Experience of Atlanta?

By some miracle we've managed to book 7 UC reward flights out to Orlando and back via Atlanta.

I've never flown to Atlanta so would be interested on anyone who can share what it is like.

Thanks in advance

Hi

My limited experience there is 'nice airport, pity about the towm'
But perhaps I'm being unfair. I also seem to remember that EVERY address seems to contain 'Peachtree' (eg Peachtree avenue, road, grove, way, and that there are several of each in the city - which makes it not very user friendly..)

Peter

PS - Yes,I've noticed that it seems the most likely route for Virgin G's. I'm thinking of gating back to the UK through there after a 'music tour' (New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, Mussel Shoals etc

Agreed. The airport's vast but seems very efficient with a people mover connecting all the piers, and the Marta train means it's very easy to pop downtown without a car.

But yes, not much of tourist value although the CNN tour's interesting if you're into TV news and there's the Coca Cola tour if that floats your boat.

go every year with work and find it a bit meh even on a work trip with local friend . They sadly sold the ice hockey team which was quite fun about 10 years back. The town is just a bit soulless to me. Far prefer Nashville, as it seems less spread out. All that said it's a very convenient airport to go to and from by car from a lot of destinations in the south, and it's definitely somewhere we will be considering for a Hilton head visit/drive from. Airport is indeed efficient - although I'd reccomend the priority pass lounge over the de,ta skyclub personally. Better food/drink

I remember flying through Atlanta en route to Savannah and on one occasion we had a late gate change and it was a 20 minute walk to the new gate!! It is a very large airport, but with plenty of shops and restaurants if you do have a wait.
Dick D

Just back.

Airport is huge - not big, but absolutely huge. If changing terminals, leave plenty of time.

International terminal itself huge and like most US airports - seriously boring. Delta lounge is very poor, especially if you have been in the Heathrow Clubhouse

And, sorry to say, previous posters have it dead right about Atlanta. Is there anywhere else you go go?

As an American, I can honestly say I've never heard anyone say "Let's go to Atlanta on vacation!". It does not have much of a reputation here, period. If you're looking for Southern culture, go elsewhere.

I should have said I was mainly looking for reviews of the airport! We are purely using Atlanta as a way to get back from Orlando and still can't believe our luck at getting 7 UC reward seats on the same flight.

Thanks everyone.

We have been flying via ATL with Delta for more years than I care to remember using DL64/65 from MAN. In the days before we could afford business class we would use the moving walkways instead of the shuttle train between concourses just to get the legs moving after sitting in coach for nearly 9 hours, we still do if not in a hurry, there are some interesting art work and displays along the route. Will be trying Virgin flight shortly, it will be interesting to experience the difference. We are regular UC passengers on the MAN MCO service but next month we are going over to the "Dark Side" after finally managing to burn up our Avios points in First to BOS from MAN via LHR with BA. It will be interesting to compare, not used BA since they virtually pulled out of MAN some time ago.
ATL is a very large and busy airport with many restaurants and shops but as stated before the Delta lounges are just places to sit and relax with snacks and drinks. Mind you, flying out from MAN we don't get the Club House and UC service that you get in the "South". Never been into Atlanta, only seen it in the distance, through the haze, from the airport.

as mentioned, the DL lounge in the international terminal has little to recommend it, going into the lounge (via VS AU) was needlessly bureaucratic, i had a wander but it was cramped/crowded, there's an outside area for a bit of air, after a few minutes i grabbed a newspaper and went out to find a nicer seat in the terminal

the intl terminal is clean/modern, there are a few shops but nothing special and some places to eat, food in the italian bar/restaurant upstairs was good with friendly staff, next time i'll just head straight to it (maybe pausing to pinch a newspaper from DL)

We flew there once, a few years ago, and would agree with what everyone else has sai.d Huge airport, and Atlanta itself really isn't worth anything more than a stopover.

Just laughed as I read Peter's comment about so many things called Peachtree - so true!!!!

I went through ATL airport recently and had a long list of problems: Delta had staff ready at the wrong gate, then had nobody to control the jet bridge, then when we finally got off the plane (40 minutes late) the customs hall was absolutely heaving and took upwards of an hour before staff realised we can use the electronic machines intended for american users (all of which was empty) before we could go to use those and speed through. At least 5 people i spoke to in the queue was about to miss their connecting flights because all of the combined delays.

I recently flew Tampa to London via Atlanta.

I think there are around 8 terminals as part of Atlanta airport and of course the international terminal was the furthest away when I landed on the domestic flight, but there's an efficient (free) shuttle service that connects all the terminals.

I'd caution to ensure there is enough time between the connections in case you have any small delays. I didn't time it but it probably took less than 20 minutes from gate to gate. If you need to collect luggage from the inbound and go through customs that will add to the time. I didn't fly into Atlanta so don't know how smooth their immigration/customs process is.

Living in Atlanta 27 years, let me address what everybody is saying here, and there are a lot of very good observations.

Atlanta the city. Atlanta is a great place to live, raise a family, get a job, and conduct business. There is a lot for the average person to do after hours, especially the young crowd. Buckhead, etc. Cost of living is very reasonable, good climate, and a LOT of companies are moving to Atlanta because of the above reasons.

The airport. Yes, we all know Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world. Heck, Delta has around 1100 flights per day, just themselves. And with that in mind, it operates extremely efficiently. The layout is well thought out..and that was back in the 1970's when it was designed, and it finally opened in 1980. I have spent no time really in airports outside the US...but in the US...I would say Detroit is a very well designed airport also. For the traffic Atlanta airport has to put through it everyday, it works great. And the fact there are so many cities you can go non-stop is a major attraction for business.

Now living in Atlanta, because of traffic, airport security lines, etc, you do have to leave a couple hours ahead of time minimum from a lot of the places where people live, especially the northern part of town.

Atlanta as a business destination. A lot of trade shows do come to Atlanta. The World Congress Center is very busy with trade shows year round. And of course you have Delta headquartered in Atlanta, as well as Coke and CNN among others. The fact that you can get to Atlanta so easy, is one reason it is popular with trade shows.

Atlanta as a vacation destination. This is where in my opinion Atlanta does fall short. I honestly hear very few people say, 'Lets go to Atlanta for a vacation'. People do come to Atlanta for weekends to see baseball in the summer, maybe 6-flags, etc, but I never got any sense it is a top vacation destination. Now the north Georgia mountains, different story. It is a vacation destination.

Obviously everybody might have a different sense on their feelings/experiences about Atlanta, but this is my observation after living here 27 years.

Wow 1100 delta flights alone , isn't that as much as LHR does altogether ?

Wow 1100 delta flights alone , isn't that as much as LHR does altogether ?

They claim to have just under 1300.

ATL is Delta - everyone else really just has a token presence! Atlanta may not be a tourist magnet but as mentioned above it's a huge business and conference city and a major hub for the southern USA, so should do well for VS (and clearly already is with 3 daily flights from the UK).

LHR have 1290 flights per day on average.

Source: http://www.heathrowairport.com/about-us ... nd-figures

I had two typos on the original note I wrote that I just corrected.

I was off just a little on the number of flights that Delta has in Atlanta. Last summer it was 1038, as per this article in Travel Skills. It is a great article, and gives a good insight on how Delta operates, especially in Atlanta. I would assume that there will be around 1050 flights this summer.

http://travelskills.com/2014/07/01/behind-scenes-delta/

As the above poster said, VS will have no problem being extremely successful with their Atlanta flights.

As for the poster(s) who are worried about connection times, that happens with any hub operation. Just give yourself plenty of connection time (if you can), and you will be OK. Atlanta has the train system that can get you all over the airport pretty darn fast.

As I stated before, I have been using the airport for 27 years. I know it backwards and forwards. But with any airport, it can have its problems at times, (like summer afternoon thunderstorms), but it does recover pretty fast.

For the posters who were mentioning/asking how busy LHR is, here is a link to the busiest airports in the world for 2014. In 2014 Atlanta was number 1, Beijing was number two, and LHR was number 3.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/26/travel/fe ... port-2014/