<p>Agree, rent a car with GPS and drive up to Philadelphia.</p>
<p>If it is easier for you with flights, rental car, etc. arrangements, you can fly into Philadelphia, rent the car there, and then drive down to Dulles to get him and come back.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that is a three hour drive each way.</p>
<p>I agree with the driving to Philly from Dulles. It would minimize lugging around his luggage. It is about a three hour drive. If that is not possible, it seems reasonable to fly from Dulles to Philly, and then take either a Taxi or a train down to 30th Street station. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you all!
OK - now that I am slightly less panicked and able to actually think a bit. Here are my thoughts:</p>
<h1>1 - his ticket has already been changed, at a cost of several hundred dollars, for the date. It isn’t possible to change the place he is flying into. We would just need to book another ticket (i.e. Dulles to Philly). Then of course, he will need a ticket back west.</h1>
<h1>2 - He has to get his bags in Dulles regardless of any other issues, as he will have to go through customs there.</h1>
<h1>3 - where we are trying to get to is at 15th and Vine, nearest metro (SEPTA) is 16th & JFK.</h1>
<h1>4 - I am NOT a city person and the above sentence sounds scary to me - I can imagine alot of walking - which is ok for me, but I’m not sure for him.</h1>
<h1>4 - if I fly to Dulles and rent a car, we’d have to drive back to Dulles to fly out. Is that a big deal?</h1>
<ul>
<li>Also, the drive from Dulles to Philly would be on a weekend - is that better or worse?
-Lastly, I am slightly freaked out about the costs mounting up, although I really need to focus on that there isn’t anything I can do, I am glad he’s safe and getting to the US, and it’s only money. However, much of it will end up being borrowed money, once we factor in hotel, hosp / medical cost, extra tickets, etc. so I do want to be intelligent and get the best logistics we can for our dollars.
THANK YOU for calming me a bit 
I knew this community would be good for me!</li>
</ul>
<p>Can’t express enough how thankful I am for the specific info to look at so many of you posted so far - ie Blueiguana.
THANK YOU so much.</p>
<p>
Well, you could drop off the car in Philly and fly from there, but it would cost more. But driving back to Dulles isn’t that big a deal, except that it will take about three hours.</p>
<p>Driving to Philly on the weekend will be better than on a weekday.</p>
<p>Dulles to Philly on the weekend is definitely better than on weekdays! No rush hour traffic.</p>
<p>You should be able to do a one way rental. I know Hertz does them and it probably won’t cost much extra (if any) as Dulles and Philly aren’t really that far apart. </p>
<p>Hertz also has GPS units available if you don’t have one to bring from home.</p>
<p>I just used Expedia and saw no penalty on Hertz for dropping off in Philly. However, car rentals are tricky as the best deals are usually not available for 24 hour rentals, but rather for longer. If you pm me your dates, I will be glad to see what I can figure out.</p>
<p>I would go with post #10 You should fly to Dulles and rent a car to meet him. Drive to Philly from Dulles - no big deal. (Just take 95 North, but stay in the left lane, you don’t want to end up in Jersey!)</p>
<p>Option 2 - rent a car service to pick him (and his bags) up from Dulles to drive him to Union Station where he can take the Amtrack to Philly.</p>
<p>Option 3 (See Option 2, but delete “car service” and insert “cab.” ) The car service is not that much more than an Airport cab going from Virginia to D.C., so I would go with Option 2 over Option 3.</p>
<p>Regarding minimizing costs: I have often gone to Priceline.com and bid for hotel rooms (you can be very specific about location within the city). I stayed at very nice hotels for a fraction of the rack rate. Something to think about.</p>
<p>New twist - just realized S’s plane will arrive at Dulles very early in the morning - if I flew to Dulles to drive him, he would be stuck there waiting for me for 8 hours or so - is that still the best idea?
I’ll check into flight from Dulles to Philly and see what it looks like ---- it all seems very complicated right now.</p>
<p>We haven’t been able yet to have internet contact, so I’m working on figuring out how much stuff he is likely to have.</p>
<p>And - no, we don’t know anyone in DC or metro area…</p>
<p>the reason we have to drop the car in the same place isn’t the cost of the car rental - it’s that flying into and out of different airports cost alot. So if I flew to Dulles, rented a car and drove to Philly, in order to have an affordable air ticket, I’d have to fly back out of Dulles to come back west.
Does that make sense?</p>
<p>
puma12, this must be so stressful for you. Keep posting…we’ll keep shooting out ideas.</p>
<p>Regarding the wait, better (imo) it should be YOU rather than he who does the long airport wait. Can you get a flight East that lands you there late the night before his early morning arrival? You could book at airport hotel or (if costs are mounting up too much), just curl up in an airport chair with a paperback and try to doze. I realize how not-fun that sounds, but better you than your ill and Africa-flight-exhausted son.</p>
<p>Agree with Momofsongbird.</p>
<p>Also would have the advantage that you could leave early from DC on weekend morning and drive up to Phillie in the morning when traffic is lighter.</p>
<p>Is that this weekend? If it is Sunday, that is the 4th of July - hope there are no big celebrations in DC or Phillie that start in the morning. I’m sure people on this board will know.</p>
<p>I’m glad that you looked up where the hospital was – I suspected that you wanted to be near the Drexel University hospital (generally referred to here as “Hahnemann”), not Drexel University (which is near three Penn hospitals).</p>
<p>Hahnemann is right on the northern edge of Philadelphia’s central business district and only a few blocks from the convention center. I can see it from my office window. The area is not short of hotels.</p>
<p>Your best hotel bet is almost certainly the Sheraton Franklin Plaza, which is less than one block away, huge (so almost never full), relatively cheap, and easy as pie to get to if you are driving in by highway, or coming in by train. You could also do fine with the Hampton Inn Convention Center (2 blocks away, also relatively cheap), Windsor Suites (3 blocks away), the Marriott Courtyard Downtown (more business-oriented, 4 blocks away), or Embassy Suites (4 blocks away) or the Four Seasons (height of luxury, 4 blocks away), There may be some cheaper options – I think there’s a Travelodge in there somewhere, but I can’t place it in my mind.</p>
<p>Assuming you are driving up from DC – You would take 95 North, get off at 676 West towards Center City (not the most direct route on the map, but the least confusing one), go one mile and get off at the Broad St. exit, which actually puts you on 15th Street. You would turn right at the next light (Vine St.), go two blocks (waving at Hahnemann on the other side of the expressway you just got off), turn left on 17th, cross over the expressway, and make a left into the Sheraton check-in/parking area. Really easy, and you never really get into the heavy Center City traffic.</p>
<p>The other hotels mentioned would require you to drive a few more blocks – nothing serious! </p>
<p>If you want instructions from the train, I can give you those, too. You can come within a block or two of any of them easily.</p>
<p>I love you guys!
Thank you, JHS!
I am going for a walk to breath.
I’ll be working on figuring this out most of the day - will keep posting. More ideas are always welcome!</p>
<p>First, hugs to you.</p>
<p>What if you fly from west coast to Philly, rent the car, drive to Dulles to pick up son, then drive back. You would fly in and out of the same airport, you could leave a day ahead so you are there to pick up your son when he exits customs, and the two day car rental might be cheaper.
If you have an Entertainment book, check that for car rental discounts. We saved almost 50% that way the last time we rented a car.</p>
<p>Southwest flies in/out of Philly and Baltimore, if your local airport is also serviced by them. You can then wait to book the return flight until you have a better handle on the situation. Just a thought, but is there a reason the medical attention needs to be in Philly? There are wonderful hospitals in DC. Meet him there and drive to the ER at GW or Georgetown.</p>
<p>All the best to you and your son.</p>
<p>Great idea to check out Southwest! </p>
<p>That would provide a lot more flexiblity into your schedule. You can book a flight on them and if you have to change, there is no penalty.</p>
<p>It will take a while for your son to get through customs. His flight may not be exactly on time. I still think that waiting for you at Dulles is the simplest thing.</p>
<p>The drive is all beltway/interstate to Philly, so the only city driving you will need to do will be once you get into Philly. I wish you the best in your travels; I wish I lived a little closer to Philly–you could stay at my house.</p>
<p>American Airlines doesn’t charge extra for one-way tickets, either. Definitely look them up. Have you tried ITA software to search for tickets? It has nearly every option listed:
<a href=“http://matrix.itasoftware.com%5B/url%5D”>http://matrix.itasoftware.com</a></p>