Mr Kevincm goes back to Washington – A long Philadelphia layover

Mr Kevincm Returns to Washington – A long Philadelphia layover featuring US Customs and the TSA at their best

In this… well.. mess:

• How far can you go for a £1 (+Tax)?
• Off to Manchester Airport, Manchester Airport and the BA Terraces Lounge
• AA735 Manchester Airport to Philadelphia
• A long Philadelphia layover featuring the US Customs and the TSA at their best.
• AA4545 Philadelphia to Washington Reagan
• Holiday Inn Washington Reagan
• The Marriott Marquis, Washington DC
• The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum – National Mall
• The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum – The Udvar Hazey Building
• Back to Dulles, British Airways Dulles Lounge
• BA216 Washington Dulles to Heathrow with the Airbus A380
• Heathrow Transfer, North Lounge
• BA1530 London Heathrow to Manchester
• The joy of coaches, and CrossCountry trains from Manchester to Birmingham
• Short and Sweet

Arriving into Philadelphia I checked the clock – with 20 minutes to go – my connection to Washington Regan was sitting in the bin.

I headed off to the plane, and waiting at the table to obtain my onward boarding pass – which meant I would now be leaving at 21:10 in the evening and not touching down until 22:15.

Give me strength.

With a resigned 6 hour plus connection staring me in the face, I decided to make the best of it, and try and clear the immigration hurdles at Philadelphia, thinking this airport had got clever, and followed Chicago by allowing any citizen to use the automated passport clearance system.

I followed the queue along to the international visitors, passing a lovely empty bank of APC machines, to be confronted with 4 customs and border patrol officers who were clearing 3 inbound flights.

Great use of resources there Customs and Border Patrol. Absolutely stunning to the last.

Well you had time to fill these forms in. Annoying things. 

How to fill in the annoying blue form 

At least the do the forms in multiple languages these days. 

So it turned into a 40 minute queue to wait for more agents to arrive (another 3 to process 3 flights worth of inbound passengers).

Eventually, I was seen to, and processed into the United States with the usual questions.

With that, I headed through baggage claim, and cleared customs (even though I was in the clean, the customs person double checked me before allowing me to enter Philadelphia. I guess Eric Cartman lives here as I remember stating in 2008).

With that done, I headed to the re-check area to check two things 1) would my champers fly as is and 2)  was there anything earlier to DC.

Because tamper proof bags aren’t good enough for the TSA. Strangely, in most parts of the world – everyone loves tamper proof bags. Funny that.

Option 1 ended in laughter – I was told the TSA would turn me back for it. I reluctantly popped the purple suitcase for short-tagging to Washington Reagan (after putting in that bottle of champers – trust me, if that thing got broke, actual damages would had been sitting on AA’s doorsteps).

Then it was onto the next god forsaken hell at Philadelphia Airport – Terminal A East Security. Little distinction was made for transfer passenger or local – only those with PreCheck had a by. Those with tight connections would be forced to wait.

Which is silly considering not all the lanes were open.  Something I intended to have a discussion about with station manager who I could see in his high and mighty point.

Security took its time with the usual friendliness the TSA is known for. The lack of manners, welcoming tone or demure really got my goat after a long flight and a long time to clear.

So I decided once I cleared security, I would have a little honest discussion about the state of things.

I cleared security eventually, and repacked to the side of the security station – watching the station master carefully. He then chose his moment… and vanished before I could catch him.

That pretty much put me over the edge in terms of passive aggressiveness. I requested a press contact from Philadelphia airport to contact me, and a TSA person from AskTSA to comment.

Suffice to say, Philadelphia Airport never got back to me (which is something I regret to be honest… some airport feedback would had been wonderful), and the TSA acknowledged the frustration.
Oh well.

But the chances of me transiting through Philadelphia Airport again if I can help it? A bit fat ZERO.

In fact, I’d recommend any passenger coming in from anywhere but the USA and has NOT been pre-cleared to use another entry point in to the USA.

Philadelphia leaves a poor welcome to the USA passenger experience – end of matter. And there’s a perfect response for this?

This selfie spot was about to be downthumbed. We are not amused. 

What does one do in Philly for 4 and 30 hours after being stuck with America’s finest? With the flight to DCA not departing until 9:15 in the evening, I had two options: Explore the terminals and bore myself senseless or go the Admirals Club and write a huffy post to get the nasty out of my system.

These rocking chairs wouldn’t have helped sadly. 

I think we all know what wins there.

The was no real option. 

American Airlines B/C Concourse Club

I could had based myself at the nice club at A-West or this one – I chose this one as I was in the mood for a very short walk when I would need to get onto the next plane.

The fact I once damaged my foot at this airport also was in my mind too… so I was going to be lazy and not risk anything.

I headed upstairs checked in. At the same time I confirmed there was nothing that was going to get me into the Washington DC area quicker… and surprise, there wasn’t. I suppose I could had taken the train, but that would had caused a missed segment – and that’s bad on an international ticket.

So lets look at the lounge. And for an exUS Airways lounge – it isn’t that bad.

The bar seemed to be the heart of the lounge, with seats constantly filled with new people.

Catering in the lounge is the usual mixture of cruets, soups and cookies – much like any other American Airlines lounge. On the plus side, I should be grateful that American Airlines has got their fingers out, and are offering more than cruets as a catering option.

Cruets

Hummus and fruit.
Cookies and Brownies

Soup.

Soups and Cookies.

I filled the time with writing, phoning a few people, some furious tweeting… and taking pictures of planes.

Because – planes.

There’s a lot of American Airlines tails there (and an interloping US Airways tail)

Amazingly, other airlines exist at Philadelphia – Delta for example. 

Double take off.

With 6 and a bit hours gone, I was 1) bored, 2) tired and 3) needing to get to the gate for the flight onto Washington Regan. Trust me – it is possible to stay in a lounge too long.

Exiting the lounge, I headed to the gate area, where a light load was expected for the run to Washington Regan that evening.

The waiting E-170

I took the opportunity to organise myself. And it was at this point my Sony A5000 decided that living was optional from this moment onwards… and ended up on the floor of Philadelphia Terminal B in three different pieces.

I still haven’t decided if I’m going to replace it. Heck. I wasn’t exactly emanating swear words when it broke. Guess that shows how much I care about it… or if I was too tired to care.

With a blip of the boarding pass, I was allowed access to the plane to get me to Washington DC… and hopefully a bed…

Next: AA4545 Philadelphia International Airport to Washington Reagan National Airport

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