Hello,
There are no simple transfers when arriving in the US from an international destination. Even if you never leave the airport terminal you still have to legally enter the US and deal with Immigration/Customs and that means your luggage too. It's a pain the ass.
Cheers,
Terry
Thanks for the reply Terry. I was pretty sure that was the answer and that's why I avoid flying through there. It seems to me, that maybe they don't trust other countries screening processes, yet the TSA agents there seem to screw up a lot themselves.
Thanks
Justin
US immigration/customs are an interesting situation. Terry is correct - you will have to collect your luggage and go through the screening process again. I would check with US Airways to make sure of their regulations too. I've not been to the Philly airport, but if it's anything like Newark, New Jersey's - make sure you have at least 1.5 hours between flights.
Coming back from Dublin, we went through the US immigrations/customs process at the Dublin airport. Had their own special 'room' for it all. Upon arrival in Newark, our luggage was to be directly transferred to our connecting flight to Chicago because of the Dublin clearance. Nope. Had to collect our luggage and go through the whole process again. We had a 45 minute window at Newark. We ran down the concourse and made our flight by just a few minutes. (Also had a woman in front of us who didn't really understand English. Her paperwork was incomplete and they thought she was smuggling sausages into the country. Out of utter frustration, the customs guy just let her through. Not until after boarding our Chicago flight were we able to honestly laugh about the sausage thing.)
The US is one of the worse so called "developed" nations to make a simple transfer through on Planet Earth, and this has been the case for years now. You need to give yourself lots of time to jump through their hoops...
Cheers,
Terry
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