Atlanta

[Vaughn]

  Never been there, amazingly, well, I drove through once back in
1979. Here's my question:

  Our 18 year old daughter will be arriving ATL domestically
on Delta, then switching planes, Delta to Moscow. Is this
going to be easy for her? She has a 3 hour window.

Thanks,  Vaughn

[acrzybear]

I've flown from my local airport in Texas through Atlanta several time (including Europe.)  I found it very easy to navigate and efficient (well as far as the U.S Government can be)

[jb]

Vaughn,

Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson (ATL) is one of American's best "big" airports.  Comparitively speaking it makes DFW and ORD look like monsters from the black lagoon.  It's one of the easiest to navigate, I'm sure your daughter will find her way around with little difficulty.

Here is a link to the terminal layout.
http://www.atlanta-airport.com/Default.asp?url=sublevels/terminal/termmap.htm

[Daveman]

Yes indeed it will be easy. Atlanta is one of the easiest airports to navigate.  Since her inbound and outbound flights are both Delta, she will probably arrive at concourse A or B, and catch the train to concourse E to fly to Moscow (it's all easy).   

Each concourse is long and straight with gates 1-31, odd on one side, even gates on the other (don't remember exactly 30, 31, 32 total gates) with the train located the center. So tell her to go to near gate 15 of the arrival concourse, and she'll see the big escalators going down to the train on BOTH sides. The direction is clearly marked, for example, if she arrives on concourse B, she goes to the escalator, one side of the concourse it sign will be clearly marked "Concourses C, D, E"  and the other side will be marked "Concourse A, Baggage Claim, Ticketing".   She simply goes down the correct escalator, and grabs the train which arrives and departs every two minutes.  Once on the train, the announcer will clearly state "The Next stop is Concourse C..." etc, with digital readouts, and well placed signs. 

She really should have no problems at all in Atlanta.  It's laid out like this:

|-|-|-|-|-|     "|" represents concourses, "-" is the center walkway and train tube.  Very easy to navigate, and there are also many shops and cafe's to browse during her layover.

She shouldn't have any problem at all finding her way around.  This is my home city, I know this airport inside and out, backwards and forwards, from working there during my college years to logging 200+ flights in/out...

best wishes for her trip,

Dave

[Durk]

      Vaughn Dman pretty much gave you all the info. I will add this is a primary
Delta hub and they seem to get a little bit of special treatment. They move planes
over a gate or two and sometimes do not post the change. Speaking from experience
the airport is super easy to get around in compared to Pittsburgh. I had some time
to kill and walked around it a good bit my first time there. Very well marked compared
to Pitt. and much bigger. She should have a great trip.

                                                                                      D

[Vaughn]

Thanks, everyone. She's already started packing.

I'll get my own first taste of ATL later this month when Elvira and I
will meet Dasha, the young and attractive subject of my "Dasha"
thread, as she arrives to spend her summer in the USA.

Hope everyone's well here. I've been scarce, moving and all.

My best to all of you.

Vaughn

[Vaughn]

Our daughter returns later this month, alone. SVO - ATL - CLT.
When she lands in Atlanta she WILL have to handle her checked
bags, go thru customs (after passport control) and then re-check
the same bags for her domestic connection (even though it's the
same carrier, Delta) right?

I'm dreading this. She's all of 98 lbs soaking wet, and she'll likely
be pushing the weight limit w/ 2 larger bags....

Suggestions? Can a porter/skycap help her, and at what point?

Like her Mama, Lenara is prone to test thresholds. Last summer
she waltzed through customs at JKF solo (at 17) toting five
bottles of vodka, several salted fish, and other assorted Russian
vices. Is Atlanta's customs crew tougher and more thorough?