea.

We will be flying from Manchester next November so am also thinking about potential issues when we book flights. I much prefer to fly into DFW as there are many more continuing flight options for us. Think it's going to be a balance of low cost on EZ Air and ease of travel.

Two hours should be fine. As with any airport, customs and immigration can be annoying but Philly is no worse than any others. You'll just want to be quick about getting to customs and immigration. Based on today's flight schedule (found at phl.org, and there's generally not too much change from day to day, even this far in advance), there's about 5 other international flights landing in the half hour or so before yours does. That could create a bit of a bottle neck, but still 2 hours should be fine. There's lots of AA flights to Miami every day so if the worst were to happen, you should be able to get rebooked easy enough. AA also has several daily flights into Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) which is just north of Miami so if the airline has to rebook you, that's also an option.

Two hours should be fine. As with any airport, customs and immigration can be annoying but Philly is no worse than any others. You'll just want to be quick about getting to customs and immigration. Based on today's flight schedule (found at phl.org, and there's generally not too much change from day to day, even this far in advance), there's about 5 other international flights landing in the half hour or so before yours does. That could create a bit of a bottle neck, but still 2 hours should be fine. There's lots of AA flights to Miami every day so if the worst were to happen, you should be able to get rebooked easy enough. AA also has several daily flights into Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) which is just north of Miami so if the airline has to rebook you, that's also an option.

That's interesting that there will probably be five international flights landing in the half hour before us, so we'll certainly hurry from the first plane

No one will know for sure what your experience will be like.

I have gone through immigration in Philadelphia (in my case USA immigrations before we had Global Entry) and had two different experiences and the same has been for many airports.

Personally I prefer more than 2 hours but that is me. I just don't like to worry.

I would just try to move quickly but obviously you are dependent on various factors.

Keith

I just flew from London to PHL and connected to ATL on Monday. I had 2 hrs 45 mins between flights. Landed at 3:30pm and it took over an hour to get thru immigration. Suitcase was waiting at carousel and right thru Customs to recheck bag. Another terrible line to clear security. Then had to get to B terminal for next flight. I made it to gate at 5:30 for my 6:11 flight. My advice is do not waste any time, you will need it.

Mmm. I'm worried now. Better start looking at later flights in case we miss the connection. We can't change the flights we've already booked

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Mmm. I'm worried now. Better start looking at later flights in case we miss the connection. We can't change the flights we've already booked

So why didn't you ask this question BEFORE you booked the flights?

That's a serious question, as the answer may help out others who lean towards that behaviour and thinking.

Because in my naivety I believed that American Airlines wouldn't sell flights with an unsafe connection time. Potential passengers shouldn't need to consult online forums to get the necessary information about different airport connection times. Flame ahead.

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Plus, we've had connecting flights in many different countries thoughout the world, and have never before needed to collect luggage and pass through customs and security again before the second flight, so were unaware of the need to allow extra time

Because in my naivety I believed that American Airlines wouldn't sell flights with an unsafe connection time. Potential passengers shouldn't need to consult online forums to get the necessary information about different airport connection times. Flame ahead.

No flaming. This is possibly helpful for people reading, who like you, assumed that a published connection would have no problems.

The whole concept of "unsafe connection" is a matter of risk tolerance and some degree of probability considerations. Just as an airline will oversell flights knowing that some people won't show, they will establish MCT (Minimum Connection Time) to cover most all situations. Works out most times, but when you are in a time-critical, must be there situation, "most times" may not be good enough.

Mmm. I'm worried now.

Because in my naivety I believed that American Airlines wouldn't sell flights with an unsafe connection time. Potential passengers shouldn't need to consult online forums to get the necessary information about different airport connection times.

And for any more conventional connection time, you will always be able to find anecdotes about people who've misconnected for one reason or another: the inbound flight was late, the queues at immigration were long, they were selected for secondary screening, the baggage couldn't be unloaded from the aircraft, or baggage delivery was extraordinarily slow.

So now you have a thread in which you've been told over and over again that 2 hours at PHL should be fine. And one new anecdote from someone who actually still made it to their gate fully 40 minutes before their onward flight's scheduled departure time is now causing you to seriously worry?

But looking at what flights you might be reaccommodated on is a good idea. It's a good idea no matter what length of connection you've booked, because no connection time is guaranteed to be safe.

Not seriously worry. Maybe even "worry" was the wrong word. What will be will be.

Thanks to all for replying to my question

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Please get back to us as we will be looking at the same route in Fall 2019

Will do.

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