Originally Posted by
elsenor
Late January I'm flying AUH-FRA-DTW (final leg LH442) in J, ETA 2:25
And on a separate ticket DTW-CVG (DL4672) ETD 3:52. I'm hoping to be without a checked bag but could have one.
I have GE, Clear, and Pre.
Wiki says I should allow 2hrs from the non DL TATL but I was hoping to avoid the potential for a 7hr layover at DTW. Of course it depends on the LH flight being semi on time, but how narrow are my chances?
From what I've read here, customs shouldn't be too bad and I have options to attempt to quickly re-check if needed and get through security [and if it matters am in pretty good shape].
Should I see if I can be booked standby for the DL 9:15pm ns?
*UPDATE*
Landed a few minutes late and walked off the plane (J seat) about 2:45. Was through immigration/customs w/ GE and walking to the Blue Bus/McN shuttle by ~3pm. Straight onto waiting bus. At south terminal ~3:15. My 3:52 flight was delayed with all of the snow so I didn't get to really test the timing, but both Sky Priority
bag drop counter agents and normal
drop agent lines were about the same w/ 4-5 people waiting. No wait for kiosk but in a bit of an odd experience at the kiosk, a DL employee standing right next to me offered to help and I uncharacteristically acquiesced thinking "she's going to zip through the prompts faster than I might." Except she somehow ticked the selection for oversized or non-standard bag before I noticed, which then gave an error stating I need to see a counter agent and couldn't be removed from my itinerary even starting over. Lol grrr. Clear + Pre was fast as ever. Then on to the B gate.
Even without the agent slowing me down, it still would have been pretty, pretty, pretty tight, even with everything going smoothly and relatively quickly. But with one or a combination of: exiting the plane from Y seats, a handful of people ahead waiting for GE (only 2 kiosks), just missing the shuttle, small wait for bag drop/counter agent, and/or a B/C gate could easily mean missing the flight.
TL;DR 1.5hrs I-D
is technically doable (with GE and Pre) but relies on nearly everything going smoothly IF you need to check a bag and having some zip in your step departing out of B or C gates.