luvsmacca

I have a connecting flight from Paris to Phoenix that stops in Philadelphia. I see from my ticket that I have to change terminals as well as planes and clear customs. I only have 1 hour and 15 minutes between planes. Is that going to be do-able? I have never been to this airport but I know when I connected thru Chicago it took over 2.5 hours to get through customs and then recheck everything.
Any insight or info is appreciated

Budman

There was a recent thread on this subject and I can't seem to find it.

Basically everyone said that it was a complete zoo getting from the International terminal to the domestic terminal after clearing immigrations and customs. The consensus was to exit the international terminal to the street and walk down to the domestic terminal vice staying in the terminal to make the transit.

BTilke

Good luck. Frankly, I think you will be lucky to make your connecting flight. I had 2 hours to make a connection on a similar flight (Paris to Philly, then on to Orlando) and didn't even come close to making the connection. It took me over an hour to get through customs.
There was a thread about this problem lately. Do a search under Philadelphia and it should come up.

yk

Hi luvsmacca-

The thread that Budman & BTilke mentions is on the Europe forum. I pasted it below for you:

"Beware if you are coming back into the US + have to connect through Philadelphia"
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=34508962

The most relevant point was made by Larry J:
---------------------------------------
Author: LarryJ
Date: 06/25/2004, 10:06 pm
Message:
"When returning from Europe and connecting through PHL you need to do this:
Go outside the terminal building, walk about 1/4 mile and re-enter the main terminal as though you were not connecting but just starting out. Much much quicker than using the international security facility."

---------------------------------------

Author: LarryJ
Date: 07/05/2004, 12:29 pm
Message:
To Travelnut

Yes, just go through immigration and customs, instead of getting in the long line for security at the international terminal, just exit the terminal and walk maybe 1000' or so and re-enter the old domestic terminal building and go through security there. There are no repercussions. How could there be since you have not avoided security at all. Security at the domestic terminal is no different than at the international terminal except that it is quicker and more effecient.

I have done this my last two times connecting at PHL.

Larry J
--------------------------------------

roomiec

As in almost all aspects of life, timing is everything. We returned from London on Sunday afternoon totally prepared for a nightmare, only to find that ours was the only flight to land at that time. Customs and Baggage Claim was a breeze, our luggage was taken for the connecting flight, and we re-entered domestic security at Terminal A because the line was short.
We then headed to Term B for our departure.