TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Changing Terminals/Connection in PHL

Looking at an AA flight to SXM in the fall. Connection with terminal change in PHL. Connection time is shown as 1H 20M. Not the best connection choice but it would allow an additional day on the island. This connection is on the way TO SXM so customs and immigration are not an issue. Being a regional jet that I would be coming in on, I am assuming it would arrive at Terminal F as that was the arrival terminal today. Not sure what terminal the outbound flight to SXM departs from but today it was Terminal A.

Is a connection in PHL on a Saturday from Terminal F to Terminal A doable in 1H 20M or should I scrap that thought? Other option is Sunday travel and connect through CLT but a day less on the island.

Another reason I am considering this connection is price as the Saturday flight through CLT is more than a few $$ higher.

Thanks.

We have made similar connections in the past at Philadelphia. There is a shuttle bus which connects the terminals and I recommend that you use that. You can look at the terminal maps online to plan how to catch the shuttle bus from F. Check the monitors as you walk by them to learn if there has been a gate change for your departure in A. IMO that is enough time but won't leave a large margin.

We fly through there on a Wed. every year, and have had as little as 50-60 mins, which was tight, and made it from terminal F to A. As long as your flight is somewhat on time, i think its very doable.

Totally doable. I connect in Philly all the time to SXM. I always have to take the shuttle, which has always been reliable and Im usually 45 minutes or so early for the flight to SXM. I generally have about an hour and a half layover. Returning through Philly or Charlotte is a whole different deal. Nail biting and nerve racking to say the least. The least little thing goes wrong and you're screwed.
Cheers.

Where are you flying from to get to Philadelphia? If it's Cleveland or Cincinnati you should be okay, but AA has a reputation for delaying or even cancelling flights from smaller hubs (i.e., Dayton). One time our flight from our home city of 100,000 to Philly was delayed 30 minutes waiting for three passengers who were delayed and called ahead requesting the flight not leave without them. Another time the flight was just flat out cancelled, and they offered to fly us to PHL the day before but offered no assistance to put us up for the night, share the cost of a hotel, provide food vouchers, etc. And, yet another time they cancelled our return flight because of weather and couldn't get us back home for another two days (so we flew instead to Pittsburgh and rented a car to get home). Not to mention the time we didn't get our luggage for one week because of a baggage handler's strike.

Honestly, I'm not trying to worry you. The 1 hour and 20 minutes will be enough time if you have NO delays, and the shuttle bus between terminals does work well but it is not as efficient say as the SkyTrain in Atlanta or other airports I've been thru. Sometimes you do get stuck waiting for it. As for your luggage I would check only one large suitcase (don't risk checking two), and bring a carry-on little suitcase that will fit in the overhead compartments. That way if your luggage doesn't make the connection you'll have a change of clothes, etc. for your first day on SXM.

I'm not attempting to challenge what others are saying to you on this message board, but personally I would fly through Charlotte every single time over Philadelphia. This airline just doesn't seem to care nor do many of their employees at this particular airport. Good luck and I hope this all works out for you!

Not familiar with either Dayton or Philly, though we will become familiar with Philly in the Fall and on the way home no less, but if you have over an hour and knowing your bags should be shipped through to SXM, I’d take the chance.

But at the same time I would definitely take a days change of clothes and swimwear in my carry-on since there’s always a good chance, should the flights run a little late, people will often be okay but luggage? Not so much......

We would fly out of DAY (Dayton). I always carry a change or two of clothing in the carry-on as my luggage and myself have taken separate trips in the past.

I will likely go the CLT route but this presented a possible option for an extra day.

Good call. CLT has multiple flights going and coming back from SXM in case you miss a connection.

Not sure what you mean by "multiple flights"? Except for Saturday, they have just one flight per day. Yes, they have multiple flights per week from Charlotte but only on Saturday do they offer two flights. Both Philadelphia and Charlotte have an option to connect through Miami but if I am delayed out of Dayton, I am pretty much going to miss that option also. It is not like AA is sending 4 planes a day to SXM out of Charlotte.

I was just about ready to send you a PM suggesting you check on the CLT daily multiple flights to SXM before you made any decisions.

Trust me, I check every option. 10 years ago for the Regatta trip we had a flight cancelled by Delta due to weather. We were able to make some quick changes and got to SXM the same day but spent all day going through Atlanta and then Miami to get to SXM.

We have 1:45 layover in July, PIT to PHI on a Tuesday. AA has screwed us over too many times going through CLT, both going to SXM and coming home. Happened to my sister many times as well. Thought we would try to change our luck and try PHI. I guess we will just have to wait and see. I hope it works out for you, whichever route you choose.

As I have stated many times, if one flies enough, sooner or later every airline will experience a problem. None are immune. My options are pretty much AA or Delta and I have had bad experiences on both over many, many trips to and from SXM. Also had some good experiences on both too.

If it were ME, which of course it is not, I would take the chance on the flight on Saturday, versus waiting till Sunday. I would rather take the chance that something goes wrong on Saturday, and hope I can get it fixed, versus know for CERTAIN that I will have one less day on island. If you have the ability to check with where you're staying and see if they would still charge you for the night you didn't show, if it all goes to H*ll, that might influence my decision some, or not, probably. Of course my friend, you don't have terribly good luck with air travel.....

If I depart from home on Sunday it would be through CLT so the PHL thing would not come into play. Also, there are two flights out of DAY on Sunday that would get me to CLT so as long as that flight goes, I would be ok.

Yes, you know some of my travel issues from the past.

At least in the past when United and Delta have screwed up they tried to accommodate us. Got food vouchers and $100 per person gift cards from Delta last year when a lack of aircraft stranded us at night at JFK. United did the same a few years back when we were delayed in San Francisco and missed our connecting flight in Chicago. AA just doesn't care and never once have they offered us any type of compensation for the events from my previous post. All of the airlines have issues, but some reach out much better to the customer than others. I'm hoping you'll have better success with them than we had.

I will agree that customer service is lacking but in reality, unless it is a mechanical issue, the airlines have little responsibility. The last dealings I had with any airline and a problem was Delta with a bag that the zimmer was totally ruined. Filed a claim and they quickly took care of it, much to my surprise and to my satisfaction. When you only have two airline choices, you about have to go by price and schedule.

Guess it depends on where you connect from. The PVD-PHL-SXM lands in Terminal B and departs from A...a ten minute walk

I knew it was a different routing on Sunday, but I would probably personally go for the one that (hopefully) gives me more time on island.. Best wishes for an UNeventful flight!

We have had a couple issues trying to making connections in Philly, and the terminals workers have always been great to us so far. One time returning from SXM in terminal A, after immigration, baggage claim and re ck, the security line was so long that we probably were not going to make our connection. A manager jumped in and asked who ever is connecting through terminal F follow me. She put us on the transfer bus and opened a security point there and we breezed through. That was pretty heads up of her.