Our Airport, Atlanta

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Atlanta Airport is the hub for Delta Airlines. I have been through the airport several times on my way from the northeast to such areas as Fort Walton Beach, FL, and Biloxi, MS. This is a huge airport with 5 separate runways and terminals connected by a passenger train. Atlanta is also the world's busiest airport in terms of passengers and takeoffs and landings with some 86 million people transiting the airport each year--that's about 10 million more people than the world's second busiest airport, Chicago O'Hare.

I had a wonderful trip with Delta in 2008 but 2009 was the opposite. Our incoming flight from Tucson was delayed though landed only 5 minutes late. It took a while longer to find a gate to park up but we legged it from Terminal A to terminal E arriving as they called "5 minutes before gate closes" only to find they had already boarded other passengers in our places. Now it seems it is a fact of life that flights are oversold but we weren't even late. To add insult to injury none of the desk staff would look us in the eye to explain what was happening - there was a general air of panic as I guess they know thay had screwed up. We then were told our hotel and meals would be fully paid for only to find later that this was not the case. As we were led fro the gate they were still boarding other passengers! The booking desk was pretty poor as well and had we not had someone in our party who knew how things should work we would not have been "given" an overnight pack - something that is obviously prepared for just our situation where we had only what we stood up in and our hand luggage to take us through the next 24 hours. Why couldnt they offer it without being asked?

To give credit to Delta, we complained on our return home and they were very prompt in giving us a credit voucher. but how sad it had to come to that.

Busy morning at work, raced to the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Two flights to catch and getting stressed. Returned hired car and caught the shuttle bus. Magic, didn’t stop laughing all the way to the North Terminal. Catch him on YouTube. This is a must.

www.youtube.com

Archie Hertz to ATL

Atlanta Airport, known as the largest/busiest airport in the world indeed is a large airport. Just be aware when catching a flight, the check in procedure and to get to the gate (which might be several "metro" stops after check in, takes some time. Enough restaurants at the airport, the tax free zone has some great deals (at least, if ur from EU), the KLM/Delta lounge (in the gate where KLM departures) is so standard that you wonder why there were so many people.

I had a very good trip through Atlanta. It was very easy to move around which was just as well as having settled down at my "out" gate to Tucson, within a couple of minutes they changed the gate and I ended up having to go all the way back to the terminal I had arrived at! Sadly that also involved a 40 minute delay but overall the experience was fairly stress free and even the food was good. If you move between terminals on the shuttle (very likely) hold tight as it can be quite fierce on acceleration and braking - if you are at all unsteady wait at the front/back where the are a couple of seats. Have to say that the guy on my immigration desk was probably the friendliest I have everencountered in the US - actually smiled and chatted which makes a change :)

I would not rely on your domestic (in the US) terminals to remain the same. They GENERALLY have a routine, but it is pretty loose depending on weather, delays, mechanical, etc. If one gate remains occupied too long, the previous flight arrives late, etc the terminals or the gates in the terminals may change.

However, the gates that the flights are actually departing on are pretty clearly marked in all of the terminals and moving from terminal to terminal is very easy with the train. Atlanta is a very busy airport so you will have a huge bustle of people. However getting around is very straight forward. You can take a look at the airports web site for the layout of the terminals. Once you have seen an overhead view of the layout it becomes amazingly simple.

Link to the terminal overview: http://www.atlanta-airport.com/sublevels/terminal/termmap.htm

Link to page for international passengers: http://www.atlanta-airport.com/sublevels/customer_service/arriv_intl.htm

The map on the official website leaves a lot to be desired in the very basic overview of the terminals. Each terminal has its own page and there is a tiny representation of the 6 terminals (main/T terminal and terminals A-E). I grabbed some of the overviews and pasted them together on my Atlanta/Transportation page. Like I said, once you've seen the general layout, the terminals are no longer confusing.

The first time I went to downtown I had no idea about Marta. So I took a cab that cost me 34 usd (there is a flat fare from the airport to downtown). The day after I experienced Marta: from Peachthree Av. to the airport it cost 1.75 usd and takes 20-25 minutes.

Small commuter type flights only come in at a limited number of gates in Atlanta so if you know that airline, it could be narrowed down to a couple of gates that he will be arriving at. If he's traveling out on Delta, he could be leaving from any of the other terminals (including E - it's not just for international flights). Again, if he's under 15 he will have an escort and won't have to worry about any of this. If he's older than that he just needs to read the signs. It is one of the best signed airports I've been in.