Delayed Flight not Displayed at DTW?
 

One Friday, I was connecting at DTW, from ATL to PHL. ATL-DTW arrived on time, checked monitored for connection flight, decided to walk over there, somewhere around A21, I heard last call boarding for DTW-PHL, which is the previous flight being delayed, but the display monitor clear did not show that. I guess once it passes its scheduled departure time, that flight information is gone. Is this correct? If it is true, how can I find out if there is an early flight being delayed so that I may take advantage of?

Thanks.

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Guiming Miao
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If a delay is known in advance of the scheduled departure time, the estimated time should be displayed and should remain on the monitors until the time displayed or until updated. On most (or at least the ones I am familiar with), once a posted departure time has past, the flight will drop from the monitors within 10-20 minutes. SOOOOO, answering your question: if the delay was not known until departure time on the flight you mention, it's possible the FID (Flight Information Display) was not updated and it disappeared from the system.

Some airports (including the NW hubs) have a FID system which receives some information from they ACARS system onboard each aircraft and others (including the one at LAS) receives information (at least for arrivals) from a program similar to FlightTracker.

I had this happen several times in the old NW DTW dump. I then moved to San Antonio before the new terminal opened. I am sad to hear that things haven't changed about displaying delayed flights -- particularly since the agents at DTW can be so unhelpful and rude about answering questions. If I don't see my flight, I usually just call NW reservations. It is easier than being abused by a NW agent in DTW!

You have a right to post your experiences, but honestly if you have not flown through DTW since the new terminal has opened than your information is a bit out of date.

I have never experienced the problem the original poster is speaking of, but it sounds to me like the previous fligth was delayed, not the flight they were booked on. Anyway, the agents at DTW have never been anything but professional and helpful to me. On the Wed. before thanksgiving I read my page and then went to what I thought was the right gate. Well it was not the right gate (I went to 19 instead of 16, the page was correct, I just read it wrong). The agent took the time to look up my departure and politely direct me to the correct gate. I then turned around and saw a whole bank of monitore. I felt kind of dumb then for bothering the agent,but she was very nice about the whole thing and never even mentioned the monitors right behind me on the reverse wall. The agent at my departure gate was actually Jolly, and this was on the Wed. before Thanksgiving.