Atlanta connection time & assistance at airport

Hello..Since American completely changed our schedule and weren't able to accommodate us we needed to cancel. Purchased tickets with Delta and have never flown them to St Martin. We are flying MKE to ATL to SXM in February. Our outbound connection from ATL to SXM is only 54 minutes. Is this doable? I recently had knee replacement surgery so long walks and running aren't really an option at this point. Does anyone know if the Atlanta airport offers assistance? I also read that Atlanta uses trains to transfer people from one terminal to the next. Does this work pretty well? We are used to connecting in Charlotte. Any input would be appreciated. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

I can not speak on the assistance part, you might look HERE for that. It appears you should handle that with Delta when making reservations.

The train system works very efficiently and is underground so there will be escalators you will be taking and some walking involved. If Delta allowed the booking with that connection time, they must think it will work. Anything less than an hour would concern me some but there seems to be a 20 minutes or so of extra time built into schedules. If everything happens on time, you should be fine.

I prefer ATL over CLT of late, although it is a much bigger airport.

Delta's domestic to international minimum connection time in Atlanta is 40 mins. You can request wheelchair assistance and they will take you from gate to gate. There are elevators that take you from the terminal level to train lever and back up. Just make sure to have Delta note on your reservation that you will need wheelchair assistance.

Thanks. I forgot about the elevators.

Thanks everyone. I will keep my fingers crossed. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> It's still 4 months away so hopefully I will have a better perspective of how my knee will handle brisk walking at that time. At least I know that it's possible to get assistance if it's necessary.

Jenni,

I wouldn't press the knee recovery. Simply request wheelchair assistance with Delta as wilsonck recommended. The wheelchair assistance is far more timely originating from the gates (as opposed to ticketing).

Having just flown on Delta from JFK to Europe with a badly broken foot, I contacted them and made arrangements for a wheel chair outbound/inbound. I figured it was better to have it noted on my tickets now rather than later and was told I could always cancel when we got to the airport-boy was I glad I had it available to me.

Agreed, I would go ahead and request wheelchair assistance now. I have done it several times for my mom. I don't know if it was absolutely necessary to request it ahead of time, but it has always worked out well when we did. I see no advantage to waiting until you just show up at the airport and no DISadvantage to requesting it ahead of time.

Do you think they'll give me a problem because I'm 49 years young? I fear they'll look at me, because you are unable to tell visually if you look at me, and think are you kidding me? You need a wheel chair?

Does anybody know if I will need any additional documentation going through security with having the titanium knee? Will I set off any alarms?

Thanks everyone!

I don't think they are allowed to question whether you need wheelchair assistance or not.

Don't know about the security question.

No, airlines do not ask for documentation that you need a wheelchair. Simply call their 800 number a day or two ahead of your flight and request a wheelchair. They are more than happy to assist you. They'll note it in your profile and have one available for you when you check-in for your initial flight, when you deplane for your connecting flight and when you deplane at your final destination.

Just so you know, if you have a Frequent Flyer account with the airline it is likely your "wheelchair" status will remain in your profile for future flights until you cancel it.

Thank you...that's good to know. Unfortunately I'm going to have to have the other knee done in the next year or two. I really appreciate the input of this forum! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

My father has had three hip replacements and two knee replacements. He tends to set off the alarm...


However, it's no big deal as they simply wand him down.

There really is no reason to wait until a couple weeks prior. I look at it as one more thing to forget. Just call and have them annotate your reservation.