atlanta airport

[louieandsusie]

We are getting ready to book our flight down to Jamaica for our April trip. Our 2 options out of Ohare are through Charlotte(US Air-went through last year---1 hr. between flights) or through Atlanta on Delta. Is 1 hr. between connecting flights enough as having only been to Atlanta's airport once and it was for a domestic flight not sure about the layout. Thanks for any advice and April 6th can't come soon enough

[Jan]

We are staying overnight in Atlanta during our next trip. Can anyone recommend a nice hotel
that is close to the airport?

[Homesick Lisa]

louieandsusie

I have those two options usually also. I would pick Charlotte for a one hour layover before Atlanta. Charlotte is a smaller airport and the one hour layover works there. We are flying to Jamaica on April 8 (with kids, so no Couples this time), and have a layover in Atlanta for four hours! yuck! but this flight save me $400 for the family, so a long layover in Atlanta it is for us. So, only my Charlotte experience works for advise this time...

[Gunner262]

We fly out of Milwaukee,Wi. and always on Delta since Air Jamaica left ORD. Never had a problem in Atlanta.Now flying from MBJ to Atl. we've usually been delayed at MBJ but thats usually any flight for us.

[RubiGal04]

Go through Charlotte, it's super easy for connections

[Crabracer]

We have been going through Charlotte for a number of years. We have sometimes had less than an hour to make it from one flight to the other. So having an hour should be plenty of time. When you land in Charlotte, you go directly to the place to put your bags through. Then through security and off to your gate. We also come home through Charlotte. That often takes some time, but at that point, we don't care.

[Margi]

Stick with the Charlotte route. US Air seems more reliable and the airport is definitely going to be smaller than Atlanta.

[softail19]

Definitely Charlotte. Atlanta is a huge airport. Charlotte was a breeze for us.

[Vickyj]

90 minutes is better, but 60 you can do, you just need to move through. You can go on-line to see the layout of the airport. Usually, flights out of Atlanta to Jamaica go out of terminal E. There is a train underground that takes you from terminal to terminal.

[aero87]

I flew through there in october of last year and will never fly through there again. They made us sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes due to air traffic and didn't care if we would miss our connections, which some people did.

[NeedBlueWater]

We've done both Charlotte and Atlanta layovers. We prefer Charlotte, but Allanta wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

Specifically, with our Atlana experience, we only had a 43 minutes between connections and had to go nearly from one end of the airport to the other to do it. I think there was only one more terminal that would have been further away from our connection. The train (aka Automated People Mover or APM) was fast and efficient. We did not even run like O J Simpson in a Hertz commercial and still made our connection without incident. However, if our flight into Atlana would have been delayed at all we'd have been in trouble. We also had a great sigh of relief when we saw our bags on the tarmac waiting to be loaded onto our plane at ATL.

Bottom line, an hour is doable as long as there are no complications along the way.

[scjamaicagirl]

We prefer the simplicity of Charlotte over Atlanta. Seems like the process in more ways than one is much smoother. Been to Jamaica 5 times and Charlotte is out choice!

[Jimnmariann]

We have connected in both Charlotte and Atlanta with 1 hour layover. It is tight but we always seem to make it. You cannot take your time. You have to book it to the next flight but it is do able. We are going the Atlanta route again this year.

[TravelBug]

We just returned from CN and a couple on our shuttle flew through Atlanta and said "never again". Their luggage was lost and they spent all of their first day at the airport waiting for it. I guess every time they go through Atlanta this happens. My suggestion would be Charlotte.

[alliek]

Atlanta has concourses and you have to take a train to each concourse, so it may take a while to get to your flight. I would recommend leaving from Charlotte instead.

[RostaRob]

Louieandsusie, my wife and I are booked for 27 April and were thinking of taking the Portland to Charolette to Montego Bay flight since Continental has decided to cut our usual flight through Houston. Not sure why as this flight was always full the past 6 years. Anyway my question to you is did you take it before? I see that they have several flights a few hours apart. My fear is that they have us getting in around 10ish at MB and that they might reschedule it to a later flight in the day. What has been your experience? Any help from you or anyone else would be greatly appreciated as I am getting nervous because we normally have had our flights booked months ago in the past.

[cabingirl]

One hour in Atlanta would be a little tight. It would be do-able if everything went well. The problem would be if you're delayed, and unfortunately ATL is known for flights landing on time but getting to the gate late because the plane has to wait for the gate to be ready.

Once you're in the airport you'll probably have to change terminals using the train that runs between them. The train runs frequently but it does add some time to your journey.

I don't know Charlotte airport, though, so I can't really compare for you. Sorry!

[oxbgirl]

One hour is probably good for the flight to MBJ...Charlotte is smaller than Atlanta so it might be easier to make the connection there. What about the time between flights coming back? That's when you need more time because you have to go through immigration and customs.

[louieandsusie]

Thanks for all the input. We are going to try the Atlanta connection---our flight leaves Ohare at 5:40 AM. On the way back we are taking the direct AA flight.

[negrilfans]

Jan,

We live about 80 miles south of Atlanta, and used to take the Air Jamica 8:30am flight. We always have gone up the night before, and stayed at the Rennaisance (sp ?) Concourse Hotel. It has a 24 hour shuttle that leaves, and arrives every 15 minutes. It is about a 5 or 10 minute ride to the terminals. It is situated at the edge of the airport, and has tremendous views of the runways, and whole airport. It is still very quite after 11:00pm or so, even though it is so near the runway. Look it up. It is a great place to stay.

[IACouple]

We had a 42 min layover in Atlanta this past Nov. We were able to get from concourse C to E and hit the restroom and still not be the last people on the plane to MBJ.

I don't like doing it that fast, but it can be done if everything is on time.

[Beach-bum]

We had the option of a 40 min layover or 90 minutes. We took the 90 minutes. It gets us into Montego Bay later. But, that's better than missing a flight. Running through airports is no fun.

Life is good

[Jan]

Negrilfans,
The hotel looks perfect. We always stay in a hotel the night before, have dinner, and celebrate the start of our
vacation. Thanks so much!

[louieandsusie]

RastaRob:

Last year we flew through Charlotte(we miss the early AJ direct flight for sure). We had an hour layover and it was more than enough time as the airport is layed out pretty nice. We took the 5:50/6 AM flight from Ohare. Looking at flights this year it seemed like the early US Air flight out of Ohare was getting pretty full and the cost of flying through Atlanta seemed cheaper on Delta while leaving Ohare at almost the same time. So that is the route we are going to try, what the heck---always up for a new adventure We had our return flight booked a few months back but just booked our flight down within the past couple of days---watched prices daily. April 6th soon come

[RostaRob]

Thanks louieandsusie. I guess I am going to book our flights tonight and hope that US Airways doesnt change the departure out of Charolette too much...but if they do what the heck...we'll still end up at CN. We are very excited about getting there earlier than in the past. We've always had a 4-5 hour layover in Houston through Continental so an hour or so sounds awesome. I've been watching prices also and our flight hasnt changed even $1? Still much higher than last year. Has anyoe else out there recently booked a good flight from Portland, Oregon?