Atlanta Travel Forum

Hi Atlanta VT'ers!

I travel in November from Manchester UK to Tucson via Atlanta on Delta with 2.5 hours change time late pm on a Sunday returning with just a 1 hour changeover on a Monday afternoon.

Currently the Airport website is showing arrival in terminal E and departure from terminal B for my inward bound flights and A and E for my return home.

From past experience I expect I will need to clear customs/immigration, collect luggage and then recheck it for onward flight to Tucson but on my return my luggage should go straight through?

As this time I travelling alone I will not have anyone to lean on so really want to get the details really clear in my head before I travel so would appreciate any tips/directions you can give me. What to expect, general directions etc. Feel free to spell out what might be the simplest and most obvious, I'm happy to take it to the nth degree!

KQ

International arrivals are always in Terminal E to clear immigration and customs. The 2,5 hours on your inbound flight should be OK to complete all formalities as you mentioned correctly.

Returning, the 1 hour should also be OK because there are no more formalities to complete-the luggage, indeed, goes straight through. International departures leave normally from Concourse E but not always. I left from Concourse T a few times to S-America.

You already looked at ATL's website. There's a short video about International Arrivals. Did you see it?

I found transiting at ATL quite straightforward, including changing concourses with the "train".
After clearing immigration, go downstairs to pick up luggage, pass customs, drop-off luggage, pass through security and then go downstairs to the "train".

Thanks for that - I'll go check that video now.

Agree with 'nhoolb' about his remarks of Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta.
Here is the link to the video: http://www.atlanta-airport.com/applications/trakaflight/flightinfo_frames.htm
You will find the video at: Guide to Arriving Int'l Passengers.

happy travels
Jaap

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/customer/claims/pack.shtm

TSA is mandated by Federal law to screen 100% of checked baggage. If your baggage alarms and TSA cannot gain access to your checked bag, unrecognized locks may be broken. TSA will not reimburse passengers for unrecognized locks broken as a result of the security screening process.

DO NOT pack the following items in your checked baggage:

Jewelry
Cash
Laptop computers
Electronics
Fragile items (no matter how they are protected)

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.

5 days ago I have been in Atlanta coming from Munich and continued my travel to L.A.It took less than an hour to pass all controls.I arrived at terminal E and continued at terminal T.2,5hours should be absolutely no problem.Leaving the states you don`t have to care about your luggage and it goes usually smooth and fast.Have been several times at Atlanta airport and like it a lot.Everything is easy to find and people are very friendly and helpful there.I am Austrian and even for my limited knowledge of the english language it was easy to find my ways.
Enjoy your travel
regards
Herwig

How was the trip through Atlanta? Hopefully you didn't run into any issues. Atlanta is a BUSY airport but it flows very well once you figure out the basic terminal layout. :-)

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 :) Thanks to all you guys/gals for your help.

Good to know. Our pleasure!
I will be transiting again also this month through Atlanta on my way to South America.

Sorry to hear about the gate change and the delay but I'm glad you didn't have any significant problems at the airport. :-)