TRIP REPORT: A Quick Atlanta Transit – Still for the Friends

A Quick Atlanta Transit
TRIP REPORT: Still for the Friends

Welcome back to Atlanta. With things going as they are, how is the Atlanta transit experience if you’re not connecting on a Delta/SkyTeam flight? 

• Still for the friends
• But first. A trip to Liverpool, North West England.  But why?
• To the… daytime Heathrow run?
• Lounging around with Cathay Pacific and American Airlines
• AA87 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare (Main Cabin Extra)
• Into the USA, A Scammer Taxi driver and the Crowne Plaza O’Hare
• The Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• Airplane Art Extra from the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• Exploring a craft at the Museum of Contemporary Photography
• The Gundam Base, Chicago
• Random Chicago Eats
• Off the Camera Roll – Views and Images of a Windy City
• An Early Return to O’Hare and the American Airlines Flagship Lounge
• AA882 to Chicago O’Hare to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport (Exit Row)
• A Quick Atlanta Transit
• BA226 to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport to London Heathrow Terminal 3 (World Traveller/Economy Class)
• Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory and The Journey Home
• It’s Still for Friends

Exiting the aircraft, I headed up the jetbridge and found myself in familiar-ish territory – given that the last time I was in Atlanta was just after a volcano blew its top, and traffic had been disrupted.

Welcome back to my Nemesis Airport.

I think I know where I’m going. 

I also managed to miss a flight on the way back here, too – something I was not keen to repeat. With an hour and 15 minutes to do the transit, I should have plenty of time…

… providing ICE weren’t playing silly games.

As Atlanta itself had up to four-hour delays in the days I was travelling, I was hell-bent on avoiding going landside unless it was the last thing I could do. Thankfully, Atlanta Airport had extended its shuttle from the T Gates to the International Concourse (or the F Gates), which would mean I didn’t need to reclear security.

Small blessings for sure.

This direction?

It was a minor adventure finding where the train services went from, but eventually, I found it.

This direction. 

Down we go

You can go your own way. 

Dipping downstairs, there wasn’t a long wait for shuttle service (something to be welcomed for again), which called at all concourses.

Off we go. No D as in Dixe though. 

Moving, just keep moving, Till I don’t know what’s sane…
I’ve been moving so long, the days all feel the same… (Supergrass – Moving)

And the screen turns around. 

Even if there was a delay between D and E concourses that caused some people with tighter connections saying it was causing them anxiety.

When you’ve missed a flight at this airport… you’ll know real anxiety, sweetie.

F Gates.

Arriving at the F Gates, I headed upstairs to the departures level. My first thought was to make sure that I needed to re-check and make sure my luggage was travelling over. My second thought was that a lounge to cool down in for a few minutes before boarding would be a wonderful thing.

F Gates. Rather posh. 

I’m glad I’m on the this side of the TSA lines. 

Thataway to the gates

After checking with the staff that things were on their way over and that I didn’t need to do anything else, I started to make my way to the lounge.

Also checked where my luggage was… it had long since arrived at the F Gates.

In Terminal F, that would be Club ATL on the Mezzanine Level in Terminal F. That’s all well and good… except it was closed by the time I got there for the evening.

From the Mezzazine.

Ferme. 

Club ATL Grab-and Go

The forbidden lands.

I’m glad I spent time in Chicago before departure in a lounge. If this were the only stop, it would have been very disappointing. At least the water bottle I had was topped up, so it was all good for the comparatively short transit.

Delta 757

The waiting Boeing 777-200ER awaiting its return to London. 

Gate art.

Looking at the gate setup, they had room to play with, so each zone had its own queue for people to line up in. That’s good in theory – except there are still only two agents to handle the entire boarding sequence. As such, it was a very managed boarding affair.

I can’t fault it, to be honest. Plenty of space, and few people milling. It did help that the flight to Heathrow that evening was lightly loaded.

As such, priority boarding was fully enforced.

When it came to Zone 2, I went forward. With my boarding pass and biometrics confirmed.

With that, it was time to head east.

Next

BA226 to London Heathrow Terminal 3, in World Traveller. But where are all the Teletubbies?

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