It's nothing like it used to be.....The old (now gone) serpentine concourses and impassable taxiways made those taxi's insufferable. 10 minutes is a joy compared to the old Davey terminal's experience.

The OP mistitled this thread -- what it should have said is "I hate is having to fly in bad weather" -- and I don't think anyone likes *that* !

Actually, he got one of the better gates at DTW and at a lot of other hub airports may have missed the connecting flight -- at DTW he made it, albeit with a bit of work.

To echo what others have said -- he could have saved a minute or two to use a cell phone to find out the connecting gate and then found where it was by looking at the charts in NW's mag. and knowing which way to turn to go to the tunnel etc etc.

What hasn't been said is whether the bags made it to OMA !

Bob H

I stand corrected. It's too bad you feel that way. There has been major changes downtown in the past ten years. You really should give it another chance.

I live downtown on the water, and there is always something buzzing down here.

That should speak for itself, a SWF lives downtown and lives to tell about it, huh?

Flygirl,

I too grew up there and Downtown has always been a great place but I do agree it's changed ALOT for the better in the past few years, unfortunately this has been inspite of the current administrations efforts and given the cities current shape it'll be interesting to see what occurs in the next few...

Completely agree.

DTW is the BEST airport in USA. It is so much nicer than ORD/SFO/LAX/IAD/ATL.

I start flying UA in 2006 and I miss DTW badly. In particular, ORD is such an ugly airport.

Also, WorldClub is a lot better than RCC.

FYI - NWA will sell itinerarys with connections as tight as 25 minutes

Agreed. IMO, UA's IAD terminals (C/D?) are among the worst... low ceiling...inadequate A/C...tiny windows...gets hot in the summer. UA's ORD terminals actually are cool...pipes and natural lights.

I think we NW flyers have it easy. Our hubs are only hubs for NW without much other traffic in there. Other airlines' hubs tend to be dual-hubs or are frequented by other airlines a lot more than at DTW/MEM/MSP.

If ORD was entirely (or nearly) all UA, I think ORD would have a much better rep, for example.

But transfer in ORD could be a pain... especially if you need to move between C29 and B17. Nowhere as modern and nice as DTW.

In my home airport BOS, NW has nice and modern terminal E with onsite parking, but UA has ugly crowded terminal C with no nearby parking.

I like Terminal E also, but wasn't a huge fan of the WC in Boston.

It's a little dark, yes, and could certainly use a view of... well, anything would be an improvement. But it's got decent space to play in and Virgin Atlantic loads it up with food every night. ^

Food at any WC is better than food in most RCCs.

Also, DTW/MSP WorldClubs have free wireless internet. ^ None of the RCCs has it.

I'm always so sad when this thread is bumped to the top of the list because I hate the title! Re-iterating my earlier point, I love Detroit, I love DTW (well, the McNamara terminal, anyway), and I love NW!

To the DTW/ORD/WC/RCC debate... . I don't think ORD is an ugly airport. It's no McNamara, but it's of course much older and anyway, still light-years ahead of places like LGA. And while the commute from Concourse B to C is long, there is that pretty neon light tunnel, which way trumps that wannabe light tunnel that goes from A to B and C in McNamara at DTW.

WC (esp the DTW WC near that Motown store) is better than RCC, though. The free wireless, free food, and free booze say it all. Too bad they don't serve mini-Toblerones... then I'd be sure to get a membership there and not RCC.

Most of the complaints in this thread aren't unique to DTW, you could say many of the same things about most large hub airports. In fact, DTW compares very favorably to most.

Layout:
Very simple and straightforward. Gates are layed out in a logical manner. Unlike some places like IAH where there appears to be no logical layout to the place. Plus with a lot of moving walkways & the tram you can get around quickly. In fact, I enjoy the brisk walk, and almost never ride the tram. I can walk from the security checkpoint down to A5 in about 5-7minutes, plus the exercise is always a good thing. At least there is enough space in the concourses in DTW, where if you really are running late, you have enough space to manuver and do the "OJ Simpson" run. Doing that in ORD, or even MSP can be impossible due to the crowds. I love it how that I can be in my car driving out of the airport in less than 10 minutes from the time they pull the jetbridge up to the aircraft (assuming I'm in F). You can't beat that sort of convienience.

Taxi Times:
DTW many have some lengthy taxi times, but again, the same can be said for many other airports. The reason for the long taxi times is so that aircraft do not have to taxi across active runways, instead they taxi around the ends. This allows them no to have to hold takeoffs and landings for cross-traffic. During non-busy times, they will shortcut. Take PHL for example, you can land, and be less than 100 yards from the terminal, yet have to sit and wait 10-15 minutes just to get clearance to cross an active runway. At least in DTW, you usually keep moving. There is a reason why a flight like STL-DTW is blocked at 1:40, yet its only a 1:10 flight. They factor in the taxi time. Plus, its safer. And DTW has one of the best runway layouts in the country, with 4 parallel runways that all can be used at the same time. Again, and can be used without cross-taxing, which is an important safety feature.

Delays:
Compared to most places, we have it very lucky in DTW. One has to look no further than places like ORD, EWR, PHL, ATL, SFO to see that. They can have problems even on good days. You will always have delays where there is severe weather, that is just a fact of aviation. Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not.

I agree, we sometimes take DTW for granted, yet we don't realize how good we have it compared to many other places. And I'm talking about other large hub airports, comparing a DTW to an OMA is like apples and carrots.

DTW is the best major hub airport in the U.S. - clean, modern, and you can get from any mainline gate to any other mainline gate in about 5 minutes without having to walk much. Even connections from A to B or C aren't difficult.

The only major hub airport that rates close is DEN, with its many moving walkways and inter-terminal train. But the security lines at DEN can easily get out of hand if you have to originate at DEN. PIT was a great hub airport (maybe even better than DTW) with excellent shopping, an ideal layout, very easy connections and few delays.