For some, airports are the worst places on Earth, something akin to hell. Their über clean floors, sometimes strewn with sleeping-in-between-passengers, their gleaming lights and general sterility instils a certain fear.
For others, they are places of hope; places from which a better life for a few weeks is possible. That is until things go wrong. Delays can set you back for hours or even days.
Overpriced food and drink, which is a fraction of the price in the outside world, eats into the travel budget. And sometimes, these places elude all reason, like that which happens at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the US, where some passengers are required to pass through security not once but twice.
Hartsfield-Jackson has for more than 20 years been the busiest airport in the world, the primary hub of Delta Air Lines.
It serves more than 1,000 flights a day to 255 domestic and international destinations and sees more than 107 million passengers every year.
You can only imagine, then, just how big the airport itself is, even featuring its very own railway system. A convenience for many, this train takes passengers to baggage claim and the T gates, though could leave some in a bit of a quandary.
The problem comes in connecting passengers. Domestic-to-domestic or domestic-to-international connecting passengers do not have to clear security after their initial checks.
The story is different if you happen to be flying international to domestic or international to international, however.
A confusing rule, is those passengers are required by Hartsfield-Jackson Airport to clear security a second time before being allowed to continue their journey.
The train itself happens to take passengers to baggage claim and to the T gates, which could see you end up back outside the security gates.
Many travellers have taken to various websites to voice their lack of certainty over the strange rule.
One, writing on TripAdvisor, inquired as to whether their bags would also have to go through security once again, and if so whether they would have to be checked on a connecting flight. No one could give a straight answer.
Others have posted to social media to tell stories of their experiences at the airport, like Lance Zierlein, who wrote: “True story. I got lost roaming the Atlanta Airport and ended up having to go back through security to come back in.”
Another, username @atwitisborn, said: “I kept getting lost in the Atlanta Airport one time and kept eating at all the places until I found my way out.”
Matters are made worse by the foot traffic at the airport with concourses and walkways regularly packed.
The length of the airport itself is around two miles long, and each concourse requires passengers to take an escalator up to find the gates, of which there are 192.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
