Revisiting major hub airports in America (2 of 2)…read more It would be hard to change Atlanta's rating. ATL is so big that this update is mostly about changes that are incremental. I initially remember ATL as 5 long parallel concourses labeled from A through E. They had gates on both sides and Delta, the hometown airline, seemed to be present in most, if not all of them. Today, the map has two big newer pieces. There's Terminal T and there's the International Terminal. I've never used the International Terminal, but it sits at the eastern end of the airport and is actually connected to Terminal E. However, vehicular access is from the other freeway, after I-75 and I-85 have split off to create that sort of wishbone. International flights are gaining more prominence at ATL, with more carriers coming here. Sadly, the days of the quad-jet seem to be in our rear view mirror and seeing B747s, A380s, or even A340s here is a thing of the past. They are instead coming to ATL with newer and more efficient, but less interesting, twin aisle two engine aircraft. I recently used Terminal T for the first time. I always wondered what it featured. They evidently needed more domestic gates, so they snuggled it up to the roadway closer to the Main Terminal such that you only have gates on one side - so essentially a "single loaded" corridor - with windows looking out onto the roadway on the other side. I used it for a United operated flight. Things are much like they've always been. At first glance, clearing TSA seems to be cumbersome, but they are handling lines more efficiently. You just might be moved to an auxiliary line you didn't know about instead of queuing in the main centralized one. Atlanta's climate is mostly mild, despite a hot and humid summer. That said, delays due to weather are not as common as up north. If they occur, it's because of an unusual system in the Southeast or because of storm activity in adjacent Florida. I'm sure cancellations here can get messy and have a ripple effect given how many flights this airport handles. Most of the action at ATL seems to be improvements in ancillary and supporting functions. There are some large new parking structures. Those structures across from and flush with the Main Terminal just weren't enough. A separate rental car center is now operative, complete with another small dedicated rail system taking customers there. Gone are the days of rental agencies scattered in makeshift buildings in parking lots scattered around Camp Creek Parkway! That said, ATL now has yet another train in addition to MARTA and the Plane Train connecting the concourses inside the airport. Incidentally, MARTA service to the airport is a big asset and I really enjoy beginning and ending my trip to Atlanta with a MARTA ride. Mostly, ATL is a well oiled machine. It works. The train system inside it makes it seem more manageable and even "smaller." The concourses are sort of utilitarian. They make no architectural statement whatsoever. They don't have moving walkways within them ... at least not the ones I've used. There are some quirks at this airport. The people watching ought to be interesting, except that there will be quite a few "golf pukes," given that that is a big deal in this part of the country and these glad handers are typically en route to sell their business customers one thing or another. There will be Chick-Fil-A locations as well as airport-sized versions of downtown's The Varsity. Those ancient neon "Fly Delta Jets" sign that seem to be a staple of this airport are thankfully still there and you might see one from your plane window. Lastly, this airport's code has given the city one of its nicknames - "the ATL!" For a person who used to ride their bike to LAX to watch planes land and take off when a teenager, never did I think this would be my hometown airport for a few years! It may not have LAX's geography and uniqueness, but, in "the city too busy to hate," this is "the airport too busy to take a breather." ATL is just that - big and busy.

ATL gets a lot of grief for being such a massive, busy airport, but honestly, I think it's one of…read morethe easiest major airports to navigate once you understand the layout. The Plane Train is probably one of the best things about it. It's quick, runs constantly, and makes getting between the terminals and concourses incredibly easy. Even if your gate changes or you have to get from one end of the airport to the other, it really doesn't take long. The lounge options are another huge plus. There are Delta Sky Clubs throughout the airport, along with the (AMEX) Centurion Lounge in Concourse, Admirals Club, United Club, and The Club ATL. Depending on your airline, credit card, or lounge access, there are plenty of places to get away from the crowds, grab something to eat, work, or just relax before a flight. There's also no shortage of amenities. Restaurants, bars, coffee shops, retail, duty free, spas, Minute Suites, and plenty of places to grab something quickly before boarding. You could easily spend a long layover here without running out of options. For an airport this large, I find the layout pretty straightforward. The concourses follow a logical pattern, signage is easy to follow, and once you're through security you can access every concourse without having to go back through again. Is it busy? Absolutely. It's ATL. But for the volume of people moving through here every day, the airport functions remarkably well. As a frequent traveler, ease of use matters to me, and ATL delivers. Great lounge options, tons of amenities, a fast train system, and direct flights practically everywhere. Definitely 5 stars for me.

So my wife and I were returning to ATL after a trip to Peru, Chile and Argentina…read more - In Lima it took 15 minutes to get through passport control. - In Santiago, 5 minutes. - In Buenos Aires, over an hour. So when we return to Atlanta and go into the Global Entry line. They have installed facial recognition software, so you stop in front of a camera and take off your glasses. Bing! The message come up to proceed to the Immigration officer who asks my name and waves me through. Total time: 30 seconds!!! We ony had carry on so walked through baggae claim to the exit where a CBP officer waved us through. Easy peasy. It could not have been quicker. Bravo to CBP and the Hartsfield-Jackson team. So why not five stars? ATL security people would not let us get on the plane train to the domestic terminal unless we had a connecting flight. They forced us to exit at the international terminal, where it takes a minimum of 10 minutes for an Uber since all Ubers wait in a holding area at the domestic terminal. So we took one of those nasty taxis lined up outside the international terminal. Dirty car. Smelled bad. Unhelpful driver. Hartsfield-Jackson --- y'all can do better than this. Boo!

Passed through on a connection to see the advertisement that featured my sister, Dr. Liz. I like…read morethe international terminal for its convenient security lines, upscale shopping and quick dining options.

Pretty sweet airport. I got here an hour early at 6:30am and ran a couple of miles around the…read moreparking lot. My friend has been flying since he was a teenager and invited to join him on his Cirrus 4 seater. No TSA. Just walked up to the plane, loaded our luggage and flew for 25 minutes around ATL, Stone Mountain, Lawrenceville, and Athens Airport. The cruising altitude was less than 3,000 ft so very scenic. Stone Mt had a pretty rainbow over it. In the evening the flight plan was reversed. The plane practically flew itself but I was also very glad to be in the hands of a good pilot. Enjoyed this trip immensely. We flew into Athens to tailgate and enjoy the Dawgs take on the Kentucky University Wildcats.

Great place for plane spotting. Lots of places on the field to get training if you are interested…read morein flying. The playground is in good shape and there is a restaurant next door to make it a fun day out with the family.

This is a quality service that the airport provides and a very convenient way to get from parking…read moreto the airport. I highly approve and wanted to give a high five and thank you to Atlanta Airport for providing such a convenient and kind gesture to the travelers of Atlanta and Georgia. 5 stars and two thumbs up! Thank you!

Wow .. loved the sky train to rental car terminal. Very easy travel and quick one too. It's a huge…read moreairport and it takes 15-20 mins to go to rental car terminal. .. very frequent service too. Thumbs up

I like flying Delta. They are a great airline (my favorite of the three legacy carriers), their…read moreplanes are usually very clean and the flight attendants through the years have always been pleasant and professional. Their WiFi Sync is not very easy to connect, it would be nice if they made it almost automatic, once you log into their WiFi. Their entertainment choices are good but their TV series options are limited. Overall not a bad way to fly.

Flying out of Atlanta back to LAX, my wife and I had the opportunity to fly in Premium Select class…read moreon an Airbus A350-900. It was worth remembering (documenting). By maintaining Delta Platinum Medallion level, I'm able to purchase a Main seat (not Basic) for me and a companion, and almost immediately upgrade to Comfort+, if they are available. That's been my M.O. for most flights, sometimes (very rare these days) being upgraded to F.C. the day of. So when I got a notification 2 days before our flight to LAX, that we had been upgraded to Premium Select, I was excited, mainly because it was something new (knowing that Premium Select is different than first class). We also got to pre-order our dinner for the 4 hour flight, right on the app. Premium Select was tied to boarding group 2, and had 40 seats. The A350-900 has Delta One lie-flat seating (1-2-1 configuration with total of 32), so after that group 1 boarded, it was our turn. Premium Select is configured in a 2-4-2 configuration, meaning that a Delta One seat is about twice as wide as a Premium Select. Main economy is configured as 3-3-3, so that missing seat's width is distributed across 8 seats: the width is pretty much the same as an economy seat. Where it is quite a bit better is the pitch (the space between you and the seat in front of you) and the existence of manual built-in adjustable leg rests and foot rests. It made a big difference for me, being able to elevate my legs and feet. There are three buttons to control it (with the 3rd button controlling the recline). One negative is that the space in front of you to store a small personal item, is a lot smaller (shallower) than a typical seat. My wife had to put her duffel bag up on top because it wouldn't fit. Other added feature included the aforementioned dinner (similar to what one would get served on a first class seat), noise canceling headphones, bottled water, pillows and blankets for comfort, and a Tumi amenity kit. The seatback screen seemed bigger as well, though there were continuing problems with the playback of movies throughout the trip, with inconsistent sound (a lot of static) from the headphones. Wifi worked fine, so used that instead. This flight had a total of 10 flight attendants to take care of the 300 plus passengers, and they were friendly and attentive. Because of a problem with the flight attendants not arriving on time to the gate, we were delayed 1 hour. But nobody seemed to be in a hurry (LA seemed to be the final destination for most), and the flight ended up being very pleasant. Our checked bags did come, though to the wrong marked carousel. But it was nice to be home, taking a Lyft back to Long Beach.

After watching the planes take off every night for the past month and looking at the satellite view…read moreon Apple Maps I've noticed the planes are taking off the opposite direction of the arrows on the air strip. I'm just curious if the paint has been updated or if they're going the right direction on take off and landing? Not a complaint just curious.

Love using this place over Charlie Brown and the personnel and facilities here are truly great! I…read morefly about 6-10 weeks with my schedule and this place along with Elevation Chophouse are the joys you want to come home to every time!

Formerly Charlie Brown Airport. You're only going to be in this place if you fly a private jet with…read moreone of the following companies or people: Suntrust Coca Cola Koch Bros Home Depot Mr. Creflo Dollar There might be more to this list but that's who I know off the top of my head. Very cool place to visit if you have a way in. That I know of, it's not open to the public. It's located just of I-20 and there isn't much else in this part of town. It's mainly for members of companies that need a quick private jet for meetings and such.

Good little airport here. Flew out and back in from the Koch/GP hangar where the guys are extremely…read morehelpful. Outside the facility is not well lit and the nearby town isn't the safest, so beware. Very efficient for business travel and we never have runway or other non-weather issues that affect departure or delay.

One of the world's busiest airports and one of the worsts…read more.. Dirty, info boards that dont work... Employees still have 0 people skills... Barely any working outlets or any outlets available in C , E terminal.. same goes for other terminals. Bathrooms ... smells like a family skunks reside in there... Only good thing is a few new eateries opened up and a few new kiosks open recently. Someone was playing games with our gates... our gate changed 4x today let's say first C5, then E2, then E 42 then back to C5... you cant walk to C terminals you have to go to the tram to take you! By 5am I had 5000 steps.. No explanation.. people in wheelchairs had to be ushere so many times!! . I had asked for assistance (nicely) This man had an attitude!! Like why?? The C terminal was dirty it wasn't cleaned from the night before...

Opened in 1980 as part of the modernization of Hartsfield-Jackson international airport, Concourse…read moreC now consists of 34 gates, named smartly with prefix of C and a number, which actually signifies the ordering of gates. It seems logical but have visited multiple airports where the ordering gets inconsistent, another letter is added after the number, or worse, a situation where you are going to gate 14, and you reach 16 and then realize it starts over at 1 going up to 14? Technically, this review is for Concourse C since there are only two terminals at Atlanta, with the domestic terminal having multiple concourses (C being one of them). We had the opportunity to fly into it from LAX on a red-eye Delta flight. The main entrance/exit is in the middle of the concourse with Gates C21, C22 and C30, C31 surrounding it (there are no Gates C23 - C29). Note all the gates in Concourse C are used by Delta Airlines. We needed to get to Concourse F to catch our connecting flight. We saw signs stating that it could be reached by walking 25 minutes, but ended up taking the Plane Train, which took only 4 (even after stopping at the in-between concourses first).

Terminal D is my least favorite terminal. It is recently renovated but there is not enough seating…read moreat most of the gates. It is bright and clean due to the renovation. Many of the electrical outlets are not working, and people are trying to find a working outlet to charge their phones. This seems to be the only terminal that doesn't have a Starbucks.

This terminal was fine. Lots of shops, vending machines and restaurants to buy snacks and food at…read more Signage was clear and easy to follow. Restrooms were clean and updated. Water fountains were available for use. The ceiling was exposed in parts of the walkway between gates which was weird...