In a recent article by Simon Calder the travel writer of the Independent Newspaper, you can expect to be in the Customs Hall for at least 2 hours at most airports. The US Customs and Border Protection are blaming budget cuts! The top 3 airports with the longest delays are Miami, JFK and Dallas-Fort Worth.

I can certainly vouch for Dallas. Last month on the Texas & New Orleans tour we arrived in the Customs Hall at 4:30pm CT and finally left at 7:45pm CT. Adding on the 6 hours that was 1:45am BST! After a long flight, it’s the last thing you want. Apparently afternoons are the worst.

However, the one good thing was that while chatting in the queue, a group of us got to know each other well.

In September I will be going on a Travelsphere tour which lands at San Francisco!

No doubt some of you will have shared the same experience!!

Cindy

It is a bit of a worry as I am on the National Parks and LBH trip in September from Manchester and we are changing aircraft in Atlanta. According to the latest flight information we have less then 2 hours for the transfer, and I have been informed that Atlanta is a large airport and we will need most of that time to move between the arrival and departure gates.

Maybe someone from 'JUSTYOU' can contact the airline to ascertain what can be done to mitigate the consequences of being delayed?

Regards

Dave

Eric

Always long delays at Detroit but as has been said better to be safe than sorry.

I have spoken with our team that looks after all the flights and they have informed me that where possible they always leave the most amount of connecting time as possible, especially outbound USA because of the immigration process. Unfortunately it's not always possible to have as much time as possible, but we will always ensure that the connecting times meet minimum connecting times stipulated by the airlines and airports. In this particular case, we have a 1hr 50 min connecting time, where the minimum connection time is 1hr 25 minutes.

My colleague suggested that I also share the following with you to make your connection as easy as possible (as taken from Atlanta's Airport website):

International inbound connecting at Hartsfield-Jackson for U.S. domestic travel: These passengers are arriving in Atlanta from a city outside the United States to connect on a domestic flight for travel within the United States.

• Passengers arriving at gates on Concourse F will process through immigration and customs at the Concourse F Federal Inspection Station (FIS). Passengers arriving at gates on Concourse E will process through immigration and customs at the Concourse E FIS.

• After the immigration inspection, passengers pick up their checked baggage.

• After the customs inspection, passengers’ checked baggage is rechecked and transferred to domestic connecting flights.

• Passengers are required to pass through a security checkpoint.

• To reach a connecting flight, passengers will follow signs to the Airport’s people mover system, The Plane Train, which connects the international concourses (E and F) to all other concourses and the domestic terminal.

I hope this information is helpful, but if you have any further queries please let us know.

Kindest regards

Julia

Hi DavidH,

I have spoken with our team that looks after all the flights and they have informed me that where possible they always leave the most amount of connecting time as possible, especially outbound USA because of the immigration process. Unfortunately it's not always possible to have as much time as possible, but we will always ensure that the connecting times meet minimum connecting times stipulated by the airlines and airports. In this particular case, we have a 1hr 50 min connecting time, where the minimum connection time is 1hr 25 minutes.

My colleague suggested that I also share the following with you to make your connection as easy as possible (as taken from Atlanta's Airport website):

International inbound connecting at Hartsfield-Jackson for U.S. domestic travel: These passengers are arriving in Atlanta from a city outside the United States to connect on a domestic flight for travel within the United States.

• Passengers arriving at gates on Concourse F will process through immigration and customs at the Concourse F Federal Inspection Station (FIS). Passengers arriving at gates on Concourse E will process through immigration and customs at the Concourse E FIS.

• After the immigration inspection, passengers pick up their checked baggage.

• After the customs inspection, passengers’ checked baggage is rechecked and transferred to domestic connecting flights.

• Passengers are required to pass through a security checkpoint.

• To reach a connecting flight, passengers will follow signs to the Airport’s people mover system, The Plane Train, which connects the international concourses (E and F) to all other concourses and the domestic terminal.

I hope this information is helpful, but if you have any further queries please let us know.

Kindest regards

Julia

Julia

Thank you for your reply.

I will admit that I was a lot happier with the original flight timings that gave us 3 1/2 hours for the flight change in Atlanta.

Regards

Dave

Thank you for the travel tip.

It is a bit of a worry as I am on the National Parks and LBH trip in September from Manchester and we are changing aircraft in Atlanta. According to the latest flight information we have less then 2 hours for the transfer, and I have been informed that Atlanta is a large airport and we will need most of that time to move between the arrival and departure gates.

Maybe someone from 'JUSTYOU' can contact the airline to ascertain what can be done to mitigate the consequences of being delayed?

Regards

Dave

Dave,

I'm on the same trip and agree the timing is tight. However I have been to Atlanta (although a few years back) and found it a very smooth running airport, one of the better in the US. Hopefully nothing has changed.

Mick

Thank you for the travel tip.

It is a bit of a worry as I am on the National Parks and LBH trip in September from Manchester and we are changing aircraft in Atlanta. According to the latest flight information we have less then 2 hours for the transfer, and I have been informed that Atlanta is a large airport and we will need most of that time to move between the arrival and departure gates.

Maybe someone from 'JUSTYOU' can contact the airline to ascertain what can be done to mitigate the consequences of being delayed?

Regards

Dave

Dave,

I'm on the same trip and agree the timing is tight. However I have been to Atlanta (although a few years back) and found it a very smooth running airport, one of the better in the US. Hopefully nothing has changed.

Mick

Hope everything goes okay for you both. Dave it was a pleasure meeting you in Cilento!

However I would like to reassure David H that I was later told someone who did make the trip had no problems at Atlanta.

In this instance the holiday is one of the Manchester only trips so the entire group will be flying from there so will be 20+ of us doing this connection.

Mick

Last year on a JY trip we had a very short connecting time at Minneapolis and just managed to catch our flight to London. This year I booked a JY holiday flying from Manchester to Dallas/Forth Worth with a change at Atlanta. After I had booked JY reduced the connecting time at Atlanta from a comfortable 3 hours plus to 1 hour 57 minutes. I considered this too short especially as baggage had to be reclaimed and checked in again. Also JY’s own ‘Guide to Flying’ recommended three hours for such a connection. I also found that flying from Manchester it really was just me and even if there were other JY passengers I would not know who they were as there was no meeting your fellow travellers beforehand. I was so concerned about missing the connection and being stuck on my own at Atlanta I cancelled the holiday. The lesson I learnt was in future when overseas connections are involved don’t bother with Manchester but go with the main group from London.

However I would like to reassure David H that I was later told someone who did make the trip had no problems at Atlanta.

Rip

Thank you for the information.

Regards

Dave

Thank you for the travel tip.

It is a bit of a worry as I am on the National Parks and LBH trip in September from Manchester and we are changing aircraft in Atlanta. According to the latest flight information we have less then 2 hours for the transfer, and I have been informed that Atlanta is a large airport and we will need most of that time to move between the arrival and departure gates.

Maybe someone from 'JUSTYOU' can contact the airline to ascertain what can be done to mitigate the consequences of being delayed?

Regards

Dave

Dave,

I'm on the same trip and agree the timing is tight. However I have been to Atlanta (although a few years back) and found it a very smooth running airport, one of the better in the US. Hopefully nothing has changed.

Mick

Hope everything goes okay for you both. Dave it was a pleasure meeting you in Cilento!

Bosuncat

Thank you for the encouragement, hope you are keeping well. As usual very hectic when I retuned to work, already missing the relaxation I had on the Cliento Trip.

Regards

Dave

Thank you for the travel tip.

It is a bit of a worry as I am on the National Parks and LBH trip in September from Manchester and we are changing aircraft in Atlanta. According to the latest flight information we have less then 2 hours for the transfer, and I have been informed that Atlanta is a large airport and we will need most of that time to move between the arrival and departure gates.

Maybe someone from 'JUSTYOU' can contact the airline to ascertain what can be done to mitigate the consequences of being delayed?

Regards

Dave

Dave,

I'm on the same trip and agree the timing is tight. However I have been to Atlanta (although a few years back) and found it a very smooth running airport, one of the better in the US. Hopefully nothing has changed.

Mick

Hope everything goes okay for you both. Dave it was a pleasure meeting you in Cilento!

Bosuncat

Thank you for the encouragement, hope you are keeping well. As usual very hectic when I retuned to work, already missing the relaxation I had on the Cliento Trip.

Regards

Dave

I know the feeling "Deputy Dave" :thumbup: Stay well and hope we meet up on a future trip sometime.

I'm on the Nat Parks & LBH from Manchester on 23rd too. Ever the optimist I'm trusting that our tour manager will be familiar enough with Atlanta airport procedures to get us all through in time. The tour manager who was on the JY Cuba tour I did last year (Carolyn Russell) was superb and knew all the bottlenecks and shortcuts! I'm just hoping that there won't be too much speed required in moving with luggage as although I have 'easy move' cases and am fairly efficient I do have a bit of a breathing problem which means I won't be able to sprint! Promise to pack light folks but somebody may need to stand with one foot on the plane so they can't close the doors while I catch up!!!! :D

Diane (Dee-Ann)

I'm on same trip, I'm sure we'll be fine. Best to get to security asap after leaving the plane, then collect luggage and follow signs to transfers and hand in again.

I've been to Atlanta before and it was fine then, was 5 years ago though.

Are you travelling to Manchester on the morning or staying over the night before, I'm in Bewleys Hotel and another traveller (Mike) is at the Crowne Plaza, we are hoping to meet up for a meal. Anyone else staying over is more than welcome to join us.

Mick

I'm on the same trip Dave.

I did the Golden West Tour through Travelsphere 2 years ago arriving in at Atlanta from Manchester. I didn't hang around getting off the plane and as I remember took about half a hour to clear customs and recheck the baggage.

The worst place to clear US customs was Chicago last year for Route 66 took about 3 hours, but it was a few days before the Ryder Cup. Even John Inverdale had to wait in the queue behind us they wouldn't let the BBC crew push to the front.

Regards,

Steve