Changing airlines in Atlanta

KPear6026

Newbie
Jul 27, 2021
1
0
I have many reward points with Southwest Airlines. They do not have any available flights to Pensacola on the day I need to fly. I can however use points to fly into Atlanta then catch a Delta flight into PNS. How hard is it to maneuver the Atlanta airport from one airline to another? I would have approximately 2 hours to complete this...all with a 2 year old and other adults. I do understand that I would need to retrieve our luggage and then re-check in with Delta. Is 2 hours long enough? Has anyone ever done this? Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated!
 
Might be pushing things a bit if you have to exit security to re-check your bags. Might want to consider sending you bags ahead using UPS.
 
Might be pushing things a bit if you have to exit security to re-check your bags. Might want to consider sending you bags ahead using UPS.
Good advice. Once he mentioned leaving and reentering security I too balked at the 2 hours especially with smaller children as well as others in the group no matter their ages. The more than one the longer it takes for all to get luggage rounded up, regroup and off to security all over again. Atlanta pretty darn big but 2 hours would be too close for comfort with baggage going thru security again.
I would suggest using one airline for the trip to keep things more smoothly and efficiently.
 
If you need to change airlines while in Atlanta, you will need to go through security again if you have checked baggage. You will also need to transfer terminals if your connecting flight is in a different terminal.

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world, and it has two terminals: the Domestic Terminal and the International Terminal. Each terminal has several concourses.

To transfer between terminals, you can take the free shuttle service, the Plane Train, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Plane Train runs inside the airport and connects all seven concourses of the Domestic Terminal and the International Terminal.

To transfer between airlines, follow the signs for baggage claim and ground transportation, and then look for signs directing you to the relevant terminal or concourse for your connecting flight. If you have any questions or need assistance, you can ask any airport staff member for help.

It's a good idea to allow plenty of time for your connection in Atlanta, as the airport can be quite busy, and it can take some time to navigate between terminals and concourses
 
If you mean, enough time for you to get from one concourse to the next, yes. There is a subway system connecting the concourses at Hartsfield-Jackson, and moving sidewalks; and if both of these were out of service, you could still walk the distance in less than an hour.