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9 lounges in 9 hours at Atlanta Airport

At the beginning of October 2018, I traveled from Brazil to the USA to visit my hubby to be.  The flight back from Boston to Rio de Janeiro had a 9 hours connection in Atlanta. This is not unusual…I mean, I had other long flight connections before, like when I had a 20-hour wait between flights and went to visit the Panama Canal (link to the post here). But anyone who knows how crazy the traffic is from Atlanta downtown to the airport would understand that it is probably not a wise choice to go from the airport to downtown and back without running the risk of missing your flight. Besides, it was an international flight, which has all those security checks…I had no other choice than to wait at the airport.

The good news was that I received a great gift from my hubby (by that time still “to be”) right before I returned home: Access to his American Express Card Lounge benefit! So now I have Delta lounge access whenever I fly on Delta and access to Priority Pass lounges when I fly on other airlines.

All the terminals at Atlanta airport are connected by train after you pass security! I had 9 hours…There are 9 Delta lounges there. Muhaha! In this post, I will review them all!

Lounge Review

Delta Lounge at Terminal F

Terminal F

Supposedly, this is the best lounge. It has an outdoor area, like a balcony, which allows you to breath fresh air instead of the recycled air of the terminal. The day was warm and nice, an invitation to enjoy the balcony outside… I was hungry, so I could have lunch,  coffee, a glass of sparkling wine… all good! But there was still a long wait time for my flight so I was not sure what I would do for the next 8 hours. Right then, my hubby texted me saying: “Hey, there are other lounges at the airport! You should go check out the other ones!”. “Hmmm”, I replied, “This is a very good idea !”!

Delta Lounge at Terminal D (D27)

Terminal D – Party Guy, the never tired unicorn.

Party Guy, my ever companion, and I left for Terminal D.  It is very easy to find your way at Atlanta Airport. The terminals are set in a straight line – There are two lounges in A, one each in B and C, two more in D, and E and T have one each. You only need to take the train in the right direction (and even if you get it wrong, it comes back straight to the beginning!). I took the train to terminal D. The Delta app also makes it easy to find them and it even tells you how far of a walk you have to your gate!

Food and drinks in D are exactly the same as in F, but the view is not as great. I overheard people say this lounge looks like a cave and that it is claustrophobic. After visiting D, this is not my opinion at all! I think it is exactly the same as the lounges at other terminals except for the view of course.

I sat down and had another glass of sparkling wine and thought it might be fun to have one drink in each lounge.  Then Party Guy reminded me that I can hardly keep my eyes open after two drinks and that I might forget I even had a flight if I visited more lounges with this plan, hehehe. So, no more drinks at that point. It was a wise resolution 😉

Then hubby texted me about a social media link from someone who had tried ALL the Delta lounges in Atlanta. Then I said, “OK, challenge accepeted!”.

Delta Lounge at Terminal C

Lounge C

Lounge Entrance to Terminal C – Sky Club sign behind gate sign

At this point, I was posting pictures of the “challenge” in my Instagram account. My followers at the “The Unicorn Rides” -Baladeiro – Party Guy profile started commenting and texting! In terminal C I saw nothing new, all the same kind of food, drink, and decorations. Employes at the lounges are always super nice. I had a cappuccino and ate some carrots, just that I could say that I tasted a little bit of the food at each lounge.

Service Desk  – lounge at Terminal C

Delta Lounge at Terminal B

Terminal B

Terminal B is my favorite Delta lounge in Atlanta! Besides the fact it is huge, it has two glass walls on each side, overlooking the planes. I was there around sunset time (my favorite). In addition, this lounge is full of cool artwork. Whenever I need to fly from Atlanta or make a connection, this is the lounge I will wait in for my flight!

Sunset viewed from lounge B

Art – giant tags on the stairs wall in lounge B

Delta Lounge at Terminal A (A17)

Lounge near gate A17

Fun fact: whenever I got to the lounges other than in Terminal F, all attendants tried to send me back there. They were always saying that F was much better. Then I showed my Party Guy and told that “he needed to visit” all the lounges. Some people laughed at the idea, others thought I was kinda crazy (sometimes I agree with that, haha!).

Terminal A17 was not surprising. I  just found it strangely uncrowded, given the importance of this airport.  Hartsfield-Jackson ( this is the name of the airport) is the busiest in the world!

Lounge at A17

Delta Lounge at Terminal T

Party Guy and the robots.

This lounge was hard to find… it seems to me that terminal T was the forgotten child, maybe it’s because it’s at one of the extremes of the airport (the other extreme is terminal F). The lounge is like a secret hideaway! I saw a sign saying “Sky Club” (The name Delta gives to its lounges) and when I got close there was a small empty area. After thinking “this must be the worst lounge ever!” I realized I missed a small elevator that was right in plain sight! (I’m glad Party Guy stopped me from drinking more!)  I stepped in the elevator and went straight to the lounge. Yay!

The “secret” elevator

This lounge was interesting to visit… it has some artwork: imitations of robots made from several different materials. As I was taking the Party Guy pictures there, one of the employees stopped and looked at us. He wondered how famous he was, haha…Just a kind of “sub celebrity” amongst my friends, that´s it 😉

On the airport train

We were ready to head to what would be our last lounge of the challenge, terminal E. After all, we visited all terminals… But, hey, wait! A challenge is a challenge… And while texting to my hubby,  he asked me if I would make it all. Then I said that only one “letter”  was missing, which was E. But I knew that in both terminals A and D there was more than one lounge. And he said, “So ‘they’ won”, referring to the post he had shown me earlier. “Ok, I said. It is a real challenge! ”

Delta Lounge at Terminal A (Central)

The A central lounge

At this point I was tired. I was also a bit sick from all of the food I was eating! So I only had a bit of the flavored water and relaxed. One of the guests there saw me taking a selfie with the traveler unicorn and asked me if the Party Guy was my travel charm. I told him about our challenge to visit all the lounges and the guest encouraged me to keep going and send him this post when I publish it. Hello, A central lounge friend!

Also, my boarding pass was checked in all lounges I visited and it was starting to look like my passport with so much use! Also, my boarding gate had changed from F to E and back to E again. I had to have my boarding pass reprinted more than once!

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Delta Lounge at Terminal D (D12)

D12 Lounge

Back to terminal D, I went to the other lounge. This time it was D12. It is a cozy lounge, with big glass windows. Far from being claustrophobic, as described in some reviews, I found it just small. I ate a bit of fruit there, took the usual selfies…It is not a bad lounge, just one more lounge – very nice, as usual! This lounge has a nice office space with printers. I forgot to check for the other ones, but this one has printers for sure!

Delta Lounge at Terminal E

Finally the terminal E!

Finally, tired and happy, we arrived at terminal E. This is also a large lounge with plenty of seats and a big glass windows… The decorative panels are one more charm. As usual, attentive staff, free internet, and all the usual food: cookies, dried fruits, pasta, chicken, cheese, drinks, coffee, bread, tea, hot chocolate, muffins. But, as I said, the food is the same in all of them. The difference is minimal, maybe the difference is only the size or the view. But the basics are the same. No complaints about any of them!

Mission accomplished, yay!

I forgot to mention the bathrooms at the lounges. They are super clean and private. Some lounges, such as B and F have a shower area – if your flight is too long or your wait is too long, it is a great feature.

This post is more of a joke for those who are bored at the airport. I can access the lounges at this point because I received this awesome present from my husband (when he was still a husband to be!). He travels a lot for work and has the America Express Platinum card that has this great perk.  By no means do I want to flex about it or say it’s right for everyone. Before having this access,  I was used to waiting at the airport for up to 10 hours straight, reading books, walking around buying souvenirs.  I don’t think anyone needs a lounge, it is just a very nice way of waiting for the flight. If you travel a lot and use a credit card, it is worth checking if your card has Priority Pass as a perk. Priority Pass gives access into many lounges around the world that are similar to the Delta ones I described, however only the Amex cards give you the Sky Club lounge access when you fly on Delta as well as all of the Priority Pass lounges.  A lounge is a little extra comfort, that allows you to put your suitcase aside for a while and relax while you cannot board.

I hope you have fun reading my story, but also hope your flight doesn´t take to long to board;)


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Física de formação, maluca de coração, apaixonada por Deus e por viagens. Viajou uns 21 países (e alguns revisitou), além de conhecer vários encantos de Minas (sua terra natal) e do Brasil. Visitou mais lugares que imaginava e menos do que gostaria, mantendo assim a sede de viajar, porque o mundo é grande, a vida curta e a grana mais curta ainda!