<p>Last year I drove to DE, picked my mother up & flew out of Phila. When we returned from FL my car’s battery was dead. It was one of those huge impersonal long-term lots and I was a bit panicked. </p>
<p>“Rocky” came to our rescue (with jumper cables). When he got out of his truck and I saw his name tag I said “How perfect that Rocky is coming to our rescue in Philadelphia” He got a kick out of that. Anyway FWIW, that’s my Phila. AP story . . .</p>
<p>Actual transcript of last night’s text messages upon arrival in the Cleve.</p>
<p>Made it! I’ll call when we get to “the seemingly non-random boy’s” place.</p>
<p>Great. Give him a big smooch from me.</p>
<p>Creepy, Dad. Just creepy.</p>
<p>WTH was I thinking? :(</p>
<p>Haha. Love you.</p>
<p>Watch out curm - you could end up on “texts from last night.”</p>
<p>It’s going to be a lovely weekend in Cleveland. This is the first year GE’s Global Headquarters in Nela Park will use energy-efficient GE LED holiday lights - it’s always really beautiful - and the Indians have built a snow tube run down the bleachers at Jacobs Field. Today’s high is a balmy 30 degrees. Hope she enjoys it!</p>
<p>Chill, qdogpa, I wasn’t blaming Philly, the storm shut down the east coast. Btw I am from Philly originally.</p>
<p>I was stranded in Chicago several years ago when there was an East Coast blizzard and all of the airports were closed. I had a quite fun time shopping on the Miracle Mile with the after Christmas sales while my husband had our three young children and several feet of snow. heh, heh.</p>
<p>this thread is hysterical! curm you are a classic</p>
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<p>I have found that the free Wifi works about 20% of the time. Boo.</p>
<p>If you have a long enough layover it’s sometimes worth it to head to the lobby of an airport hotel to use the wifi. The lobby of the Westin at the Detroit airport is lovely 
and they have their own little security checkpoint so it’s quick to get in and out.</p>
<p>I think it be pretty cold back east- it has been raining here- but in the upper 40s.
[Not</a> like this](<a href=“Lighthouse transformed into a fairy castle after being encased in sparkling ice | Daily Mail Online”>Lighthouse transformed into a fairy castle after being encased in sparkling ice | Daily Mail Online)</p>
<p>Looks nice. Jeebus. Hmmmm. This may work for me. Maybe she’ll want to come home after med school afterall. ;)</p>
<p>Sorry but the wifi in Philly is downright LOUSY.</p>
<p>We avoid the Philly airport like the plague. Changing planes there is always a nightmare. The place is ALWAYS crowded, and it never fails that we have to go from one corner of the airport to the opposite corner. They put you on busses that drive around the tarmac, dodging moving luggage carts, fuel trucks and jetliners, practically under the tails of these huge planes :eek:</p>
<p>And if you have luggage you want to get rid of, take it on a flight and change planes in Philly. We changed in Philly once on the way from Charleston SC to Providence. FULL 737, probably 120 people got off in Providence. Went to baggage claim, literally 20 bags came off the plane and that was it. People were standing around waiting for the next cart of bags to be offloaded, but I went straight to the luggage office. Yup, they said, that was ALL the bags from that flight. “What’s going on in Philadelphia that’s causing such a problem?” I asked. “Nothing,” the luggage agent replied, “It’s Philadelphia. This happens with flights from Philly all the time.” </p>
<p>I assume having Philly as a destination is better than trying to change planes there.</p>
<p>When sitting in an airport waiting to fly to Europe recently I had a lovely conversation with 3 businessmen (1 American, 2 German) who told me NEVER to fly into Paris Charles de Gaul. One told me he’d fly 3/4 of the way around the world in the OTHER direction, then take a yak overland to his destination in Europe, rather than fly into Paris CDG. My FIL used to fly into Nice and take a train to Paris rather than flying into Paris CDG - and this is a man who is used to NYC airports.</p>
<p>Never change planes at Heathrow. Ever.</p>
<p>The day our flight was delayed leaving Philly, three other flights to our home were cancelled. All the folks from those three flights were clamoring for seats on our (FULL) plane. When all was said and done (after they brought us another plane because the rear door had a “cosmetic issue”…yeah right)…we took off (six hours late). They filled the baggage hold with baggage.</p>
<p>When we got to the airport, we passengers watched the bags go around and around on the carousel…but there were about 150 bags that didn’t belong to folks ON the flight. I thought TSA said the bags on the plane had to belong to the passengers ON that plane…guess not. Anyway most of the passengers on our plane had NO luggage. The folks stranded in Philly…well…their luggage was with us. Punchline was it was 2 a.m. by this time and the baggage claim personnel had mostly left. One woman dealt with us all…she had no forms to fill out. She gave us all blank brown paper. </p>
<p>We should have rented a car…it takes less time to drive from Philly than it took us THAT night to travel by plane.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I had heard that about Heathrow as well. But S changed planes there twice last year with no problems. Apparently they have recently opened a new terminal and it has greatly decreased the notorious plane-change problems they used to have.</p>
<p>I, too, try to avoid flying out of Philly. I’m about 25 mins from ABE. I had a connecting flight through Philly to get back to ABE and they cancelled the last flight. They wanted to put me on a flight the next day at 2:00 pm. I just laughed at the woman and told her, Hell, I literally could walk home in the time the flight would get me back to ABE!!</p>
<p>I’ve had more issue with TX airports than Philly. Come to think of it, that was a flight from TX through Philly - it was delayed for hours causing me to miss my connecting flight and then they cancelled the last flight out to ABE.</p>
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<p>Oh my goodness. Never. Ever.</p>
<p>My daughter has her first flight from Philly next week - should I tell her to only bring carry-on???</p>
<p>I’ve changed planes at Heathrow many times. No problems. That includes changing planes with bike boxes, too.</p>
<p>I always use carry on baggage…except that ONE time in Philly. Yes…have her use carry on if at all possible. If she checks a bag, make sure the checked bag contains things she can do without if necessary. Pack the essentials in the carryon. At least then she’ll have what she needs.</p>