Dianne47

My daughter and family are meeting me at ATL on Wednesday May 18 at around 1:30pm. I'm flying in the previous night and staying at an airport hotel with a shuttle. They are driving from Columbus on I-85 northbound, our flight departs from the Domestic Terminal on Southwest at 3:10pm.

We're unfamiliar with parking options at ATL. They will be very tight on time (daughter's husband is military and cannot leave Fort Benning until 11:30am). I need to know which parking lot will be fastest for them to get to Southwest check-in and how to get there from I-85 northbound. They are 2 adults and 2 young children, they will have 2 pieces of checked luggage. Both adults usually get pre-check. The car will be parked for 5 days.

From the beginning of planning this family vacation I've thought they don't have enough time to park, check in luggage (we will all have boarding passes already), get through security and make the flight. If there are long lines at check-in or for security, I'm very concerned they might miss the flight. To top it off, my daughter told me today that one of their checked bags might be overweight and she might need to put some of their items in my one piece of checked luggage. So I cannot check in my bag earlier than they get to the ticket counter.

Any help FTers could provide that will help them choose the "fastest" option for parking would be greatly appreciated. I hope my worries are groundless, any local knowledge is much needed.

zitozac

Fellow Columbus resident here. I can usually make it to ATL airport in 90 minutes. Coming from the south, you will take exit 69 I believe. (It'll be Riverdale Rd/Domestic sign.) After getting off the ramp you'll get in the far right lane to access the airport. Stay straight for North parking and you'll come up on options for Economy/Daily/Hourly. Economy is obviously the cheapest. Prices are $12/$16/$36 per day. Daily is covered, Hourly I believe is the bottom couple of levels of the parking garage and is covered, though I've never parked there. I usually just park in Economy and walk across the street to the bottom level of the terminal, up the escalators and you'll be in the baggage carousel/check in area to save time trying to find a spot in the deck. However, last time I flew out a few weeks ago it was raining pretty heavy so we went ahead and parked in the Daily garage and went up to the level that was directly across from the terminal, so we just walked right across the lanes of traffic and into the main level of the terminal. Check in counters will be to the left when you walk in. Security checkpoints will be to your left after check in. One to the immediate left behind the check in counters, and a larger main checkpoint in between the North and South Terminals. Security can be hit or miss. I flew out two weeks ago on a Thursday around 9AM and there were about 4 people in front of me in the North checkpoint (immediately behind the check in counters down the hall to the left.) They have signs with estimated wait times for all 3 check in lines.

Dianne47

As a follow-up, my daughter ended up parking at an off-airport location, "Pre-Flight." They were able to get to the terminal on the parking shuttle, lots of traffic to the terminal on a Wednesday at 1:30pm.

We self-checked their bags using the WN kiosk, then went through security using the hard-to-find pre-check lanes. I say hard-to-find because we were re-directed 3 times by TSA employees, due to my granddaughter being in a stroller.

My daughter had much difficulty at security with the supplies they have to hand-carry (child with medical conditions). Inspection took at least 20 minutes and the items were taken to 3 separate locations for testing, out of sight. But that's a post for a different forum.