Philadelphia Airport

Arrived from Manchester on a US Airways flight. We made our way to the immigration hall and arrived at 13.45 with plenty of time to make our way over to terminal C for our next flight at 1520. We were alarmed to find that the immigration hall totally full and we were stopped at the entrance and told to wait. And wait we did. And wait and wait. We finally left the immigration hall at 1500 having been subjected to a surly miserable immigration officer who has yet to learn how to smile. Our next hurdle was security screening which again proved to be a major bottle neck with only 4 or 5 operatives checking boarding cards/passports for hundreds of passengers. I spoke to a wandering TSA lady and explained that we were now in danger of missing our flight and she said totally disinterested "just contact the airline and they will get you a later flight"! We ended up running from Term A to Term C and arriving at gate 27 just as they were about to close the gate. This is unacceptable and it is the airport authority who need to sort this out. Philadelphia Airport are incapable of providing an efficient transit capability.

Arrived from London and could not believe how inefficient the immigration and customs stations were. Understaffed with no apparent supervision. Customer lines were mismanaged and staff lacked any sense of urgency for those needing to make connections.

A smooth feeling airport well organized plenty of shops/bars/restaurants. Prices are somewhat high. This is a nice way to arrive and leave the US for a foreigner. The car rental is just 5 mins away the immigration queue is short and the officers are friendly. The free wifi is a major plus for this airport.

Have used PHL several times as my home airport. It takes me less that 30 minutes from check in to the gate. Arrival was smooth and I love the rail connection to center city. The older terminals are dated but have adequate services and eateries. The airport does not have all the glamour of newer airports like Hong Kong or Singapore but for me it's easy in and easy out that's important.

We arrived in Philly on a US Air flight from Venice with a connection to Toronto. We had about 2.5 hours between flights (which should have been plenty of time) but when we reached the passport control/immigration line the lineups were ridiculous. We stood in line for 45 minutes and still had about 50 people ahead of us in line. I finally jumped the queue by going through the handicapped/wheelchair line (customs agent was not pleased about this at all) but thankfully we got through collected our luggage and then had two more security lines to go through and then had to get the bus to take us to another terminal to catch our flight. If we had not jumped the queue we would never have made our flight. There was not a special line for people needing to catch a connecting flight and everyone was grouped together in one big mess. I will never again go through Philadelphia to change to a connecting flight. I will avoid it like the plague.

We arrived at an empty immigration and customs area after our flight from Glasgow and got through with the minimum of fuss but I felt sorry for those arriving after us I counted at least 6 transatlantic flights arriving within the space of about 30 minutes so I think the passengers would be in for a long wait to get through. The main shopping and food area was fine with a good selection of eateries and the place looked clean and tidy. The food outlets in the International departure area are few and far between so if you need a bite to eat before flying use the main eating area before going to Terminal A.

Restrooms are unkempt - soap dispensers broken locks broken. Right now I am watching as one gate agent attempts to rebook an entire canceled flight by herself. And perhaps the most frustrating and chronic problem is that they never update delayed flights. I understand that flight delays are inevitable but it's nice to know when they are.

They've done about as good a job as possible to make Philadelphia airport as pleasant as possible but I had to post my two cents here about a human pileup at the base of an escalator that almost occurred during a recent layover there. In order to get to Concourse F you have to use a downward escalator - there were too many people going to that area at the time I was there so there was a very long line (Disney-style!) to go down the escalator waiting for buses. Once the line started moving the person who was supposed to control the flow of humanity completely failed because too many people were queuing up at the base of the escalator and people were stopping at the bottom! There would have been a pileup if I hadn't said loudly "Move move move move move!!" and people at the bottom moved. But she completely failed. Airport security really needs to look at this to ensure this never happens again.

I found the airport clean I only went to the transit side and once through security as I was coming from France. The airport is quite well organised in the transit zone you got everything that is needed. I was amazed also by the promotion made for "philly" in that airport as we got some shouts of each most known movie which was filmed in PHL like rocky. The wrong point is the time that it takes to get into the transit zone while you are coming from a transatlantic flight you have to be sure that you got more than 2 hours for transit in order to catch your flight - and more than it if you want to have a look at the duty free. Anyway I loved that airport on my return flights as you got many shops bars/restaurant in order to spend time. The airside part that you can see through windows when you are either in transit of when living your international flight looked also nice but I never went there.

After several visits where it appeared PHL had become a proper airport they have now apparently taken several steps back. Connecting from international to domestic sole ID checker was involved in lengthy flirting session with female passenger as we all waited. Bag X-ray machine operative was doing loud stand-up comedy routine as we all waited. This kind of behaviour must surely detract from the efficiency of security procedures we are forced to endure.