After Dark In ATL......?
 

ATL rant:

Departed ATL on DL153 to TLV . Flight departs at 10:45pm. Tried to visit haloed SC on E, but it is closes at 9:30. I guess they didn't realize that there are still flights departing that night. On the return, after a 13 hr flight on the state of the art 777-LR, we arrive just before 6 am, and THERE IS NO RAMPER to meet the flight and we sit there a few feet from the gate, idling a 777 for 20+ minutes. I don't know how much rampers make, but it's gotta be less then the fuel cost of idling two ginormous 777 engines! Then we exit and go to the customs people, and it turns out that someone forgot to turn on the heat inside on a 17 degree morning in Atlanta. The airport has the ambiance of a meat locker. Arrive at passport control, and there is four,...FOUR! people staffing the 16 counters for hundreds of people getting off this and various other flights.

I am one of the first off the plane, yet I wait 45 minutes for the 30 second inspection of my US passport. During this time, I am wondering if I am in some major international hub, or if we have diverted to some backwater southern airport that normally doesn't receive planes from dem forn coutries.

I grew up in Atlanta, and I always thought of ATL as the highest achievement of the city and the region, but this experience left me feeling like I showed up hungry in a small Georgia town, who's only restaurant closed at 8.

I mean come on, there is plenty of blame to go around: Delta, who's SC closes early at their international terminal and who didn't realize that they had a plane with 300 people on it coming in for the last 13 hours (I know, happens all the time in ATL), to CBP, for gross understaffing, and even the airport people who can't seem to operate a thermostat.

You can spend another billion or two on a 5th runway, or on another new international concourse, but if nobody feels like showing up to operate it before and after banker's hour's, what's the point!

Rant over.

My favourite at ATL was coming in on BA and always having to go through airport security again on disembarkation in ATL in order to GET OFF the plane and leave the airport.

The layout and mechanics of that airport always confounded me.

I don't know why all the DL flyers seem to love that airport so much - the stinky overcrowded and manky Skyclubs, having to behave like a prairie dog popping up and down into tunnels to connect from one place to another, and that's before I even start on the delays and gate congestion issues...

Give me DTW anyday. Or MSP, or MEM for that matter.

Been lurking here for months, and have enjoyed reading and learning. Thank you FT members. You are a wealth of information for new folks to the FF world.

ATL is my home airport, and I couldn't agree more. I love to travel, but coming home on an international flight is always a chore here. Not surprised they didn't turn on the heat. In the summer, hundreds waiting for passport check, no A/C. Only a few people working the many windows they have available. I've seen this so many times in ATL.

Get through there and collect bags and redeposit the bags for the trip upstairs. So the bags are already in the airport, right? Go upstairs to baggage claim, and wait forever. Came in on a flight from BZE once, waited 2 hours 20 minutes till the first bag came up the chute. Have waited many times and wondered what kind of organization system do they have here??

Glad to see someone else isn't all that impressed with ATL. (sometimes I worry that its just me and my own lack of patience with certains things...)

First post over....whew....

Hello, and thanks again, to the FT folks!
Mitzi

Welcome to FT ^

Great first post there. Hope to meet you at the ATL DO sometime in May

I also question the common lack of gate handlers when arriving early. I know DL probably does not care that much about the pax having to wait at 6:00AM, but the fuel cost alone seams like they should make a better effort.

On arriving international, it could be worse. Try Bradley at 6PM.

And the airport is not to blame for lack of staff at immegrations. ATL does provide enough space, that is all the airport can do.

BTW, whoever has that sig line "Welcome to the Gates of Hell. Unfortunately at LAX this is a toe in gate...".

GREAT line.

I deliberately didn't mention the whole bag recheck thing. That will be corrected with the new international concourse/terminal. Of course, it will still be a problem is you wish to take Marta, and perhaps if you want to rent a car, but at least you will be able to exit the airport without going through security.

Actually the customs people really didn't delay me in that my "priority" tagged bags took even longer to get to the carousel, about 1 hr, which was overflowing . The whole thing was a mess with staff throwing bags off of the carousel and barking orders at people to watch out.

They spent a billion on the new runway, and billions on the current and future international terminal, yet what is the point if Delta can't staff the SC, the ramp,and baggage handlers, while Customs can't be bothered to staff immigration, and the airport can't figure out a thermostat???!!$#%$^&!!!

The people working in the ATL international baggage claim area are well known to be rude, .....y and uncaring. The worst that I have ever encountered (and it has been the same for years!). They will yell at passengers as they mope around trying not to do too much work.

I'm not a Skyclub member, so I can't comment on that, but ATL is one of my favorite airports to connect through. I like it for the large variety of food vendors and bars. Chick-fil-A, Q-Doba, Panda Express, and Arby's come to mind as places I like to eat in ATL that aren't in DTW. At DTW, fast food is pretty much limited to Popeye's, Burger King, and McDonalds. DTW does do a decent job with sit-down restaurants and bars, but again, ATL wins just by sheer numbers in my opinion.

I've never understood why ATL doesn't put moving sidewalks along the concourses though! If I have a tight layover, DTW is much better to navigate.

Did you went to Customs Hall by downstairs in the concourse E? I didn't realize know that I was there in ATL from last week. I saw Customs Hall is underway renovations. It has been changes much more bigger space & more convenient these passengers will clearance at Customs & Immigrations. I process through Immigrations & Customs in ATL incoming from ZRH. It was absolutely no problems for me at all. I went through at Immigrations alone and no one more those people didn't stand at the lines by US Citizen. He asked me a few questions where I am stay in Switzerland but, I told him that I am staying in Switzerland for 1 week. Then he stamp on it. I went downstairs at baggage claims. I ask the porter where my bags coming off and he said that I have go to carousel 6. I wait for my priority bags coming off first. I retrieve my bag and walk to the customs agent. I gave the customs forms. I went straight to domestic bags recheck areas for my next flight out.

I remember where I was there in ATL by few years ago incoming from TLV flight. It was old customs hall is no longer existing. Here reason why the customs hall is underway renovations and need to be completion done the renovations. I have a good memory since I came into ATL by very early morning. I didn't realize know that before. Its has been changes for a long time.

Best thing I ever did for getting through Immigration in ATL (or JFK) was enrolling in Global entry. It is great to walk into the hall and see the lines of people and know that all I have to do is process myself at the kiosk!

DTW has a lovely facility... with perhaps the grouchiest GAs and slowest baggage handlers anywhere in the combined DL/NW system. It was my home airport for several years, and I can count on one hand the number of times I got baggage off the carousel with less than a 30-minute wait.

As for MEM, the only good thing about it is Corky's IMHO.

A: I heart Corkys and that is the best thing about flying through there.

B: I loathe that damned colored hallway.

C: ATL is my home airport, too, and I think it's retarded to have to recheck bags. A better system should be put in place, but this is why I never check bags.

+1 on the awfulness of international arrivals at ATL. not only for the going-through-security-even-though-I'm-just-trying-to-leave-the-airport but for the general unpleasantness of the staffers and the routinely long lines at passport control. Hopefully int'l terminal will fix most of these issues.

I agree - $20 a year (5yrs/$100) to pass right through with a quick kiosk visit is well worth it.

I signed up at ATL on a day I wasn't flying in. It was strange getting from the airport front door back to the CBP area where they do the interviews... like a salmon swimming upstream.