peachfront

Maybe one doesn't have friends in Atlanta, but I thought at one's home airport, the sensible thing to do was to have friends or family drop off and pick up. I realize Atlanta is a pretty large, anonymous, and sprawling city, though, so maybe this "seems sensible on the face of it" solution to me is not workable. It would not be immediately obvious why not, though.

I think it's safe to say that the overwhelming majority of the human race arrives at ATL by air. :-)

PRWeezer

I think it depends on the time of day, where you live & is somebody available for the drop off/pick up. I live in midtown ATL & when I'm free to pick people up my rule is: call me when you get to your gate. Not when you land, when you reach the gate, as we all know there can be a long time in between those 2 things at ATL . Then I'll leave & get there about the time the pax would be out of the airport, given clear traffic. ATL is not user friendly if you have to wait at the curb very long. During heavy traffic, I prefer to drop off/pick up folks from the MARTA Arts Center stop, which is just over a mile away & is sometimes a faster option all around. My sister lives 40 miles north of me, doubt she'd go pick somebody up as the trip is one hour + each way in the best conditions. Though her family rarely flies.

Personally we do a combination of MARTA, Wally Park & Buckhead Safety Cab depending on how long we're traveling & how much luggage we're taking. Or, of course, a drop off/pick up by MrWeezer if he's not traveling too.

mtkeller

Atlanta is really awful in terms of traffic if you need to get from the north side down to the airport. Because of how sprawling the city is, I found that I usually lived in a totally different part of town from my friends. Thus, they'd have to drive ~30 minutes to get to my place to pick me up, and then we'd have 45-60 minutes to get to the airport. If I could get a bus or cab to a MARTA station, that was a lot easier than hassling friends (especially for morning flights, as few of my friends in Atlanta are morning people). My preferred option was to park in my lot at Tech and walk to North Ave Station until I moved onto a bus line that took me straight to Chamblee.

CJKatl

I left the house for a work trip at 6:30 am this morning. What friend is going to want to come to my house, pick me up, take me to the airport, drive back into town during rush hour and then get ready and go to work? I'll be home midweek, which means someone would have to pick me up, and then I leave again midweek, meaning someone would have to drive me back to the airport and then pick me up again later in the week.

Would you be willing to pick me up at 6:30 am on a Monday, do the drive, then go back home so you can get ready for work? Would you be willing to do this twice a week, every week, three weeks out of every month?


The friend who would drive me back and forth would not get reimbursed, but my company will pay for the parking.

It's a no brainer. I'll drive myself.

When I go on long vacations, I do arrange to have someone to bring me to the airport, then take MARTA home, with a $5 cab ride from the MARTA station to my house. Sometimes I walk from MARTA to my sister's house and get a ride home. But it's likely I am the exception on this board, who lives close to a MARTA stop.

I would seriously doubt that very many flyers in Atlanta, or anywhere else, bum rides to the airport for work trips.

gnd

The ride on Marta was long and boring. The ride back was even worse, having to change trains at Lindburgh. Having the girl walk by with a sign asking for money because she was deaf, just made me shake my head. If she really was in need of money,why waste some of it to but a ticket? Odds are that she was not even deaf. I was surprised to actually see a lady reach for her pocketbook. Parking at the station was a rip. I knew that I would be charged for more that 24 hours, but to be charged as much as the first 24 hrs for another half day seemed ridiculous. My fault for not looking into it better. Oh well, at least I am not personally paying for it. Next time I drive and park at Preflight or take a cab to the station.