Flying via Detroit?

[sarahb161]

Has anyone down the LHR - DTW - ORL route with Delta? I’m just wondering whether 90 mins is enough to get the connection?

[captain-codeye]

We did it a few years ago, no problem in 90 mins, the immigration and customs were very quick and efficient.

You put your bags straight back on the belt after customs and go back into departures, no additional security.

All delta flights are in the same terminal and it’s just long and straight, an easy walk to your next gate.

Edited to say there is a separate family lane at immigration so if you have kids with you use that, took us about 10 mins.

[sarahb161]

Thanks for that advice - how did you find Delta? Do you remember whether the internal flights had seatback IFE?

[sarahb161]

Also, does anyone have experience of Delta One? The difference between comfort + and One is only £200 on the return leg ... in thinking this would be worth it?

[mrsbenny]

We did it last year. 90 mins would not have been enough time for us. Took us 2 hours to get through immigration and customs. Delta was ok to fly with no problems there. Just be aware if there are any problems you are on your own to sort out as it’s an American airline. We had a nightmare last year as got to Detroit and then found out our flight from Detroit to Orlando was cancelled and was offered a flight two days later. Which wouldn’t of been too bad but it was a two stop flight and they didn’t offer us a hotel.
I ended up booking flights with another airline called spirit airlines cost us £450 extra but it was worth not hanging around for two days! Especially for kids. Just my opinion. I won’t do that route again.

[sarahb161]

Originally Posted by mrsbenny

We did it last year. 90 mins would not have been enough time for us. Took us 2 hours to get through immigration and customs. Delta was ok to fly with no problems there. Just be aware if there are any problems you are on your own to sort out as it’s an American airline. We had a nightmare last year as got to Detroit and then found out our flight from Detroit to Orlando was cancelled and was offered a flight two days later. Which wouldn’t of been too bad but it was a two stop flight and they didn’t offer us a hotel.
I ended up booking flights with another airline called spirit airlines cost us £450 extra but it was worth not hanging around for two days! Especially for kids. Just my opinion. I won’t do that route again.

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Oh no! This is my biggest fear as we are getting on a Disney. Raise the following say! It is a vide share with virgin ... don't know if that puts us in a better or worse position?! Do you mean that US airline should have no duty of care to their passengers?

There are two other flights out of Detroit with Delta on that day after our scheduled one, but I guess there's no guarantee there would be 5 spare seats on those!

[macadoo]

We did it in 2016, due to a time change after booking (we had 2 hours originally) we had about 90 mins and it was fine. We used the kiosks and had about a 15 min queue, straight through security and had time to spare to grab a McDonald’s. We certainly weren’t having to rush.

Delta were great, our preferred airline. On that route we had seatback ife down to Orlando. Their ife is fab and far better than virgin/ba.

[mrsbenny]

Originally Posted by sarahb161

Oh no! This is my biggest fear as we are getting on a Disney. Raise the following say! It is a vide share with virgin ... don't know if that puts us in a better or worse position?! Do you mean that US airline should have no duty of care to their passengers?

There are two other flights out of Detroit with Delta on that day after our scheduled one, but I guess there's no guarantee there would be 5 spare seats on those!

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Ours was a codeshare with KLM so made no difference. With EU airlines they would of put us in a hotel etc.

The flights were full for 2 days afterwards. I still have nightmares haha. We are flying direct with virgin next year.

[Gilly120]

We done this route Novembet 2016, originally stopover was 1.40 but ended up 70 mins. Still had plenty of time, no IFE on the internal flight. Would have done this route this year if we hadn’t managed to get great direct flight price.

[sarahb161]

Originally Posted by macadoo

We did it in 2016, due to a time change after booking (we had 2 hours originally) we had about 90 mins and it was fine. We used the kiosks and had about a 15 min queue, straight through security and had time to spare to grab a McDonald’s. We certainly weren’t having to rush.

Delta were great, our preferred airline. On that route we had seatback ife down to Orlando. Their ife is fab and far better than virgin/ba.

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Thanks for the reassurance! Could I ask how far in advance you had a change of flight time? We are booking for April, so 6 months ahead ... I’m wondering if we are relatively safe in terms of the times not changing at this point?!