Originally Posted by
cork
I need to know if Delta 100% always lands at and departs from Terminal 4 at JFK, or rather, I just need to know what if any are the odds of the nonstop to/from Berlin using Terminal 1 for some reason, because the Airtrain doesn't go to T1 at all right now due to construction and if the flight uses T1 I'll fly to an entirely different city because I don't want to use the shuttle bus (because I have a long complicated train trip in addition to Airtrain. With the T1 Airtrain stop closed you have to take a special shuttle bus to/from T8, where the Airtrain stop is open.) Delta website sort of implies they only use T4 but is unclear and I've definitely seen at other airports where you land in a completely different terminal than originally scheduled. (The vagueness is that the Delta site says their flights depart from T4, but then it says baggage claim is in T4 which would mean arrivals also use it.)
Delta's JFK info is at Travel Info > Airport Maps & Locations
JFK is an unusual airport in that while all the terminal sites are technically owned by the Port Authority, they are all 100% leased and managed by independent terminal operators, which then have sub-leases with specific airlines. T4 is operated by JFKIAT, which is technically Delta's landlord (along with like 20 other airlines including VS, KL, LY, LX, EY, EK and others).
This causes major dysfunction when something goes wrong, like a few months ago, when T1 had a power outage that lasted for days. In most cases, airlines there were forced to cancel their flights because they had no agreements with other terminals to accommodate them. (There were a few rare exceptions like AF, which Delta agreed to handle at T4 because of their partnership.) Similarly, a few years ago a water main break at T4 crippled operations on one of the coldest days of the year. Delta was majorly screwed and couldn't shift any of its capacity to other terminals. Such is life at JFK.
But bottom line for the OP, no.... there is literally zero chance your flight randomly operates out of a different terminal. If there's a problem it'll just be cancelled!