Atlanta Hartsfield Airport

In my long experience of travelling from the UK to the US Atlanta is the worst most inconvenient airport to arrive at. The whole business of having to recheck you luggage after picking it up is a farce. What makes it worse is that if you have any duty free alcohol in your carry on luggage it has to be transferred to you checked luggage at this point - only the floor is available to do this transfer! Then you have to go through aggressive security checks with your hand luggage - even though you have just come off of an international flight where you have been thoroughly checked. Is this because US officials do not trust 'foreign' security(?) - even though London is distinctly more thorough than when you leave Atlanta (eg. where were the checks on liquids carried onto planes?). When you finally get your luggage in the terminal you now have to haul it up onto another train to reach the rental car desks - it took us an unacceptable 2 hours from landing to reach this point. I suspect that the basic problem with the airport is that it was never designed to cater for international passengers - which it doesn't.

This is a crazy airport departing out of Atlanta was fine but arriving from overseas was ridiculous. Once you have waited for an age at immigration and then waited for your baggage you start to think you are home free but no. The signage and information is very poor and before you know it you have security personnel shouting at you as they take your checked baggage off you and it disappears. Then for you it's shoes off x ray the full routine as they do another full security screening. Then it's on a train that takes for ever to get back to the main terminal and another wait for your bags to appear. But don't believe the carousel number it's a lucky dip at this stage. We arrived on a Thursday afternoon at 3pm from Europe. It took 2 and half hours before we got out of the terminal. We shall avoid in the future.

We have used ATL for a dozen years or so flying Delta to international destinations as well as to the East coast. The operation works quite well. We have found ATL Immigration to be efficient and our luggage is delivered to us promptly; security rescreening back into the US at ATL can get crowded but we've found that it moves along and gets us to our connection in a timely fashion. The international terminal is great. Many shops and restaurant options; duty free shopping has everything you need. The trains between terminals are quick and efficient.

The only airport that security screens you after you land. Shoes off x ray the full routine and forces you to wait for your bags twice. Once from the plane and then a second time at the terminal. All liquids are confiscated as you pass through security to get into the country. This includes duty free - perfume alcohol and shower gel. What do the authorities think you can do with these items since they are freely available in the terminal. It's blatant job protection for the sake of pointless tasks. The final issue is that the baggage claim is in a public area so anyone can walk in off the airport and pick up bags that don't belong to them.

Big and seemingly always crowded but with lots of facilities including many many shops and eateries. We were fortunate enough to be traveling international Business Class so got free use of the Delta Sky Clubs. There are several in the airport but only the one in Terminal E (I believe) has showers and there are only two so there can be a wait. The train between terminals can get crowded but they are frequent. Lines for Immigration moved quickly though they didn't open until 5:30 a.m. so when our flight from Brazil arrived early (about 5:15) we had to wait on the plane until 5:30 until we could even disembark (and then there was the long walk to actually get to Immigration). On our return (again for a connection) we could not find our flight leaving 2 hours later on the departures board and the agent at the airline customer service desk said that sometimes flights don't make it onto all boards at the same time.

Arrival and transfer on July 2 - no queue for immigration.! I was ushered straight up and the immigration officer was polite and welcoming. However that very positive start was then offset slightly by a 30-minute wait for my suitcase to arrive on the carousel. You've got to faff about with a tube train getting between terminals - it's not all under one roof like Minneapolis or Memphis is - but with a four hour transfer window that was no problem. The range of eateries and shops was all pretty much what you'd expect. The only downside I'd flag up with ATL as a transfer airport is the absence of free wi-fi.

We will avoid using this airport on future trips. They continuously move your departure gate and may or may not notify the passengers. Then when you are late because you did not know they take no responsibility for it. We ran all over that place due to constant changes. It is very poorly run although I have to say the staff are friendly and helpful for the most part. We missed our connecting flight because they changed the gate and we did not know and then they left early. We were however put on standby for the next flight 2 hrs later and got on it. We saw this happen to others when we were returning home and spoke to a lot of people who had the same frustrating experience. I felt the problem was totally the airport and others said they always have problems with Delta.

The security process from arriving off an international flight is the worse I have ever used or seen. It took 45 minutes to clear security then another 30 minutes for the baggage to be transferred to arrivals. I will never use this airport again if I can avoid it.

ATL's major function is providing domestic connections for Delta passengers and it does this fairly well with an efficient train system between concourses. OTOH the concourses are long and Delta customer service (such as it is) has been greatly cut back. Earlier this year I encountered a situation where the wrong type of aircraft had been provided (after a long delay and cancellation of flights before and after ours) and the ticket staff were less than gracious in dealing with the fallout. The food selection remains relatively unhealthy and the largest food court (outside of the main terminal) tends to be crowded. The selection of reading material is generally pretty awful but typical of Atlanta in general. CNN is loud and inescapable and the airport generally provides even less opportunity for peace and quiet than the average. Departure security is centralized and unpredictable but not quite as timeconsuming as it was 2-3 years ago. The "secret" North terminal alternative to the main terminal security has been closed--this had provided much faster screening because it was known only to people using the T terminal and carriers other than Delta. Baggage areas have been remodeled but there no longer is security to check tags. Beware of taxi operators who approach you in the baggage claim as they charge more than the ones in the queue outside. Expect taxi drivers to not know anything other than major hotels - bring mapquest-type directions to your destination. Long time Atlantans don't know much of the area either. Marta rapid transit service has gotten slightly better although the process of paying for fares with cards is cumbersome compared with the old token system. Marta is the best way to reach major hotels downtown in Midtown and Buckhead. Customer service is generally horrible in the airport although better with carriers other than Delta. Despite many years of living in ATL and much international travel I always cleared customs elsewhere (my int'l travel was mostly to Asia and on United so ATL was rarely feasible) my understanding is that international arrivals are variable and often unpleasant. The international terminal which used to be dismal is apparently being redone. Delays are common at this airport - the weather in the Atlanta area is volatile with downpours and thunder storms being quite common in Spring and summer plus Atlanta gets the back end of hurricanes in the fall. Often things will seem mild or only drizzly at the airport but will be violent somewhere in an nearby flight path and this will cause delays. Some delays occur because of problems elsewhere in an airline's hub/spoke system and this is particularly true of Delta which dominates the airport. Morning departures are more predictable and less prone to delay than afternoon or evening flights.

I was wondering if what I experienced was a one of a kind or a bad day. Apparently not. In Atlanta US Immigration Officials just get up and walk away when there are huge lines and don't come back for a long time and say nothing. One official yelled at a passenger for standing in line the wrong way and pointed at her like she was a dog. After about 200 people deep in line they finally opened some more windows to move us through. Then there is the re- screening to get out of the airport. I was screened three times to get on the plane and now I have to go to get Xrayed when I am getting ready to go home. The random selection is also pathetic.