V-Flyer

I'm zooming off again in two weeks, and this time i'm connecting in Detroit rather than ATL to a DL flight.

Does anyone have any experience with connecting there?

Not an issue - done it once on DL metal, once on VS since the switch this year.

The only issue is I've been stopped by customs on both occasions for a full bag check - they must not like the look of me there.... But even with that on both occasions have made my connection with ease ahead of priority boarding. I've also been lucky in all connections have been on time. Only warning is they do let the americans through before enabling the esta machines for visitors, and visitors have a very long walk to immigration.

I would reccomend being near front if posisble as the immigration queues can be long. Oh and the other "non standard" thing is UC and priority tagged bags go to a different claim #. So if you have VS AU or travelling upper class, thats something to keep an eye over.

The actual Detroit airport is great, the DL lounge less so, but is self-serve for alcohol. Personally I'd recommend going straight to gate as it can be a long long walk if the "Skytrain" thing is down, which it was on my last occasion. It's a hugeterminal with 3 stops in the main section on the train (train is past security gates) - and it's got to be a 20 min walk from middle to end without the train.

When you say priority bags are tagged to a different claim, that should also include premium economy?

PE is a very good question as it's not something I've experienced. UC and Gold definitely were. Apologies but I haven't flown PE without AU tags in a while now! But then some UC/AU bags did hit the regular line too due to handler error last time, including one of mine.

My recommendation is to go to the "skyteam priority" lane first to check if you see any PE bags going around after the upperclass, and if not go to the other "regular signposted claim". Even if you UC I've had to do that before!

The whole 2 bag claim aspect of DTW gets me every time - and I have ended up in wrong lane twice due to this.

It's still a good airport as the "priority" aspect of bags does work reasonably well, just the actual belt they may be on can be tricky! Due to 2 claims being in use, even regular Y bags are delivered very quickly (I was watching proceedings from the customs search line last time)