http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9003507Oh my.
Scratch yet
another item off that rapidly-shortening list of things that the primitives
don't bibble-babble about:
raccoon (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 09:21 AM
Original message
Anyone here had experience with Atlanta airport?
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 (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 09:25 AM
Response to Original message
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 (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 09:27 AM
Response to Original message
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.
FarLeftRage (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 09:30 AM
Response to Original message
3. I found it to be a ****ing maze...
You just can't go directly from point "A" to point "B"...
RebelOne (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 09:31 AM
Response to Original message
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.
HopeHoops (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 10:39 AM
Response to Original message
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.
Oh, I dunno. franksolich has never used an airport he didn't like, other than Logan.
pitohui (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 11:02 AM
Response to Reply #7
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 (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 11:12 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. Well, there IS Newark.
But it sucks for completely different reasons.
Now, franksolich found Newark a perfectly nice airport; and being in New Jersey rather than in Boston, people there spoke English.
Grandma:
hippywife (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 11:56 AM
Response to Original message
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.
gmoney (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 12:47 PM
Response to Original message
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.
MorningGlow (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 01:16 PM
Response to Original message
18. Guaranteed: Last-minute random gate change
Happened every phking time I've traveled through ATL. 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.
mentalsolstice (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-26-09 11:56 PM
Response to Original message
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.
suninvited (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-27-09 01:16 AM
Response to Original message
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.
dugaresa (495 posts) Thu Aug-27-09 09:51 AM
Response to Original message
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.
You know, I've never flown anywhere on business; only on pleasure, and so my attitude about airports might differ from others.
Flying somewhere is meant to be an
adventure; exciting, stimulating, a great opportunity to test one's character. I've never been in an airport I didn't like--other than Logan, which was dirty, decrepit, and full of hideous-looking and hideous-speaking Bostonians--or on an airplane I didn't like.
And I've been in plenty of airports, and on plenty of airplanes.
Using airports, and flying, is great fun, full of anticipation, drama, excitement.