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THERE
Getting to the Airport
After a long train ride to PHL, I stepped into Terminal E. I had already gotten my boarding passes online the night before, and was in A group.
Security, Terminal, etc.
I had alot of time to kill, so after checking my bags with the SkyCaps, I made my way through D/C/F security so that I could eat at Friday's. The line was long but moved fast, and as usual I was forced to remove my shoes and jacket. After having a nice (albeit long) meal at TGI Friday's, I walked back to Term. E security, since my flight would be departing out of Terminal E (gate E10, to be exact).
When I got to Terminal E security, there was nobody else around, and I proceeded straight to a screening center. I went through the metal detector and beeped, and the guy said to me, "Are you carrying anything metal?" When I replied with "no", he simply stated, "Oh, just go then."
People were already lining up for the flight at the "A" group sign, and I could tell it was going to be full, and since the flight was boarding in only about 20 minutes, I stepped in line. The plane, which was coming from Manchester and was supposed to start boarding at 1:25, still wasn't in the gate at 1:45, the scheduled departure time. As dark clouds moved over PHL and it began to rain, passengers began to get frusterated. Finally, at 2:00, the plane pulled into the gate, and a few minutes later we began to board.
The flight
About half the seats were already taken from passengers originating in Manchester, but I found myself a nice aisle seat in row 14 and settled in. We departed the gate 30 minutes late at 2:15, and we were in the air at about 2:50. We were at our crusing altitude of 40,000 feet at about 3:20.
F/A's came around at around 3:30 for drink and snack orders, and by 4:00 everybody was done with their drinks and snacks. The flight was very smooth; one of the smoothest I've been on, problably, until descent. We made awesome time in the air and were on the groun at 5:07, only 17 minutes after the time scheduled for arrival. I was in the FLL terminal at 5:15, and my bags were the first to come out of the carousel; talk about lucky!
BACK
Getting to the airport
My rental car return went extremely smoothly at FLL's new Rental Car Center, and I was back in terminal 1 at 11:00 AM, while my flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 1:15. I checked my bags at Southwest's RAPID Kiosk, and then headed over to concourse 1C (even though my flight was in 1B) to grab a bite at Chili's. When I got to security for 1C, however, the TSA rep wouldn't let me in. Even though I told her that I had gone through at other airports, she told me that I wasn't allowed into Concourse C because I had a Concourse B boarding pass. She told me that if I'd wanted to eat at Chili's, I'd need to take a shuttle bus to Terminal 3, where there was one before security. Since I had so much time to kill, I did just that, and had a great meal at Chili's.
Boarding and the flight
After returning to Terminal 1 and quickly passing through security, I found that there was a very, very long line for my flight, and decided to get on it before it got any longer. (I had checked in online, so I was in group A again.) I boarded the flight and took a seat in row 14 again, on the aisle (same seat as the way coming). By the time C group boarded, there were only a few sparatic seats throughout the plane, and people had ALOT of trouble choosing seats, which ultamitely made the flight depart late. Aah ... another reason why Southwest's ABC system is completely moronic. Also, there were not enough overhead bins, so the FA's had to start checking bags that wouldn't fit.
The flight departed the gate at 1:20, 10 minutes later than scheduled, and the F/A's did a very quick (yet funny) safety briefing. We waited behind 2 WN 737's and a Spirit MD-80 for takeoff, and finally were in the air at around 1:45. I ordered a Heinekin when the drink service came around, and it came to my seat about 20 minutes later. The flight itself was rather short and uneventful, until descent, when the captian turned the seatbelt sign on and said it was going to be a "very bumpy duration".
After about 5 more minutes, the plane became unbelievebly bumpy, and the F/A's mandated that "everybody return to their seats for the duration of the flight". After passing 10,000 feet, the flight became a bit smoother for about 5 minutes, but began to get bumpy again as we neared the ground. As we approached the airport, I could tell that it looked like we were coming in wayyyy to high, and thought that a go-around may have been in store for us. As we got closer to the runway, I was thinking "there's no way this guy is gonna have room to land this thing", but sure enough, we slammed down halfway across the runway and the brakes were applied at full stregnth, making everybody fly forward and causing 2 overhead bins to pop open. When the plane finally came to a complete stop at the end of the runway, the captian came on and said, "wwhhhhewww", followed by the F/A saying, "At this time, Southwest Airlines and the crew of this flight would like to welcome you to Honolulu ... however, unfortunately we cannot do that, so we'll welcome you to Philly instead." The F/A's put on yet another comedy routine, before we arrived at the gate about 10 minutes later than scheduled, at 4:06.
Getting to the Airport
After a long train ride to PHL, I stepped into Terminal E. I had already gotten my boarding passes online the night before, and was in A group.
Security, Terminal, etc.
I had alot of time to kill, so after checking my bags with the SkyCaps, I made my way through D/C/F security so that I could eat at Friday's. The line was long but moved fast, and as usual I was forced to remove my shoes and jacket. After having a nice (albeit long) meal at TGI Friday's, I walked back to Term. E security, since my flight would be departing out of Terminal E (gate E10, to be exact).
When I got to Terminal E security, there was nobody else around, and I proceeded straight to a screening center. I went through the metal detector and beeped, and the guy said to me, "Are you carrying anything metal?" When I replied with "no", he simply stated, "Oh, just go then."
People were already lining up for the flight at the "A" group sign, and I could tell it was going to be full, and since the flight was boarding in only about 20 minutes, I stepped in line. The plane, which was coming from Manchester and was supposed to start boarding at 1:25, still wasn't in the gate at 1:45, the scheduled departure time. As dark clouds moved over PHL and it began to rain, passengers began to get frusterated. Finally, at 2:00, the plane pulled into the gate, and a few minutes later we began to board.
The flight
About half the seats were already taken from passengers originating in Manchester, but I found myself a nice aisle seat in row 14 and settled in. We departed the gate 30 minutes late at 2:15, and we were in the air at about 2:50. We were at our crusing altitude of 40,000 feet at about 3:20.
F/A's came around at around 3:30 for drink and snack orders, and by 4:00 everybody was done with their drinks and snacks. The flight was very smooth; one of the smoothest I've been on, problably, until descent. We made awesome time in the air and were on the groun at 5:07, only 17 minutes after the time scheduled for arrival. I was in the FLL terminal at 5:15, and my bags were the first to come out of the carousel; talk about lucky!
BACK
Getting to the airport
My rental car return went extremely smoothly at FLL's new Rental Car Center, and I was back in terminal 1 at 11:00 AM, while my flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 1:15. I checked my bags at Southwest's RAPID Kiosk, and then headed over to concourse 1C (even though my flight was in 1B) to grab a bite at Chili's. When I got to security for 1C, however, the TSA rep wouldn't let me in. Even though I told her that I had gone through at other airports, she told me that I wasn't allowed into Concourse C because I had a Concourse B boarding pass. She told me that if I'd wanted to eat at Chili's, I'd need to take a shuttle bus to Terminal 3, where there was one before security. Since I had so much time to kill, I did just that, and had a great meal at Chili's.
Boarding and the flight
After returning to Terminal 1 and quickly passing through security, I found that there was a very, very long line for my flight, and decided to get on it before it got any longer. (I had checked in online, so I was in group A again.) I boarded the flight and took a seat in row 14 again, on the aisle (same seat as the way coming). By the time C group boarded, there were only a few sparatic seats throughout the plane, and people had ALOT of trouble choosing seats, which ultamitely made the flight depart late. Aah ... another reason why Southwest's ABC system is completely moronic. Also, there were not enough overhead bins, so the FA's had to start checking bags that wouldn't fit.
The flight departed the gate at 1:20, 10 minutes later than scheduled, and the F/A's did a very quick (yet funny) safety briefing. We waited behind 2 WN 737's and a Spirit MD-80 for takeoff, and finally were in the air at around 1:45. I ordered a Heinekin when the drink service came around, and it came to my seat about 20 minutes later. The flight itself was rather short and uneventful, until descent, when the captian turned the seatbelt sign on and said it was going to be a "very bumpy duration".
After about 5 more minutes, the plane became unbelievebly bumpy, and the F/A's mandated that "everybody return to their seats for the duration of the flight". After passing 10,000 feet, the flight became a bit smoother for about 5 minutes, but began to get bumpy again as we neared the ground. As we approached the airport, I could tell that it looked like we were coming in wayyyy to high, and thought that a go-around may have been in store for us. As we got closer to the runway, I was thinking "there's no way this guy is gonna have room to land this thing", but sure enough, we slammed down halfway across the runway and the brakes were applied at full stregnth, making everybody fly forward and causing 2 overhead bins to pop open. When the plane finally came to a complete stop at the end of the runway, the captian came on and said, "wwhhhhewww", followed by the F/A saying, "At this time, Southwest Airlines and the crew of this flight would like to welcome you to Honolulu ... however, unfortunately we cannot do that, so we'll welcome you to Philly instead." The F/A's put on yet another comedy routine, before we arrived at the gate about 10 minutes later than scheduled, at 4:06.
Stop Searching. Start Traveling. southwest.com 
Sounds like a fun return flight
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