Atlanta Airport

[Tink522]

I'm visiting a friend in Atlanta this weekend and have heard that this airport is horrible. What's so bad about it? Also, my flight home leaves Monday morning @ 7:30 am. Do I need to be there 2 hours before or is 1 hr enough time?

Thanks!

 

[curiouser]

Its just a very large, major airport. It gets very crowded and you have to utilize an underground transport system (like a mini subway) to get between terminals. I love ATL, just allow your self plenty of time to get to your gate if you've never been there before.

 

[foolishmortal]

I'm visiting a friend in Atlanta this weekend and have heard that this airport is horrible. What's so bad about it? Also, my flight home leaves Monday morning @ 7:30 am. Do I need to be there 2 hours before or is 1 hr enough time?

Thanks!

It's busy but it being horrible I don't know. As for the underground mini subway deal..I guess I am just used to it since we have it here at DIA as well.
Agree it takes awhile to get from 1 terminal to another but 90 minutes to 2 hours should be plenty of time.

 

[safetymom]

I don't think that ATL is that bad. Just allow plenty of time. If you don't have to go through security it won't be bad at all. I would allow more than an hour at your home airport since they start boarding 1/2 hour before flight time.

 

[ead79]

The Atlanta airport is the busiest airport in the US (every year it goes back and forth between ATL and O'Hare), so that's probably why people are annoyed by it. Since your flight leaves during a prime business travelers departure time, I would get there 2 hours before the flight. 9 times out of 10 it really is necessary to arrive at ATL that early given how busy it is. Better safe than sorry, IMO.

 

[CarolA]

Security in Atlanta is fine and you should move thur it.

However, depending on your airline checking your luggage can be an adventure. My boyfriend and I waited over 40 minutes two weeks ago to check luggage on AirTran... (Apparently the fact that they had LOTS of passengers was news to them!!!) This was at the skycap, you don't want to know what the line was like inside.

 

[lisafromgeorgia]

I'm a consultant living in Atlanta and travel out of Hartsfield every Monday morning. You need to be at the airport no later than 6am for a 7:30am flight. The security line will be long on a Monday morning as the majority of travelers are on business. If you are checking in at the airport and have bags, be there as early as possible. Good luck!

 

[safetymom]

CarolA, did you go to the small AirTran location to check in? Or maybe they don't have that anymore. It was never busy compared to the main check in line.

 

[mickeyboat]

And weather really affects that airport. One delay causes another and another, and before you know it, you have been sitting in the airport floor with two kids for four hours running out of sitckers and snacks. Sorry, I was having a flashback!

Denae

 

[rgf207]

Very large airport with a lot of flights in and out. Weather really affects that airport so any hiccup causes delays. I try to avoid ATL whenever possible

 

[PlaneJoy1]

I'm a consultant living in Atlanta and travel out of Hartsfield every Monday morning. You need to be at the airport no later than 6am for a 7:30am flight. The security line will be long on a Monday morning as the majority of travelers are on business. If you are checking in at the airport and have bags, be there as early as possible. Good luck!

Monday morning is one of the busiest times to fly out of the Atlanta Airport. You will need to give yourself at least 90 minutes to check-in, get through security and to your concourse/flight.

Atlanta is very well laid out and has a lot of signage and people waiting to help.

Have fun!

 

[F1Julie]

I'd give yourself 2 hours just to be safe. The worst thing about the Atlanta airport is there is only one security location that everyone has to go through. Many other airports have a separate security checkpoint for each concourse or terminal.

 

[Barb D]

You have to take a shuttle bus to/from the rental cars -- none of them are at the terminal. So you have to leave extra time for returning rental cars and then getting to the terminal and then getting through security and THEN taking the subway thing to the gates. Very time consuming, and LONG if you're carrying a heavy carry on.

 

[Tink522]

Thanks for all the replies. I appreciate all the advice. I guess I have to suck it up and be at the airport 5:30ish Monday morning!

 

[Ticket Man]

They have a Moe's! Eat at Moe's!

 

[laurie31]

Hey, I'm one of the people who posted about a bad experience in Atlanta on another thread. The airport itself is clean and even had some nice art that my kids enjoyed looking at (blown glass and such). The signage is good and there was a decent selection in the food court. There were plenty of clean restrooms as well - very nice, in fact. However, we (and the other 2000 people in line with us) were treated rudely by security, and after we'd been up nearly 24 hours, we didn't really appreciate it very much. (and I'm not joking about 2000 people. There were nearly 200 on our plane and within moments of our landing, large planes from Norway, Denmark, Greece, and somepplace else had landed and we were all in line together at customs and immigration and then security. Hello? If you KNOW that many people are landing at once, get some more screeners on the job - it was 4:30 in the afternoon there, not exactly a weird time to have people working. Sheesh!)

However, as everyone has said the airport is HUGE, one of the largest in the world I think, and so it takes a LONG time to get from point A to point B. You will need the whole two hours.

 

[wendy46001]

Whats horrible is that starbucks is hidden in one far out corner of the airport...

 

[giddygirl]

I can see why someone would say it's horrible, from a comparative standpoint.
Compared to MCO, for example, ATL is slightly dated and when I was there this past weekend, quite dirty.
Personally, an airport is an airport, so don't expect lavish accomodations, and you'll be fine!

 

[bettyann29]

Just got back from WDW on Monday and we had a layover in Atlanta.. I dont think the airport was that bad at all.. I come from a large airport which is DFW so not sure if that helped but we didnt have any problems at all.. We went right thru security with no problems.. didnt take long at all..

on the other hand I will never take another flight that I have to do a layover.. that part was horrible because coming back from WDW we had to be at the resort at 3:45 for a 6:45 flight.. so we had to wait around for that.. so we stayed at Orlando airport till 6:45 than we flew to Atlanta and had a layover for about 2 hours and then on to DFW.. We got home around 12:30 am.. Then I had to get up at 4:30 for work.. I will fly straight thru in future.. The waiting around and flying was just too much for me..

 

[Skatermom23]

I love the Atlanta airport. It is large but easy to find your way around. I say you need to allow yourself two hours before a flight regardless of which airport you go to....