The number one worst airport in America
My wife says I’m too much of a cynic. That may be true, but this is one beef that, after 200,000+ flight miles, I simply cannot ignore any longer. Why should anyone suffer needlessly? I spent the last week visiting my sister out in Denver, thus necessitating the need to fly out and back into Philadelphia International (PHL).
I’ve had bad experiences, but after this last trip, I’m going to do everything in my power to avoid this travelers’ hell-hole in the future.
I flew out Monday morning, which is one of the most popular days for business travelers. That’s not necessarily a problem, as these types of travelers are experienced and jump through the check-in and security hoops with relative ease. However, PHL has recently made the genius decision to consolidate their security checkpoints in the various terminals down to a single checkpoint.
Many airlines use this layout, but do so in buildings designed to handle that type of arrangement. The PHL terminals are like unique islands, without one main entry. None were intended to handle all the passenger traffic, so to force everyone go through one is pretty shortsighted. The space they chose, outside Terminal C, can only accommodate 3 scanners, and the inevitable line extends across a walkway back towards baggage claim at Gate C.
To make matters worse, they decided it would be a great idea to break convention by redefining the security lines. Most airports have a separate, faster line for first class passengers and employees. Everyone else gets into a general line. PHL breaks up the “general” line into two subdivisions: “expert travelers” and “newbie/families” (my terms). The difference here? Absolutely none: anyone can get in either line. However the “expert” line layout is shorter, so it typically goes faster, but you can’t see that until you’re in line, since the expert one sneaks around back of the snaking, Disney-ride-like “newbie” line. I learned this the hard way.
Let’s put this silliness in perspective: My destination, Denver International Airport (DEN), has a massive entrance atrium with no less than 12 security positions, and they separate the waiting lines into the usual “Employees/First Class” and “Everyone else.”
I fail to see the efficiency improvement, how about you?
Fast forward to my return flight, which was completely painless up until we landed on the tarmac at PHL, at which time the pilot told us that our gate was “occupied.” He put it best: “I don’t even know what to tell you about that, folks.”
Anyone who’s flown anywhere other than PHL knows that this is a prime situation for a fancy technique called the “gate change.” We were slated to go into Gate C28, but I could see from my window that C27 and C29 were available. I’m pretty sure they can make the same observations from the control tower, seeing as how it’s, y’know, a tower. With huge transparent windows.
Instead, we cruised the tarmac, past untold empty gates, for about 30 minutes. Again to put it in perspective, 30 minutes after my arrival in Denver, I was in the car, out of short term parking, and on on the highway with my sister.
Oh, but they saved the best for last.
If PHL is generally lackluster, they become out-and-out incompetent when it comes to baggage claim. Let’s start with the comparison up front: Denver had my bags on the carousel within 15 minutes, including oversized ski gear. And I had to take a tram to get to the baggage area.
PHL made me wait 70 minutes for my bags.
Let that one sink for a moment.
Fun with math: My entire flight was 3.5 hours, or 210 minutes. That means my bags essentially “flew” an extra 1/3 of the flight I just finished.
It seems almost non-sequitor to even mention the fact that the newly-installed LCD’s over each baggage carousel weren’t updating the flight numbers, instead showing flights from hours earlier. Hey guys, that fancy new technology is only cool if it’s actually working. Oggling flat screens simply because they are flat stopped being cool 5 years ago.
It’s a damn shame that natural market forces are unable to correct this problem-child of an airport. In a sane world, PHL would be bankrupt and/or under new management. Instead, regulation and lack of competition have allowed this wreck of a business to limp along, disappointing passengers and providing a horrendous first impression to Philadelphia visitors. Between this place and Newark, an airport located in South Jersey or northern Delaware would do awesome business.
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I feel your pain, Frank. Philly seems EXTRA crappy after coming back from Denver. I made the same trip (admittedly at the worst time of the year) at Christmas, and had the same problem with there being no gate available when we arrived, on time, which you’d think they would have been planning for. And the bags took about an hour, which I didn’t notice at the time because it took me 25 minutes to walk through what looked like Kuwait and an empty baggage claim (with nonworking flat screen monitor) to find the real actual baggage claim, which was actually out the door, down the street, and in a separate wing of the building.
Did you have to walk through the space-age clear Plexi exit lanes? It took me another 15 minutes to figure out how to get the eff out of Terminal C because I kept walking past the shiny white iExit and then couldn’t figure out how to get the stupid clear plastic doors to open. While a robot voice kept yelling “ACCESS TO THE TERMINAL IS FORBIDDEN”.
The place is generally a hellhole of epic proportions.
I was warned about the space doors, but I think they’ve since been removed. There was a door, but it was open with a guard at a desk right next to it, nothing fancy.
And what the hell was up with baggage claim when you were there!? I used the same crappy carousels they’ve always had.
P.S. Isn’t the Denver airport gorgeous?
Folks, this is a shame, I flew over 100K miles last year all out of PHL. I can tell you that PHL ranks high on the worst airport list especially on the handling of bags. I almost never check bags and when I do I am very sorry about it. I was on a flight once with the Chairman of US Airways – Flying in from Phoenix. He was on his way to meet with the mayor of Philadelphia (Michael Nutter) to discuss the labor problem in PHL. Turns out the unions rule the labor and did not want to let US Airways put in another baggage sorter, so yep all of the flights into PHL go thru one baggage sorter. Hence the extremely slow processing of your bags when you arrive. Now about the security lines – I have yet to travel this year – so I was unaware that they consolidated ALL of the security lines into one terminal C. There was already congestion with each terminal having its own security so if in fact they did that is a terrible shame. Finally – yes I have been a victim of the ‘gate is occupied’. This seems to happen very often in PHL. Also the other classic ‘We are waiting on our gate crew’ as they seem surprised that we arrived on time and the people are not available to handle the aircraft arrival into last 200′ of travel to the gate. (Gee maybe they are working with the bags?) PHL has a great location, they just need to figure out the labor issue and possibly reconfigure the entrance halls.
Steve, I don’t think anyone can top “I flew into PHL with the US Airways Chairman to go talk with the Mayor about the problem.” If that doesn’t solve this problem, I’d say we’re pretty much screwed.
Though I didn’t mention it, part of my 30-minute tarmac delay was, in part, a wait for a gate crew. But once you’ve got a ‘gate occupied’ error, your expectations are already pretty much in the crapper.
Having no idea of your relationship to the situation, can you share any more details about how the conversation went with the Mayor? The experience certainly makes for great ammunition.
Two notes about computers at PHL:
1, THE LOVE THEM.
You mentioned the new and fancy flat screens that serve as info terminals. But the real fun starts when you actually take a look behind them. EVERY screen has a dedicated Mac Mini attached to it! So, a cluster of 8 screens means 8 Macs. Heck, I can’t even think of a lot of spots where there is only a single screen. How does this sit with “Green Philadelphia”…?
2, THEY LOVE TO STEAL THEM, TOO
On a trip to Germany two years ago, I had the need to bring two notebooks. Security regulations at my stop limited me to only one as a carry-on. Boy, was I nervous. The checked-in one had confidential beta software on it, a fully loaded 17″ with all bells and whistles. Sure enough, it probably never left the airport (at least not on a plane…). I protested, and the TSA reimbursed me 50% of the price of the unit. Why? Because the notebook was gone but a slip with “TSA searched your bag” was in. I later learned that (at that time) some of the baggage handlers that scan the luggage actually single out lucrative items and “clean” them out.
Yepp. Gotta luv PHL….
8 screens displaying data from 8 different computers? What a colossal waste of money. A little more time and some extra cable, and you could boil that down to a single machine. “Green” indeed.
I can absolutely concur on that theft story. Trip back from Vegas, had a load of change in a bag, which mysteriously vanished from the bag between there and here. Of course I can’t say for sure which airport employed the douche bags who lifted it, but I think PHL is the safer bet (pun intended).