Day Trip to Atlanta

by admin

A post about a day trip that I took to Atlanta early February, the flights back and forth and some of the museums that I visited.

Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama

Back in May 2021, I made a day trip from Maryland to Miami on a roundtrip ticket that came to a grand total of $49.32. Ever since, “one Miami” — shorthand for fifty dollars — took on a life of its own as an informal unit of currency among some of my friends, providing a comical backdrop for many of our conversations.
Fast forward to early December 2025, when Frontier Airlines ran a promotion offering 100% off base fares for certain routes and dates (fuel and other carrier-imposed surcharges still applied). Browsing through the eligible options, I came across a set of roundtrip tickets on Saturday, February 7th, from Boston to Atlanta, at $37.80 all in. Here was my chance to retire the old benchmark and usher in the era of “one Atlanta.” For the bragging rights alone, I simply could not let this pass. (Coincidentally, both BWI-MIA and BOS-ATL are 946 miles.)

Frontier Airlines Flight 3085 from Boston to Atlanta

It was an early morning flight, which meant setting the alarm and dragging myself out of bed well before dawn. I was evidently not fully awake while packing my mostly-empty backpack, as I left my earphones behind, in line with my tradition of forgetting things.

This was my first time departing from Boston’s Terminal E in a couple of years. Despite the early hour, there was still a modest queue at security, which took me 14 minutes to clear — on the longer end of my experiences in Boston.

When it’s boarding time, the gate agent took the thoughtful step of holding the boarding process for the jet bridge to clear, a small courtesy that not a lot of gate agents would do.

Some snow had fallen over Boston overnight, so we required deicing before taking off. Interestingly, I recalled two rounds of deicing, each with differently colored fluid, speaking to the generous snowfall overnight.

Deicing Operation
Taxiing in Boston
Clouds Reflecting Rising Sun
Southern Allegheny Mountains
Boundary of Virginia and West Virginia.

Frontier Airlines 3085
Boston, MA (BOS) – Atlanta, GA (ATL)
Airbus A321neo (N621FR)
Seat 17F
Scheduled Departure – 6:00am
Actual Departure – 6:52am
Scheduled Arrival – 9:19am
Actual Arrival – 9:01am
2 hours and 9 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

And here’s a video of the takeoff:

While boarding was mostly on-time, the deicing rounds meant our takeoff was delayed by 52 minutes. The clouds thinned quickly as we left New England behind. There had been considerable snowfall across the Eastern Seaboard in recent weeks, treating me to an exhibit of snow-decorated landscape extending all the way to southern Virginia.

Lake Lanier
Distant Atlanta
Downtown skyscrapers in the left, the ones in Buckhead in the right.
Stone Mountain
Distant Downtown Atlanta Skyline

And here’s a video of the landing, with a northerly crosswind demanding constant corrections:

Once we landed in Atlanta, there was, rather oddly, a prolonged hold before the jet bridge, despite by that time we were neither early nor late. No announcement was made, leaving me entirely in the dark as to the cause. My best guess was that we were waiting for a jet bridge operator, which, in hindsight, seemed a telling preview of Frontier’s operational shortcomings that I would come to experience in far more frustrating fashion later that day.

As for my day in Atlanta, the city’s top tourist attractions were Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola. Having little interest in caged animals or sugary indulgences, I gave both a pass and opted instead to spend the day exploring a few of the city’s museums.

High Museum of Art

This was Atlanta’s flagship art institution and the largest visual arts museum in the southeastern United States. That said, I must admit it felt somewhat underwhelming, particularly in light of my expectations and in comparison with several other major museums I have visited in smaller cities, such as St. Louis and Denver. To be fair, a significant portion of the museum was closed for renovation during my visit, including an entire floor devoted to American art, which may well have shaped my overall impression.

The Cliffs of Pourville, Rough Sea, 1897
Claude Monet
Autumn on the Seine, Argenteuil, 1873

Claude Monet. Claude Monet painted this view of the Seine near the town of Argenteuil, northwest of Paris, shortly after his arrival there in 1871—likely from the small boat he had converted into a floating studio. He included the Chateau Michelet and other recognizable architectural landmarks. The small, delicate brushstrokes identify this work as belonging to the “high” phase of Impressionism. The brilliant colors of Monet’s landscape are mirrored in the water below, resulting in a remarkable symmetry that makes it difficult to distinguish between the reflections and their sources.
Bradamante at Merlin’s Tomb, ca. 1820

Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard. This mysterious, eerie scene might be taken from Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem of the 1500s, Orlando Furioso. The episode this painting might depict occurs in Canto III, verses 20-77, when the heroine Bradamante comes to the magician Merlin’s tomb and a vision of her descendants is conjured by the sorceress Melissa. Fragonard’s sketchy application of paint and the work’s supernatural light create a strong theatrical effect.
Antwerp, Boats on the Scheldt, 1871

Eugéne Louis Boudin. Eugéne Boudin was a marine and landscape painter, best known for his depictions of the fashionable beaches and bustling shipping ports along the North Sea coast. His compositions are often dominated by the interplay of sky and water, which he learned to observe as a child working on a ship with his father. In 1871, Boudin painted several views of the port of Antwerp, Belgium. Here he recorded the commercial and leisure activity on the water, with the silhouette of Antwerp Cathedral behind, capturing the rapidly moving gray clouds that still bring almost daily squalls to the city.

Originally, I had hoped to spend an entire day at the High Museum of Art. But given its somewhat underwhelming exhibits, I left at noon and headed for the Atlanta History Center. (The other option I had in mind was Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park, but with heavy traffic heading downtown, I decided to pass on it.)

Atlanta History Center

I found this to be a far more rewarding experience than the High Museum of Art, offering richer opportunities for learning — how Atlanta was founded around a railway intended to connect the Port of Savannah to the Tennessee River, how the Creek tribe once roamed these rolling foothills of the Appalachians, and much more. The museum closed at 4pm, and I left with several areas still unexplored, among them the Swan House.

Soapstone Bowl
Found near Soapstone Ridge and hence its name, relics of native American cultures.
Western & Atlantic Railroad Track
Recovered at nowadays Kennesaw.
Land Lottery Deed

Lot 37, District 18.Sarah Turner, widow, recipient, 1832.Between 1805 and 1833, state lotteries redistributed property formerly inhabited by Creek and Cherokee people. The recipients were usually white men over 18, widows, and orphans. The 1832 lottery allocated land of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee people were removed on a forced migration to Oklahoma territory, commonly known as the Trail of Tears. 1838-1839.
Newspaper about Atlanta Race Massacre

In 1906, Atlanta was hailed as the booming capital of the New South. Boosters praised the city as a refuge for job-seeking migrants from depressed rural areas and a place where blacks ang whites lived and worked in relative peace. Only 40 years after emancipation, however growing African American wealth and political power frightened many whites. Politicians and newspapermen argued that blacks were innately inferior, criminally inclined, and unfit to vote. They lobbied for total black separation to maintain white supremacy. Headlines announced that the city was under siege by “black fiends” bent on launching a crime wave. On September 20, the Atlanta Evening News prodded, “It is time to act, men.”.Two days later, in the wake of inflammatory articles alleging assault by black men against White women, a mob of thousands stormed the streets. The assailants randomly destroyed black-owned businesses and beat, stabbed or hanged more than 100 African Americans. Four days later the state militia finally restored order.
Original Zero Milepost of Western & Atlantic Railroad

Indicating the start of the rail line. This post also acted as the geographic center of Atlanta. The city’s first boundary was a circle measured exactly one mile from the milepost.
Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama
Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama
Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama

Downtown Atlanta

After the Atlanta History Center closed at 4pm, I decided to give the more touristy part of downtown Atlanta, Centennial Olympic Park, a brief visit. (The aforementioned Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola, both of which I passed, was also in the area.) The park was lined with donation bricks that had helped fund the 1996 Games. As the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics happened to be underway during my visit, there was certainly an Olympic spirit in the air.

Subway Exit at Peachtree Center Station
A deep subway station with a long escalator ride.
Centennial Olympic Park
Bricks Marking Donor for 1996 Atlanta Olympics
SkyView Atlanta Ferris Wheel
Undergoing renovation.

Unfortunately, I visited Atlanta on a very cold day (based on its mild standards), with lower temperatures and higher wind gusts than neighboring days. As the sun dipped below the horizon, the biting cold sapped whatever enthusiasm I had left for wandering downtown, so I didn’t linger there for long. After a quick dinner, I made my way back to the airport.

My Take on Atlanta

This is the undisputed capital of the Southeast and the region’s largest metropolitan, that carries a reputation that precedes it. But this day left me with more questions than enthusiasm. Getting around via the MARTA subway was, frankly, a disappointment: single-tracking on a Saturday stretched travel times, and each ride brought the disheartening sight of people openly smoking on the platforms. Seeing a rat scurrying beneath one of them seemed an apt punctuation to the experience. Above ground, the city itself felt curiously anonymous — an indistinguishable sprawl of highways, chain stores, and glass towers that, I’ve come to believe, describes the majority of American cities stripped of history or natural beauty. One day is hardly a verdict, and I’ll grant Atlanta that much — but I left without a strong pull to return.

Frontier Airlines Flight 3086 from Atlanta to Boston

My experience flying Frontier Airlines back from Atlanta to Boston revealed something that I could only characterize as either indifference or incompetence on the airline’s part.

The aircraft, N604FR, an Airbus 321neo, was scheduled to operate the DEN-ATL-SJU-ATL-BOS rotation that day. As my captain announced during the flight, the first leg out of Denver had been delayed by two hours due to maintenance issues. This delay cascaded throughout the day, ultimately pushing my Boston arrival back by more than an hour.
Since all of Frontier’s A321neos shared an identical cabin configuration, I struggled to identify a compelling operational reason why such a swap wasn’t made. I considered several possibilities, though most failed to hold up under scrutiny:
What I found puzzling was, the aircraft that carried me from Boston to Atlanta, N621FR, also an Airbus 321neo, sat in Atlanta for 6 hours, before departing for Nassau at 3pm that afternoon. Frontier Airlines could, in theory, swap the planes, so that N621FR would serve the ATL-SJU flight, which was scheduled for 12:30pm that afternoon, and N604FR would serve the ATL-NAS flight, the latter arrived in Atlanta at 12:30pm from Denver, more than an hour late but still well ahead of the 3pm Nassau departure. This would have been a perfect resolution of the situation.

ATL-SJU leg required extended over water (EOW) certification, which N621FR might not have held. That wasn’t true since N621FR flew to Dominican Republic over a week ago, a route that would have also required EOW.
Frontier Airlines scheduled the same crew from DEN-ATL to continue to work the ATL-SJU leg, which would be peculiar since Frontier had a crew base at Atlanta. A flight attendant I happened to chat with near the gate before my Boston departure was, in his own words, “very sure” that the two legs would be staffed by entirely different crews.
N621FR required inspection/maintenance done during the 6-hour downtime in Atlanta. This was the only possibility to which I was willing to extend some benefit of the doubt. The plane sat at a gate for a few hours, before being towed to a different gate for the Nassau flight. According to ChatGPT, gate-side maintenance is not unheard of, though it would be quite a coincidence that such work was done right in time for the Nassau flight, but not soon enough for the San Juan flight.

Notably, N604FR’s rotation appeared to be the only significantly delayed Frontier operation at Atlanta that day. It is difficult, then, to avoid the conclusion that the disruption I experienced was likely quite avoidable — and that it persisted not out of necessity, but out of Frontier Airlines’ incompetence.

To make things worse, this flight was scheduled for 10:40pm, yet Frontier Airlines didn’t officially communicate this delay until 9pm, while the inbound aircraft from San Juan was well underway. And once it had landed, it had to wait an additional 30 minutes simply because another aircraft had yet to vacate its assigned gate (I was quite certain other Frontier gates sat empty in Atlanta at 11pm, they just didn’t bother to switch gates).
The practical toll of this delay was not trivial for me. Had Frontier communicated it in a timely manner, my evening might have taken a far more agreeable shape: perhaps catching a show at the historic Fox Theatre, compared to hours spent idle in an airport terminal. (The scheduled departure of 10:40pm was just slightly too early for what’s on that evening at Fox Theater.) By checking the plane’s rotation, I was aware of this potential delay as early as noon. Yet, unable to rule out the possibility of an aircraft swap, my evening could not be salvaged.

So where does all of this leave me? Am I angry at Frontier Airlines? No. I flew them for the bragging rights of this “one Atlanta” benchmark, and had a full Sunday ahead to recover from the ordeal. What I am left with is something closer to a quiet resignation: you get what you pay for. Beyond the cramped seats and the unbundling of amenities, ULCCs in the United States seem to concern themselves solely with the act of transporting people from one place to another, with little regard for how that is done. Time and again throughout the day, there were steps Frontier could have taken to improve the experience, steps that would have cost them nothing (, and might even have saved them money by keeping flights on schedule). A legacy carrier would have taken them without a second thought. Frontier did not. Will this shape my future travel choices? Without a doubt.

Frontier’s Seat Width Mismatch

I sat one row behind an emergency exit, and I found my row’s seat width seemed to be higher than the row in front?

Frontier Airlines 3086
Atlanta, GA (ATL) – Boston, MA (BOS)
Airbus A321neo (N604FR)
Seat 31A
Scheduled Departure – 10:40pm
Actual Departure – 12:16am + 1
Scheduled Arrival – 1:13am + 1
Actual Arrival – 2:19am + 1
2 hours and 3 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

Overlooking Northern Atlanta Suburb
Overlooking Baltimore
Philadelphia Airport
Overlooking Philadelphia
Overlooking New York City
Overlooking New York City
Overlooking Providence, RI

The flight itself was unremarkable, save for the glittering city lights of the largest metropolis along the Northeastern Corridor drifting past beneath me. After landing in Boston, I hailed a rideshare home. Having never done so before except from Terminal B, it took me a while to locate the pedestrian bridge leading to the airport’s central garage. Fortunately, the walkway was fully enclosed, otherwise, it was one of the coldest nights of the year, and I was still dressed for Atlanta.

END

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