Newbie Question: int'l arrivals @ ATL
Apr 2, 2019, 5:34 am
#16
Join Date: Mar 2016
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I don't know this for a fact but surely one of the options at ATL Concourse E is to simply ask the recheck desk to reroute your checked bags to ATL baggage claim after going thru customs? There are many reasons one might not be able to continue travelling the original route
Apr 2, 2019, 5:58 am
#17
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However, you don't want to call DL's attention to the fact that you won't be taking the last segment. In prinicple, they could insist that your ticket be changed with you paying the change fee and fare difference, although this doesn't tend to happen in practice unless you do this often, and in that case DL would have different ways of penalizing you.
Apr 2, 2019, 8:52 am
#18
Join Date: Jan 2016
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If OP arrives at E and rips off tag, I don't think DL or TSA can push them / their luggage onto the plane. There must be a way to leave when bag is in-hand in terminal E, and it's too big to fit through X-ray. And if there isn't, I really wonder what this situation escalation looks like.
Apr 2, 2019, 9:06 am
#19
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If OP arrives at E and rips off tag, I don't think DL or TSA can push them / their luggage onto the plane. There must be a way to leave when bag is in-hand in terminal E, and it's too big to fit through X-ray. And if there isn't, I really wonder what this situation escalation looks like.
Apr 2, 2019, 1:35 pm
#20
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Apr 2, 2019, 1:36 pm
#21
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If OP arrives at E and rips off tag, I don't think DL or TSA can push them / their luggage onto the plane. There must be a way to leave when bag is in-hand in terminal E, and it's too big to fit through X-ray. And if there isn't, I really wonder what this situation escalation looks like.
For those folks who don’t understand the ATL layout, if you arrive in F and have a connection, you’ll be going through the F customs and recheck there (or walk out). If you arrive E and are connecting, you go through customs in E. If you are staying in ATL and arrive in E, you walk > 1 mile to F and go through customs there and claim your luggage in F.
Apr 2, 2019, 2:23 pm
#22
Join Date: Apr 2011
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If OP arrives at E and rips off tag, I don't think DL or TSA can push them / their luggage onto the plane. There must be a way to leave when bag is in-hand in terminal E, and it's too big to fit through X-ray. And if there isn't, I really wonder what this situation escalation looks like.
It's not a risk I'd be willing to take.
Apr 2, 2019, 2:34 pm
#24
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I have to think there's a method to get around the normal exit process. Legally they can't force you to go through security or have your bags scanned. They can do it when you're departing on a flight as a condition of accessing the plane. However they can't refuse to let you exit with your bags if refuse screening. It'd be a 4th amendment violation. Im sure most don't care, but there has to be a process for those that would.
OP, if you land at E I'd simply tell them you're wanting to hand off bags to family before continuing on. If they give grief, point out you weren't expecting any issues since you have to collect bags.
OP, if you land at E I'd simply tell them you're wanting to hand off bags to family before continuing on. If they give grief, point out you weren't expecting any issues since you have to collect bags.
Apr 29, 2019, 1:20 pm
#26
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We tried this at the end of 2017. Really cheap GSO - BRU tickets but had a 8 hour layover in ATL on the way home.
Since we live in RDU anyway, we decided to book a refundable WN ticket and planned to just get our bags at ATL and then re-check them at the WN counter instead of DL.
Unfortunately there is no WN counter and despite our efforts they refused to do anything except recheck on to GSO -- so we ended up SkyClub hopping for 8 hours.
I also mistakenly thought this would work because at any other US gateway I've gone through it would, but ATL is the exception
Since we live in RDU anyway, we decided to book a refundable WN ticket and planned to just get our bags at ATL and then re-check them at the WN counter instead of DL.
Unfortunately there is no WN counter and despite our efforts they refused to do anything except recheck on to GSO -- so we ended up SkyClub hopping for 8 hours.
I also mistakenly thought this would work because at any other US gateway I've gone through it would, but ATL is the exception
Apr 29, 2019, 1:36 pm
#27
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We tried this at the end of 2017. Really cheap GSO - BRU tickets but had a 8 hour layover in ATL on the way home.
Since we live in RDU anyway, we decided to book a refundable WN ticket and planned to just get our bags at ATL and then re-check them at the WN counter instead of DL.
Unfortunately there is no WN counter and despite our efforts they refused to do anything except recheck on to GSO -- so we ended up SkyClub hopping for 8 hours.
I also mistakenly thought this would work because at any other US gateway I've gone through it would, but ATL is the exception
Since we live in RDU anyway, we decided to book a refundable WN ticket and planned to just get our bags at ATL and then re-check them at the WN counter instead of DL.
Unfortunately there is no WN counter and despite our efforts they refused to do anything except recheck on to GSO -- so we ended up SkyClub hopping for 8 hours.
I also mistakenly thought this would work because at any other US gateway I've gone through it would, but ATL is the exception
Apr 29, 2019, 1:43 pm
#28
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I assume if they arrived at F the bags still would have been tagged to GSO, but they could have just walked out with them (which is how it would have "worked"). From the story it appears they arrived at E and had their transiting baggage routed to customs E, from which there is no way to exit customs with checked bags (and where it appears Southwest doesn't have a transfer desk to accept bags).
May 14, 2019, 1:59 pm
#29
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 16
This statement seems impossible, legally. U.S. citizen has bags in hand, in the airport, in the city he wishes to remain in. What authority (TSA / local police / etc.) could possibly force someone to check a bag?
May 14, 2019, 2:18 pm
#30
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The airport isn't set up for it - E customs is exclusively for transit customers / there's no way to get a suitcase out of there without checking it as customs exits back into the sterile area. When terminating in ATL before F was built, you would claim your bags in E, clear customs, re-check large baggage to be deposited on a carousel landside, and re-clear security to take the train to the north/south terminals.