Atlanta Airport?

[MsHershey]

I will have a plane change in Atlanta. I fly in on Airtran and have 45 minutes to change planes to Southwest. I have heard that the Atlanta Airport is huge. Will this be enough time to make this change?

 

[lylone]

If your flight is on time, you should be okay. You probably won't have time for a bathroom break in the terminal if your connecting flight is on another concourse. Another concourse means down escalator, ride a subway, up escalator. And the concourses are long.....

 

[maxiesmom]

It can be done (I've done it), but I don't recommend it. The one time my family did that short of a layover we had maybe 5 minutes after reaching the gate before they started boarding. And that was with our first flight landing early. We had been though Atlanta many times and knew what we were doing too so that was another positive.

If you do decide to try it, once you are off of the first plane, don't stop for anything until you reach your next gate. Use the toilet on the first plane. Have a few snacks in your carry on bag in case you get hungry. And try to get seats as close to the front of that first plane as possible--you don't want to be stuck behind a bunch of pokey people who have no where important to be and take their time getting their stuff and getting off of the plane.

 

[OKW Lover]

You can easily do this in ATL on Southwest/AirTran. You most likely won't have to change terminals and only have to walk from one gate to another.

 

[sskem96]

We did a plane change on Airtran in Atlanta once, and I will neever do it again.

We were flying home from Orlando. It was raining and we were late taking off from MCO. Our plane ended up landing 10 minutes before the next plane was supposed to take off. We thought we would just be running across the hall to jump on the next flight. Nope, it was in a different concourse. We ran as fast as we could, but the plane was long gone by the time we got to the gate. This was around 8pm and the next flight home wasn't til 10am, so we had to have our sitter stay an extra night with the kids, find a hotel at the last minute, and I had to call in to work the next day.

If there are other flights you could switch to if something happens to make you miss the one you're scheduled for, it would probably be ok, but if you're flying into a small airport with limited flights, make sure you're not on the last flight of the day!

 

[MsHershey]

Our plane lands in Atlanta at 1:30pm. There are 9 other flights after this flight that we could potentially be bumped to if we miss the connection. Does this change any of your decisions? Our other option is a flight leaving at 6:00am which puts us getting up at 1:00am. Doable but ugh!

Thanks for the info thus far.

 

[DebbieB]

I'd go for it. Most of the AirTran/SW flights are on C, some are on D. I usually fly Delta and connect in Atlanta pretty often, I like connecting there because there are usually a lot of options if there are problems.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

It's doable. However, if you value sitting next to your family at all, I wouldn't recommend it at all since you might not make the initial boarding call.

 

[maxiesmom]

Our plane lands in Atlanta at 1:30pm. There are 9 other flights after this flight that we could potentially be bumped to if we miss the connection. Does this change any of your decisions? Our other option is a flight leaving at 6:00am which puts us getting up at 1:00am. Doable but ugh!

Thanks for the info thus far.

How many of you are going? Are there any young kids? This would all factor into my decision. If you end up missing your flight they will put you on the next flight that has available seating. That may not be for a while. And everyone may not be able to fly on the same flight, let alone sit together.

 

[MsHershey]

How many of you are going? Are there any young kids? This would all factor into my decision. If you end up missing your flight they will put you on the next flight that has available seating. That may not be for a while. And everyone may not be able to fly on the same flight, let alone sit together.

Myself and my 26 yo daughter so booking it across the terminal is not a problem.

 

[sskem96]

Since there are 9 other flights after yours, I'd do it. It was just DH and I when we went and missed our connection. Even running, it took us a good 10-15 minutes to get to the other concourse, but our problem was that there weren't any other flight options for us that night. The whole experience just left us with no desire to ever visit that airport again! With several flight options following the one you're scheduled on, I think you should be fine.

 

[maxiesmom]

Myself and my 26 yo daughter so booking it across the terminal is not a problem.

That is good! Just be as close to the front on the first plane as possible. Then, once in Atlanta, if you have to change concourses, use the subway. It is much faster than walking. Trust me, I walk very fast and the subway is still way quicker than I am.