BenA

The S terminal in Seattle, where Delta operates all their flights, is shaped like a box: this makes it extremely compact and you could walk between the furthest gate pair in less than five minutes. I would certainly feel comfortable booking a 30 minute connection in Seattle (40 minutes if connecting AS-DL because a train ride is necessary in that case).

Bonus points because I rarely find that we need to wait for a gate or airfield traffic in Seattle: the airport tends to run pretty smoothly year round, in fact.

Cornroaster

Thanks for the info so far. If I request a change to the later flight, should I be able to get the change made without a charge? Thanks for any info on this.

fti

Having been around FT for 9 years, you must already know the answer to this

andymo99

I would leave it as is. With a flight as long as HNL-SEA, you are likely to get in early anyway.

5 minutes from the farthest two gates in the S terminal requires walking very slowly.

Cornroaster

Actually, my primary emphasis has been on miles and points accumulation without ever having had a business flight. I have never had a Delta flight change, so I really don't know the answer.

Berto

As long as you dont get sent to a common use gate over in Concourse B for departure. I had that happened earlier this year on a connection when coming back from NRT. Which had me cursing as I had a longer layover and started out at the Alaska Board Room and then going back to the S gates to use the Sky Club, only to have to go back to the main terminal to catch my flight.

RobOnLI

I personally don't believe the SEA airport needs any "definitive thread" for connection time on DL. DL operates out of the S terminal, as many others have already pointed out, and the S terminal is very small. It technically has 16 gates but DL only uses approx. 10 of them. The others are used by international aircraft and some Horizon Q400 flights.

As someone else pointed out, very rarely does DL have to operate a flight out of another terminal such as B or A. But that's rare and usually dependent on another flight being delayed at SEA (e.g. mechanical) which occupies a gate in the S terminal.

DL will not rebook you because 30 minutes is a legal connection in SEA. If you miss your connection then DL will put you on the later MSP flight but unless your flight leaves Hawaii late then you will almost certainly arrive early in SEA.

-RM

Cornroaster

Thanks for the information. My wife is much more comfortable with the 30 minute connection based on the comments.

OnTheSlopes

DL has taken over a few of the A gates. About a week ago SEA-JFK departed out of A instead of S satellite. Still, very easy and quick transfer.

jon503

I'm in the process of putting together a pretty complicated award booking/regular booking mix and am facing the following conundrum:

I have a flight from ICN-SFO arriving on Dec 19 at 11:00 AM. *A awards for that time are only giving me availability to NYC (where I need to end up) from SEA departing at 3:15 PM. Now the only possible flight I'm seeing is Virgin America 12:05 PM departure and 2:10 PM arrival.

This is super tight on both ends, particularly with customs arriving at SFO and without having both flights be star alliance. Does anyone know if this is possible? If it isn't, I'll probably have to ditch my award booking plans and just pay for a flight.

FBplatinum

I have a short connection time between 2 flights at Seattle.
when we go out of the plane(arrival) in the "S" (south) hub, it is on the same floor then the departure ? (some airport is on the same floor, some is two different floors).
Thanks to any reply

LoganFlyer

Everything is one floor in SEA. No more than a 5 minute walk between any two gates in the S terminal.

FBplatinum

If I understand ok, arrival and departure is on the same floor and NO security check between the arrival and departure inside the S terminal, and the baggage must be pickup in other terminal. Right ?

LoganFlyer

Correct, assuming you are talking about a domestic-domestic connection. If you're coming in from another country (other than Canada), then you will pick up your bag at the customs station in the S terminal and recheck it there. But if your flight is coming from the US and you need to pick up your bag for whatever reason, then you need to go to the main terminal to get it.

What exactly are you trying to do? Are you trying to connect in SEA with two different tickets? If you explain what you're thinking, we may be able to give better advice.

FBplatinum

I fly with Delta and have a short connection (35 minutes) from a domestic flight (from Detroit), and take international flight (to Shanghai). I also know for international flight you must be at the gate 30 minutes before the departure time and the arrival time is not when you are at the gate (and out of the plane), but when the plane touch the ground.