Thank you very much for the advice. I have a 4 hour delay in Atlanta. I could change it to 6 hours. There seem to be flights from Detroit to Amsterdam about every two hours. If I arrived early and my flight was cancelled I could possibly be booked on one of the others. The flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg leaves at 8:50 pmHow much time do you have between flights in ATL? I'd keep the original routing and perhaps back up your DTW departure to the next earlier flight. DTW-ATL is a key hub-to-hub pipeline route for Delta and will remain well-served. There could be domestic delays, but with a few extra hours padding for the connection you should be fine. Routings over Europe are much more circuitious. I would not ground pound it from Detroit to YYZ for the purpose of enginering an international depature on your first leg. YYZ flights into U.S. gateways are going to be just as prone to delays in the domestic U.S. ATC system as flights from DTW. Plus, you're going to have to deal with customs agents (who are not getting paid) and potential delays in processing, etc.I have an expensive vacation booked before Thanksgiving to South Africa. I am booked on Delta and flying from Detroit to Atlanta and then Johannesburg. Thanks for the discussion so far. I am concerned about having problems as I have to get to Atlanta before I get the certainty of a hub to hub international flight. My flight is fully refundable. I am considering:
1. Changing the flight from Detroit to Amsterdam and Johannesburg instead of going via Atlanta,
2, Cancelling the flight and getting a refund and going via Toronto. Some of the flights go from Toronto via US cities. I looked on Expedia and they can go to South Africa and return but they use a number of different airlines,
I think that Amsterdam is also a hub for Delta. I have used this route many times. I don't remember the reason. It may have been before there were direct flights from the US to South Africa - probably during sanctions = but that was a long time ago. But as you mention Amsterdam is a little circuitous.
Thanks.
Lynette
Statistics: Posted by Lynette — Sat Nov 08, 2025 10:36 pm — Replies 70 — Views 6923