I frequently travel to Arizona and although I prefer to opt for American Airlines as my airmiles are stacking up, generally go for the cheapest option or whatever will get me to my destination at a reasonable hour. So in December I flew with Delta via Atlanta.
This review may seem biased and I really don't know too much about the facilities at the airport as I wasn't there long, but I thought I'd share my bad experiences with staff, etc. I know other people reviewing here have had pretty good experiences, albiet several years ago so maybe things have changed, but as you'll read, my journey was pretty traumatic!
My stopover time was around three hours but arriving late I was only left with about two and a half. I have been flying to the United States at least three times a year for the past five or so years, and so have obviously been through a lot of different airports. Never have I had so much hassle at immigration!!
First of all, you should know if you fly through Atlanta how long the queues are compared with other major airports I've been to such as Chicago (ORD), Philadelphia (PHL) and Washington Dulles (WAS). When you get off the plane you usually go line up in the visitors queue. In Atlanta there are TWO sets of lines, that's how busy it is, and you still end up waiting for a long time. My line was going particularly slow with, when I counted, five people getting through in the next line for every one in mine! I was starting to get anxious about missing my flight, but little did I know that was the least of my worries!
Now, I know they are just doing their job, but like I said, the next line went so fast and I've been through a lot of airports, none as ridiculously slow as the guy running my line!
Anyway, I finally arrive a the desk and the guy starts to ask me a lot more questions than usual. I figured that was normal because he'd taken so long with everyone else, and he was just being thorough. I had made the trip to AZ very recently and he was very suspicious about that, and kept looking at an old work visa in my passport which I explained had expired two years ago and I'd travelled a lot since then with no problems.
He then got up and got a folder and took my passport, typed a lot of things into the computer and made me go through some doors for further screening. By this time I was freaking out, this definitely wasn't normal!
Once I got into the room, the doors locked behind me so I could only get out if I was let out, which wasn't about to happen! I had to put my folder on the desk but I didn't see the holder and got yelled at! I sat and waited in a room full of, no disrespect, Mexicans, and finally got seen to. To be fair, the man who questioned me was nice enough and tried to make me feel better. It turns out he used to live where I was headed to and then wanted to chat, when I'd already told him I was in the process of missing my connection.
I was offered absolutely no explanation for why I got held up.
Finally I was allowed to go, collected my bags, cleared customs and was already too late for my flight. When I reached the desk the gate just closed and I was redirected to ticketing. Whilst waiting in line, I was told to use the service telephones for quicker assistance. After a few minutes on the phone, I was told no she couldn't help as I'd just got off an international flight, so I was back in the line wasting more time!
I finally discovered there were no more flights to Tucson, and managed to get a flight to Phoenix instead not too long after, but the VERY RUDE man at the desk wasn't the least bit helpful with regards to my (now lost) bags which were making their way to Tucson. In fact, when he said he would try get them back I reminded him they were in the air to Tucson, and he held his finger up and told me to stop talking!
I can't comment on the rest of the airport, it looked to have some nice shops which unfortunately I did not get chance to look at. You can connect to a lot of places through this airport with Delta, who have proved to have good services in my opinion. But after this hassle and the rude attitude of the staff there would I go back? Never!