DTW and FNT - coterminals?
 

Does anyone know if Delta would consider DTW and FNT to be coterminals for SDC purposes under the unpublished Diamond Medallion exception? I have a flight departing in a few days departing from FNT and returning to FNT a few days later. Both directions have a connection but the flight times are more convenient for me at DTW. When I booked, flights in FNT were much less expensive but my fare class appears to have availability on many flights at DTW. Thanks in advance!

You can try, but officially they are not considered co-terminals. I have managed to get PHL instead of EWR on a few occasions

Agree. Officially no. However I frequently get them to switch AUS/SAT for me by asking.

So in a completely unexpected way, I got the answer. My electricity went out last night due to high winds last night and I woke up late so could not make it to FNT in time for my flight. I called Diamond line and they said could do nothing but recommended going to DTW and fly standby. Of course, that didn't work and was told I would need to pay $900 more to change my flight (after waiving the $200 change fee). So I decided to call Diamond again and when the agent heard my problem, was able to change me to leave from DTW. Not only that but he said you probably will want to return to DTW since your car will be there (I was already planning to Uber back because I had already gotten more than I thought I would) and he changed me to a return to DTW. I now understand hang up and call again! But I still think I encountered a person who I commend for being logical and going above and beyond by moving me to flights that were not sold out and therefore minimal cost to Delta to make the change! It's things like this that make a loyal customer so happy! Logic is ignored in the interest of policy, even when there is no cost to anyone but only benefit to using logic!

You already said that the flights out of Flint were cheaper. "Logic" is that you fly out of the airport that you booked out of unless it is their fault, not yours.

I knew I would get that comment! Was a complete coincidence that something happened. My power went out and I was not woken at 5am. Not Delta's fault at all! But did the right thing. I can see someone saying people would "scam" Delta in that way but with load factors where they are I don't think that what I did would be a preconceived strategy. I was packed and ready to go to FNT early and in fact was considering going to a cheap nearby hotel. What I mentioned above actually did happen and given the circumstances, I thought it was great delta did what they did on something that had little marginal cost to them. "Logic" was that I was going to fly out of airport I booked out of - was not looking for scam. But something went wrong. I was not coordinating with weather gods or energy company! And I had no expectation of delta doing what seemed "logical" but in this case, they got helped a diamond using inventory that wasn't going to be used anyway.

I'm glad it worked out for you and that they found an acceptable solution. It's easy to criticize other employees for not bending the rules, it's really the same old 'no waivers, no favors' policy. To me there have always been two sides to that coin that does not make one side the clear cut winner. Many customers would say, "well, they should give us favors and waivers as customer service gestures." The problem there is that the rules become inconsistent in their application, which is not fair to the customers who don't receive the favors and waivers, even if they ask and are told no. The other problem becomes you have some customers (not saying you, but let's say someone else using the same story) whose electricity goes out nearly every week to get rebooked from the usually cheaper FNT flights to the more expensive (and possibly non-stop) DTW flights.

Thanks!
For me, it was pure absolute coincidence that I posted on here checking on coterminal SDC and then I actually had an unexpected event that made a flight from the coterminal the only option that would work. I would not have risked anything like this - going to a wedding that I need to attend and was not going to consciously risk getting onto flight where I was not booked.
That being said, a few observations:

1. In my situation, I was NOT posting to say "Delta did what it should have done by giving me a waiver and favor" - I was impressed that they did and praising them for recognizing the situation and going truly above and beyond. As I said upthread, I wasn't even going to ask for return flight to be changed - was already thinking about how to get from FNT to DTW to get my car. My post was a total complement to Delta
2. In other situations, delta does not "risk" much with electricity going out every other week - they do document these occurrences. About 6 years ago I accidentally left my passport at home and delta changed my flight and waived fee. That was last time something like this happened. If someone's electricity goes out every week, they would know!
3. Given load factors now, I doubt very many people would take a risk in booking in FNT, not show up, and expect Delta to move them onto flight to DTW. I was a good example - it took 3 tries to make it happen even when it was for a good reason.