OP, you could have entered through one of the domestic terminals with TSA Pre still open, and boarded the airside train to your departure gate/terminal.
Originally Posted by
Adstring
It's quite poor inbound too. Arrive at international terminal but then all the shuttles leave from domestic. This involves a landslide transfer on the worlds oldest bus with all your luggage. Not sure if there's a way to do this on the connector train, but I was told I'd need to be connecting to a domestic flight to do that.
No US airports have airside transfers on INTL inbound unless arrivals come from one of the pre-cleared airports.
From a logistic standpoint, ATL is a great airport. A lot of good eats too, as mentioned. The INTL terminal spacious, which is rare for a US airport, especially.