Enough Time?
 

I am going from BDL (Hartford, CT) to SAN (San Diego, CA) in October 2018. I have a 35 minute layover at DTW. I will be going from Delta to Delta. Will this be enough time?

I am close to the front of the plane so hopefully I'll be able to get off relatively quickly.

Welcome to FT!

In my experience, DTW is an easy airport for connections. You will likely arrive and depart in Concourse A. It is one long building that has moving sidewalks. There is also a train but check the train info board to see if that will be the fastest way to get to your next gate.

This thread may help too: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...thread-59.html

It's mainline-to-mainline, so you should be fine. Plus, there are tons of other later connecting options via MSP, ATL, SLC, LAX, and LAS if you miss your flight as the DTW-SAN flight departs at 8:25AM. I always evaluate other later flight options when choosing short connections. In this case with all the options available, I would not be worried at all.

You should be okay -- DL seems to offer a lot of these 35 minute connections at DTW.

That said, is this the last DTW - SAN flight of the night or is there another one in case things go south?

It is the 8:25AM DTW-SAN flight as that is the only one with a 35 minute connecting option from BDL. As you noted, there's also evening DTW-SAN flight option should OP miss his flight, but the many connecting options can likely get you there sooner.

The only potential issue I see is if your plane into DTW is a crop duster regional aircraft. Delta tends to use concourse c and d for the little planes, rather than concourse a, which is likely where your plane to San Diego will depart from. You may have to jog to make it from C/D to anywhere in A.

As I noted above, BDL-DTW is a mainline flight and thus will arrive in concourse A. Concourse D is the North Terminal which DL does not even fly into (it is used by the non-Skyteam airlines).

Assuming you're on the 5:30am BDL-DTW.

The first thing I would do is if the BDL-DTW is getting delayed even 10 or 15 minutes in BDL I would ask to get put on the BDL-ATL-SAN at 6am or 7:15am. Will save you a lot of time vs. going from DTW to another hub to SAN (or waiting for the evening DTW departure).

Terminals B/C. My apologies.

I noticed on flightaware.com that the first two flights from BDL to DTW parked at gates A21 and A33 respectively; A21 is very close to the escalator up to the tram which runs above the concourse and stops in the middle and at the north end (where the A 60s and 70s gates are). Both SAN flights this morning used A76. Including walk time, your trip between gates will not take more than 10-12 minutes. So you should be OK.

Fortunately, you're on the first flight of the day, so very slim chance of the inbound aircraft not being there, and BDL isn't exactly prone to congestion delays due to its small size, so the number of wild cards is fewer. As suggested above, if things are going south with your connection, you can easily switch to one of the ATL flights.

The early BDL-DTW/MSP flights are also very rarely delayed - I wouldn't sweat it too much.

As a side bar, though, BDL security can be unexpectedly jammed early in the AM due to a ton of flights leaving in the 6-7 AM hour. As painful as it is to get up even earlier, give yourself sufficient time to get through security at that time of morning.

It will probably be fine. You will probably be early into DTW.

Will you be checking bags? My experience with 35 minute connections in MSP (another delta hub) is that i can't count on my bags making the connection, even if I do. They'll deliver from SAN but my experience is also that delivery will take a while.

I'll have 1 checked bag, I'm not too worried about my bag though, I'll be staying with family and my own car to get it later on if necessary.

Both planes are 737-900ER so I'll be good on that front. Thanks!