Anyone here had experience with Atlanta airport?

[raccoon]

My sister and I are planning an overseas trip. Travel agent mentioned flying in and out of Atlanta.

I live in upstate SC and would rather fly in and out of another airport, for the following reasons:
-- I'd really rather not drive in Atlanta because the traffic is such a mofo.
-- I believe parking is real expensive at that airport.

Anyone care to share their experience?

[backtoblue]

1. I had to change planes in Atlanta two years ago

I didn't leave the airport, but it wasn't too bad. Very crowded, though.

[mikeytherat]

2. If you run down the moving sidewalks, when you reach the end you can crash and burn. Hard.

Well, at least I did once.

mikey_the_rat

[FarLeftRage]

3. I found it to be a fucking maze...

You just can't go directly from point "A" to point "B"...

[RebelOne]

4. I live in the Atlanta area and have flown in and out of Hartsfield-Jackson

many times. It really isn't too bad. You just have to do a lot of walking. But everything is pretty well organized. Just be careful when riding the trains. You have to move fast to get on and off.

[seaglass]

5. I would think there would be more competition price-wise by flying out of ATL.

I used to work in travel - but it has been years. The only thing I remember about ATL airport is that it is huge and they have weather/delay issues - though I imagine that depends on the time of the year (I think summer was the worst).

Compare parking costs vs. one way car-rentals? Any other way for you to get there other than driving your own car?

Did your TA compare fares traveling out of your closest airport vs. ATL - it's possible even with parking/gas costs that flying out of ATL is cheaper. I'd have your TA provide the run down on pricing/availability of both options for you.

Where are you going?

[pitohui]

10. there's usually a hub premium, seems doubtful flying direct is cheaper than flying from home airport

and i would run the numbers myself rather than expecting the travel agent to do it, the travel agent is going to do the minimum work necessary, since airfares are no longer a source of revenue
commissions and haven't been for years

the odds are significant, this person will save money flying out of a non-hub to connect at the hub and booking the flight herself

you pay more for flying out of the hub and skipping that extra connection, almost never would you pay less (saving time costs money, as a rule of thumb in travel)

could be there's some special deal going but in general what i've said is what is true

[seaglass]

20. Are you a travel agent?

Never heard of a hub premium. Normally if it's a major airport, there is more competition and better fares. Especially if we are talking international travel. And yes I know this does not hold true in all cases, especially with low cost carriers flying in and out of the non-major airports.

I am aware that service/transaction fees have taken the place of commissions but if leisure travel agents are not willing to do a basic fare comparison then they really don't have much value.

[pitohui]

27. if you never heard of a hub premium, then bless your heart if you were ever a TA

when was that? 1978? trust me, there have been considerable changes in the industry since then

travel agents DON'T have much value booking air tickets, precisely because they DON'T receive commissions, commissions from airlines were canceled some years ago because of this little thing -- and stop me if you've heard of it here first -- called the internet

this makes twice in one month that someone has told me straight faced that they're a traveler/travel agent, and they don't know what a hub/hub premium is

but at least you're doing it from behind a screen, the other lady told me this straight to my face (at a poker table) and while lying is legal at the poker table, i couldn't resist bursting into laughter -- i said outright, lady, if you've been traveling since you're 13, and you don't know what a hub is...bless your heart -- the whole table cracked up (this lady is one of those loudmouths who brag about anything and everything, so i think i was appreciated that i shut her up for a whole 5 minutes....)

the hub premium is the well-known extra price you pay for the convenience of living near/flying out of a hub

sheesh

knowledge of what a hub is -- that's ABC stuff, ya know?

do some searches, i have done many over the years, fly out of MSY (my home, small airport) and yes i DO fly to international destinations in europe, africa, latin america or fly out of the hub -- flying out of MSY is invariably the same price or cheaper, and sometimes cheaper by a significant sum of money

everyone would fly nonstop and skip all the hassle of connections if not for the hub premium

i mean, i'm the queen of cheap, i fly all over the world for next to nothing, but c'mon, this is not the secret hidden esoteric part of booking...this is stuff you'll notice right away just by playing around w. different bookings

[seaglass]

29. I didn't say I didn't know what a hub was, did I?

And are you always such an asshole?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

32. Yes.

[raccoon]

13. Egypt. nt

[Heidi]

6. No problem. I've flown from Atlanta directly to Zurich.

But I didn't have parking to deal with. :hi:

[HopeHoops]

7. Perhaps this will answer your question....

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!


The place is larger than some third-world countries and probably has a higher GDP. You have to take freakin' subway cars to get from one place to another and that's AFTER walking a few miles to get to the station. I had over an hour to change planes the last time I was there and I made it by 2 minutes - WITHOUT STOPPING, not even to PEE! If I had missed one of the two trains I had to take, I would have missed the connecting flight.

RUN, do NOT walk.

On Edit:

On the plus side, it is pretty nice compared to O'Hare.

[pitohui]

11. funny you should mention o'hare, only airport w. worse rep than ATL is ORD --)

,
i'd think ATL should have less excuses for its weather delays, considering their location, but oh well!

[HopeHoops]

12. Well, there IS Newark.

But it sucks for completely different reasons.

[Orsino]

8. The International Concourse E...

...is the farthest one from the main terminal. It'll take you at least ten minutes by the train to make that trip. Do not try to walk it--even with the people mover strips, that'd be exhausting.

[pitohui]

9. don't know about parking but it's an awful place to connect

near as i can tell, even tho it's a delta hub, no one who works for delta at all of atlanta airport has a fucking clue what's going on

parking has become a way to jack customers at most airports, if it's a trip of any length, it's better to use an airport close enough to where you live that someone you know can drop you off/pick you up

because of the hub premium, it's likely that flying out of a smaller airport and connecting in ATL would be cheaper, sometimes significantly cheaper -- i wanted many times to drive from new orleans to MEM, do business there, and then fly MEM-LAS or something but the hub premium for flying out of MEM was ALWAYS too high, compared to the cost of flying MSY-MEM-LAS, plus flying out of my home airport saves me the ridiculous parking costs since i get pick-up/drop-off instead of parking my car

i don't know the hub premium for ATL since i hate driving there so i've never investigated -- but the hub premium for me at MEM was generally $150 and up -- and that's BEFORE any parking costs

these days i haven't much use for travel agents, for booking airfare, they can't find the deals i can find, if they don't have a specialty focus where they can actually do something useful, for instance, when buying an internal flight on turkish airways, i used a travel agent who lived in turkey and spoke turkish because this was the only way for me to get the cheapest price

i'd do some searches myself, using the airport most convenient to me to see if flying out of ATL is really the better deal -- there are some sales going on right now from delta, don't get me wrong, but i would be surprised if flying out of ATL was any cheaper than flying out of, i dunno, GSP? (my geographic is weak)

they have SIGNIFICANT weather/delay issues and if possible, it's too be avoided altogether, however, because of your location, i think you're just screwn -- for some reason ATL has far worse ability to handle thunderstorms/weather than does MEM or DTW -- yes, size of the hub comes into play here, sure, but having spent a nasty hour circling ATL, getting hit by lightning, and then being refused to be allowed to land there and being diverted back to CLT, yah, i'm somewhat bitter -- you know, at MSY, DTW, MEM and many others it's possible for a plane to land in a thunderstorm, something which is going to come up routinely because ATL is in the fucking south -- i'm told a big problem is one of the runways is too short for safe landing in storms, which wouldn't be a problem if the drought went on forever but guess what...sorry for the rant, but it's just an awful airport compared to MEM or DTW...

[hippywife]

14. I have both flown into Atlanta and driven around the city

before and after the Olympics. Driving around the city is no worse than driving around any major city and probably better than some.

If you do fly in, wear walking shoes and do, do, do take advantage of the trams. :hi:

[Tommy_Carcetti]

15. It sucks if you have a connecting flight and they are in different terminals.

You have to race to that subway type thing, go to the other terminal, race down the long hallway to the gate, and hope that boarding hasn't closed yet. I actually lost my seat once that way and had to beg to get back on the plane via standby.

[gmoney]

16. Been a while since I went through...

but a friend recently did, said it was awful and they'd never connect through ATL if at all possible in the future.

[av8rdave]

17. I'm there weekly at least...going there in another hour.

Don't know much about the parking situation though.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

31. But you don't have a choice.

I hope I will be able to continue to avoid ATL as much as possible.

[av8rdave]

34. I share your desire

One of the most important criteria for trips is that they leave ATL and never go back there until the last day!

[MorningGlow]

18. Guaranteed: Last-minute random gate change

Happened every phking time I've traveled through ATL. x( Do NOT trust the gate printed on your boarding pass. Do NOT trust the gate that the ticket agent tells you. Do NOT trust the Departures list on the monitors. Go to said gate, yes, but check the monitors every 10 minutes (or, better, even more frequently than that), and EXPECT to have to run like hell to another gate before you actually get your ass safely on the plane. Trust.

[stray cat]

22. Only one? I gave up on the 5th change and took another flight

that was suppose to be later but no longer was after all the delays and gates changes on the first.

[MorningGlow]

26. Jay-zus--you win a prize

We did have one flight that had two gate changes once. But five?! Outstanding. :applause:

[mnhtnbb]

19. Atlanta not my favorite but much better than Miami for international travel

I hate, detest, despise and :puke: on the Miami airport.

[stray cat]

21. I hated connections there with Delta there were storms that day but what a mess!

[Initech]

23. No problems out of ATL twice now.

I'm going there again in a couple of weeks hopefully won't have any problems either.

[Parche]

24. new runway

they have a new runway that is making flying easier

i flew in there on my flight simulator (717) last year!! :woohoo: :hi:

[Moondog]

25. Yeah, like any other major airport, it is hit or miss. The question is

what other options do you have? Put another way, Atlanta or .... ?

[pitohui]

28. yeah that's kinda my question

i assume the person is going to have to connect thru ATL anyway but if it's possible to start closer to home, then 1) they save on parking by having a friend/family member pick/up drop/off, and 2) most times, the ticket is cheaper when you have to make a connection, if you start at a hub, there's frequently a hub premium

parking is pushing $10 a day at some airports, it's a ridiculous fee just to have a car sitting there and they take NO responsibility if your car is flooded, stolen, picked up by a tornado or anything, you are literally paying a big hunk of $$$ just to have your car sit on a piece of asphalt for the duration...i resent the extra fee as well

[raccoon]

43. Closer to home options include: Greenville-Spartanburg, Columbia, SC,

Charlotte (not much closer but I'm familiar with it).

Having someone drop us off in Atlanta isn't an option, Greenville-Spartanburg or Columbia, it is.

Thanks for the heads up about the "Hub Premium." They catch you coming and going, don't they?

[Flaxbee]

30. I've never had trouble in Atlanta; flown in and out of there the last

5 years. Used to be a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS coming in from abroad, but they've streamlined the procedure incredibly and it's not bad.

Never had random gate changes.

Economy parking (uncovered) is $10 per day (maybe $12 now).

The biggest hassle is getting there and dealing with traffic.

Really, it isn't as bad as some say. And honestly, flying out of GSP will probably cost you a LOT more. And you'll fly through Atlanta anyway (guaranteed if you fly from GSP). Don't even bother with Asheville, it costs a fortune.

Charlotte is probably the only other decent alternative. There are some flights directly from CLT to Europe; lots of flights go directly from ATL to Europe w/o having to hop thru DC or NYC.

[sgsmith]

33. KATL

Driving around Atlanta can be a real PITA, there's no denying that. But if you're flying international, remember that you have to be at the gate 1 hr before departure. So, you've got to give yourself some additional time.

You can park in the Park-Ride lots for $9 / day. Nice thing about those lots is you're directed to available parking, where there a bus either waiting for you or one on it's way. I usually plan 10 minutes from driving into the park-ride lots to drop off at ticketing. Getting the bus on the return trip is a fairly short walk from baggage claim.

Can't remember the last time I've had a gate change for departure. Arrival can be a bit tricky, because if your flight is early, there may not be an open gate. Its strange to taxi around a concourse a few time while ground traffic is juggled around.

eta: I fly out of Atlanta fairly frequently - four round trips this year so far. So my experiences don't include transferring between flights. But it sounds like you would be driving to ATL and not making transfers.

[DFW]

35. Been in and out of there lots of times.

Never had a problem making connections, and Atlanta is the only US airport in the south with nonstops
to Düsseldorf (unfortunately with Delta--I'd kill for them to have Air France do the route). NEVER take
a long haul overseas flight with Delta. The European carriers treat you far better.

The last time I had a long haul domestic flight with Delta out of Atlanta was in December 2001 (Atlanta
to Honolulu) and it was torture. Delta has only gotten worse since then, and American (practically
compulsory if you live in Dallas) is horrible as well. I took them from Dallas to L.A. on July 31.
that's a two and a half hour flight nonstop. Instead, it took us 6 hours with a refueling stop in
Phoenix (on a 757, which, if properly maintained, can fly 10 hours nonstop).

But as long as you are only making connections in Atlanta, and especially if you are not travelling
on Delta for your overseas fight, there is no reason why it should be a hassle. The airport inter-terminal
trains work flawlessly, and the food offered, while greasy, is better than in many airports.

[KamaAina]

38. I've never been tortured on the ATL-HNL route

back when I used to travel on state business, their agency nearly always booked Delta, and that was often the return flight. Usually not a problem, just loooooooooooong.

Then when I made a presentation in Hot 'Lanta about three years ago, I somehow got bumped up to first class -- first and only time!! :bounce:

[DFW]

39. First class in the USA USED to mean something

I was put up there on the way from Atlanta to Dallas after flying in on Delta from Düsseldorf.

The difference? The seat was wider and the tomato juice was served in a REAL GLASS. Woweee.
Things have gone downhill.

[mentalsolstice]

36. Been there plenty of times

and as we say in the south, we'll have to go through Atlanta on our way to hell.

[RoyGBiv]

37. I actually enjoy it ...

I used to fly in and out of there a lot when I took Delta between OKC and DC. I tried a couple different routes a few times and found myself eventually gravitating toward looking for flights that connected in Atlanta because of bad experiences elsewhere.

It is huge, and if your flight is late and/or you have a short period of time to make your connection, you may have to move fast. Most of the time I've just been on one airline and only had to walk down the same concourse where my arrival flight had dropped me off, so that wasn't an issue.

The only negative experience I had was one time when my connecting flight's plane had "maintenance issues." They changed our plane a couple times, and I ended up having to go back and forth between two widely separated concourses, ending up back where I started and getting irritated that I'd done all that running for nothing. This was more Delta screwing around than the airport itself, though.

One thing I appreciate about it is that there are places to hang out inside the security gates if you have a lengthy layover. Went through there during March Madness a couple times, had a long layover, and spent a comfortable couple hours watching some tournament games on a fairly large screen television in a bar/restaurant.

[suninvited]

40. I was stranded at the Atlanta airport for almost 3 days

I had gone to San Fransisco on vacation and had a connecting flight in Atlanta before I got home (Pensacola, FL). They let me leave San Fransisco, but by the time I got to Atlanta all flights to Pensacola had stopped because of impending Hurricane Georges. (That was a crazy hurricane, it couldnt decide where to go for days) Since they should never have let me get on the plane in San Fransisco, they did pay for my hotel room but I had to spend the entire days at the airport waiting (or hoping, rather) for things to open up to Pensacola.

If you have the time to enjoy it, Atlanta airport is actually quite nice. They had a lot of photograph exhibits and things to see while wandering aimlessly around. I did leave the airport on the second day, when there was no chance of anything happening, and rode the Marta into the city and went to the library and just walked around for a while. One man stopped me on the street and told me I really shouldn't be in that part of town alone, so I headed back to the airport.

[JonLP24]

41. Don't know anything about parking and traffic

I flew into Atlanta on the way to Phoenix and vice versa on my R&R during deployment. I must say the Airport is very confusing to follow. In Phoenix it's Terminal 1,2,3, and 4 in order with a baggage claim in each one. In Atlanta it's a bit different, it's been a few years but I believe they have one baggage claim on one end of the airport and instead of terminals I believe they have concourses. I can't remember much to give any tips but for me it was a very confusing airport for me to follow.

[JCMach1]

42. Atlanta is a good airport... have been through on international

flights many times. Worst thing that has ever happened are those afternoon severe thunderstorm delays.

Last flight into the states from Dubai we had to circle 5-6 times and were on the verge of being diverted to some airport in TN. Other than those sorts of things, Atlanta is not bad.

[dugaresa]

44. i purposely routed my european flights out of Atlanta during the winter

because the airports in my area (NE) typically have delays and from frequent flying I know that can really mess up a vacation or business trip to Europe.

So the only flight I have to worry about being delayed is the one from my airport to Atlanta.

If I can't get a connector out of Atlanta, I choose some other southern airport.