<p>My 17-year old son will be flying next week from San Francisco to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to San Jose, Costa Rica. Alone. He will be met at the airport in Costa Rica by the leaders of one of the programs he is attending during the month he will spend in Costa Rica.</p>
<p>He’s flying Delta. I am trying to figure out what he will have to do when he lands in Atlanta. I guess I can call Delta, huh? Have any of you ever flown internationally leaving from Atlanta? On Delta? Any tips?</p>
<p>I suppose I want to know if he has to pick up his bags, recheck his bags, and then clear security again, once he is in Atlanta. </p>
<p>He has not traveled alone before, and has only recently woken from the cluelessness of mid-teenage boys. In other words, not a lot of evidence of resourcefulness to date:). But quite nice. And OK reasoning powers. Bad sense of direction.</p>
<p>I am starting to have the feeling I had when I dropped my 8-year old daughter off at a week-long sleepover Spanish immersion camp that another mom talked me into. As in, aaaaaaah! But D, despite homesickness, had fun. And learned the words for lactose intolerance (lactose intolerenzia…) in Spanish before learning them in English.</p>
<p>My understanding—bags are checked through to destination city. Carry-ons will be subject to search. If memory serves me correctly, the international flights are in a separate building-but airline personnel are helpful in pointing out the most direct route to the next gate. My D traveled alone to study overseas-we had her use her cell and call us when she got off the plane-and talk to us as she traveled from gate to gate-reassuring us when she arrived at the proper gate. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Yes, call Delta. I’ve flown internationally plenty through Atlanta, but this is where I start from.</p>
<p>If the bags are checked through, and they should be, that will be a great help. All the terminals are in the same building, but the terminal is huge, and the connections are below ground. The International terminal is at the far end. To move from one terminal to another, he will need to take the trains on the lower floor (they come constantly) to the appopriate terminal. There are signs - he should be fine. (When my inlaws travelled through the Atlanta airport, they got horribly lost because they didn’t know how to catch the trains. When I went through the next time, I purposely looked, and the signs are quite obvious!)</p>
<p>If he is returning via Atlanta, he will have to collect his bags when he lands, and go through customs, then recheck his bag, and go through security again, and go to the appropriate terminal. It is time consuming. Hopefully he will have an hour and a half or two hours between flights.</p>
<p>People staying in Atlanta (not connecting to another flight) are sometimes taken to busses outside the building, and are driven to baggage claim so they don’t have to go through security again. That gives it the impression of being in a separate building, but it isn’t.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask any questions, and I’ll see what I remember! There was a lot of construction going on last time I was there, and I hope it has helped to make the process a lot smoother.</p>
<p>I believe they are planning to build a new international concourse, but it isnt finished yet. Here is a rather poor picture of (link to) the airport layout <a href=“http://www.atlanta-airport.com/Default.asp?url=sublevels/terminal/termmap.htm[/url]”>http://www.atlanta-airport.com/Default.asp?url=sublevels/terminal/termmap.htm</a>
I haven’t had, nor has my h had the “bus to baggage claim” experience, but he is flying back from Frankfurt tomorrow, so I’ll find out if that occurs.
The biggest hassle is the baggage thing if your s. has to clear customs in Atlanta, so that might be the question to get answered. If he checks his bags at your originating city and they are able to check them all the way through to the final destination, the rest is easy. Getting from one concourse to the next (and internatinal flies out of Concourse E) is easy- on the underground train binx mentioned. Is your son able to travel with just a carryon and no checked luggage? That might be an easier solution. I still can’t recall, though, if you have to recheck ALL bags after clearing customs and then pick them up at baggage claim before getting the connecting flight. that would be a pain, as it would require going back through security. If you call Delta, those are the questions to ask. Delta’s hub is, as I am sure you know, in Atlanta, so they are a doninant force here.</p>
<p>Atlanta airport has the main terminal building and six concourses (T, A, B, C, D, E). The concourses are connected by an underground subway train.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that terminal E is the international concourse. So, he will arrive (probably in Terminal A or B), walk to the middle of the concourse, go down an escalator, get on the subway, ride to terminal E, go up an escalator, and walk to his departure gate. He’ll never go to the main terminal at all.</p>
<p>It’s pretty simple. Just follow the signs (TO TERMINALS B, C, D, & E etc.). </p>
<p>There are TV monitors as he exits his arriving flight so he can find the gate for his next flight. Or ask any Delta agent meeting the flight or at any ticket desk.</p>
<p>Coming back, he will probably have to go through customs (most likely in Terminal E) and then recheck his bag.</p>
<p>Jym, on the way OUT (leaving the country) Alu’s S won’t, of course, have to clear customs. </p>
<p>On the way back, if he comes through Atlanta, he has to clear customs here, regardless if this is the end of the trip or not. Everyone coming in on an International flight has to clear it. It has to do with Atlanta being a main hub, or something. Then you have to check your luggage back in. If you are connecting, it is taken to your connecting flight. If you are not connecting, it is taken to baggage claim at the other end of the airport, where you get to retrieve it again.</p>
<p>The bus only happened to us once each, but it has happened to us on separate trips. It wasn’t very obvious. There is a long, long line waiting to get through security, after clearing customs. Next to this area (to the left) is a door. We noticed people standing in line there, and asked about it. We were told that it was for people not catching another flight, so we stood there, and the bus came and took us around front to baggage claim! Much faster than going through the long security line again. I think it only runs at peak times.</p>
<p>[crossed with Interesteddad - His explanation is very clear. But there are many, many people older than 17 that have trouble! I’ve had trouble myself, often because of something silly - like construction covering a sign, or someone telling me to go a certain way, and someone else then scolding me for going there. It gets nutsy sometimes.]</p>
<p>Sorry for the confusion binx-
I was trying to explain about the final airport before leaving the country (ie the flight TO Atlanta from CA is a domestic flight) but I wasnt very clear. Sorry. </p>
<p>One IMPORTANT thing to tell your s, alu. DO NOT PET THE DRUG DOG if he is sitting at the bottom of the esclalator at the international concourse. That will get ds pulled over and searched for sure. Nice gesture to want to say hi to the dog, but a big No-No. (this is upon returning to the states).</p>
<p>And another thing I was unclear about (sorry again)- Yes, all arriving passengers clear customs when they deplane. I just couldnt remember if we got to hang onto our carryons or if they had to get “rechecked”. Not sure, but if they were never checked, why they’d have to be “recheked”. Seems illogical, but I don’t recall. Binx??? Help???</p>
<p>I live in Atlanta and have spent many moments trying to figure out where I was and where I needed to be in the airport! But it is true - there are many signs, and people all around to ask, to get you where you’re going.</p>
<p>An interesting thing about Hartsfield is that it is one of two airports from which soldiers depart for Iraq (the other one is Dallas.) Guys (and some girls) in fatigues everywhere you look. So your son will have the opportunity to appreciate the circumstances under which he’s travelling.</p>
<p>Alumother, your son shouldn’t have any trouble nagivating Hartsfield. Both my sons flew out of there as unescorted teens without any problems. You’ve gotten good advice on this thread.</p>
<p>Concourse E is international. He will probably land in a different concourse on the flight from San Fran. Transport on the underground train is easy and well marked.</p>
<p>We flew domestic last month out of Atlanta on Delta. For some reason, the flight was scheduled out of Concourse E, which is unusual in my experience.</p>
<p>Clearing customs coming back usually takes a long time (very busy and crowded). The only time we didn’t have to clear customs was returning from Ireland, which has an agreement with the US (the customs check is done in Ireland before returning to the states). Don’t know if Costa Rica has a similar agreement but I’m sure Delta would know.</p>
<p>Be sure your son has a credit or debit card in case the flight is delayed/diverted. DS (age 16, rising senior) was flying home from Colorado last week with two other colleagues from school and their flight was diverted to Pittsburgh due to severe weather. He called me on the cell and left a message while I was trying to reach American (I had just gotten a text message that the flight had been diverted). “Mom…we just landed…in Pittsburgh! We need to talk. Give me a call.” </p>
<p>All those years of hauling the kids around the country on vacations paid off in the subsequent phone and text exchanges. He made the other two kids call their parents, exchanged parental cell phone numbers with everyone, asked if I could add money to his debit card if they had to bug out to a hotel, had an extra change of clothes and snacks in his carryon, and a map of all regularly scheduled airports, etc. I was so proud! </p>
<p>Concur with everyone about going through customs with all of one’s luggage on returning to the US and connecting to a subsequent in-country flight. I have flown through Atlanta many times and it’s not that hard to navigate. Plenty of signs, plenty of people to ask.</p>
<p>Alum-
I work for Customs so maybe I can help a little. Your son will have to clear Customs in Atlanta, as others have said. There’s no preclearance in Costa Rica. Once he’s through, he’ll have to recheck his bag. Clearing Customs can take a long time if his plane arrives at a busy time. Here’s a link for airport wait times from the Customs website
<a href=“http://apps.cbp.gov/awt/[/url]”>http://apps.cbp.gov/awt/</a>
If you plug in the day of the week he is arriving, you can check a chart that will give you some idea of how busy it is on average at any particular time of day. You’ll want to make sure he has a couple of hours layover if he’s arriving at a busy time of day.</p>
<p>It’s a good idea to call Delta and ask any questions specific to the Atlanta airport and their procedure for rechecking luggage after Customs clearance for passengers who are continuing to other flights. They might have agents right there outside of Customs who will take the bags, tag them and send them to the next flight.</p>
<p>Another thing DS found helpful: American (and I’m sure most of the other airlines) will let you check in online up to 24 hours before flight time. DS was able to get his boarding passes printed out from home before we left for the airport. If he can sign up online with his reservation locator number for cell phone text/voice messages about flight delays/changes, that is really useful, too.</p>
<p>An ATM card or debit card? S doesn’t have a bank account:(. I guess I can open one for him, right? Oik. Or else, one of the programs requires traveler’s cheques. That ought to be OK.</p>
<p>patsmom - thanks! Do you think they will let him check his bag all the way to Costa Rica from San Francisco? Returning he will be with a group that he meets up with halfway through the month. It’s just the way there that he has to navigate international travel alone.</p>
<p>And Delta doesn’t even come CLOSE to answering the phone…</p>
<p>we did a joint account, so we could access it while she was away (7 weeks), you know, give her more and more $$- make sure you let bank know he is traveling out of the country, otherwise they will freeze account</p>
<p>it was nice knowing she could get cash in an emergency</p>
<p>well, you can always go to the airport and ask…maybe worth the drive to get all the facts, etc</p>