Atlanta Airport

[bobcat12]

Hi everyone,

We will be flying into Atlanta from Manchester on a Virgin flight soon, and then picking up a Delta flight to Miami.

Can anyone who has flown the same route or similar advise on how far apart the two gates are likely to be, do you walk or catch a train after collecting your baggage?

We have around 2.30 hours so I think that should be fine, I just want to have an idea of the process because I have heard it is a very busy and large airport with two kids in tow I want to be prepared!

[Shani]

We stopped at Atlanta last year - the only indirect flight we've ever done. It was really easy. We had a long delay leaving Manchester and thought we'd miss out connecting flight. We didn't even though we had less than an hour. We had to move swiftly, but Atlanta airport couldn't have been easier to transit through. There is a train that runs the length of the airport (and it is huge) but it's really fast and easy to navigate.

[sam7]

Not done the same route but we did Heathrow - Altanta - Orlando via Delta last year, the airport is big but very very well organised. Most travellers are connecting there so staff are on hand every step of the way to point you in the right direction. Immigration was very fast and very efficient, immigration staff were friendly and even made jokes. We were from landing plane to sitting in the departure are in under 45 minutes.

[dinosue]

We did this route at Christmas... really easy ,just take the train underground to the terminal you need after dropping your bags... really quick and easy... we cleared customs in under an hour

[Mexy02]

Great info here flywith.virginatlantic/g...s/atlanta.html

[unixgirl]

I just came back through Atlanta at the weekend. Don't forget that when landing in Atlanta you will have to clear immigration and collect your luggage which you then drop at transfer conveyor belt before going to your next gate.

[Susu]

We flew Manchester - Atlanta last April, then on to Tampa. We had 2.5 hours between connections which should have been plenty. Unfortunately, whilst we landed on time, four other international flights landed just before us. Over two hours queueing for immigration and we missed our connection. Put on standby for next flight by very stroppy Delta staff (stressed because they had loads of these to sort). Next flight was full. Just about got on the one after that (3 hours after original connection). The Orlando bound passengers weren’t so lucky as there was no availability on stand by until the following morning and so they were stuck in Atlanta for the night. No idea about what it would have been like for connections to Miami though.

Hopefully this won’t happen to you and it should be a low frequency thing. But worth being prepared for the possibility. Not that there’s a lot you can do to prepare but if you're aware it might happen, it’s not such a shock in the unlikely event that it does.

On a more positive note, I would add that the year before that we did the same route with a 1.5 hr connection - which we made by the skin of our teeth (hence the longer planned connection last year).

It’s quite quick on the plane train between the international and domestic terminals. I’m guessing 15 mins most between the most far apart terminals. But that is a guess from memory.

Hope all goes well and you have a fab holiday.

[mushumadness]

2.5 hours to clear customs last time we went through there
The plane we were catching had already nearly finished boarding by the time we got to it

Oh and hang on on the train between terminals that thing sets off fast and flattened a number of non holding on people in our part