DTW is North America's Most Satisfying Airport

The North American airports that travelers find the most – and least – satisfying

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... On the upside, this year’s No. 1 most satisfying mega-airport — Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport — improved its score by 9 points from last year, coming in with a score of 800. The airport improved in all areas, with strong performance improvements in the TSA, baggage claim, and food, beverage and retail areas, [Michael Taylor, managing director of travel, hospitality and retail at J.D. Power] said....

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Major improvement over years ago. It used to be embarrassingly dark and dirty.

are the roads within and around the airport still pothole party?

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Originally Posted by Malcove Magnesia

are the roads within and around the airport still pothole party?

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The airport is in Michigan, so yes.

A couple of decades ago I was still living in Phoenix and a couple of colleagues flew through DTW's then-new McNamara terminal.

Unsolicited, they enthusiastically applauded the experience.

I was a bit surprised that anyone would even notice an airport much less remember it but that's the kind of word-of-mouth advertising that makes a difference. And that influence flies beyond Detroit to others far away.

So hat's off to SmithGroup for designing that and everything else they've done for Detroit!

It's such a simple design with the straight concourses. With most airports you're making a ton of 45 or 90-degree turns to get to your gate, and it just gets confusing. Not having to worry so much about navigating around makes it a much less stressful experience.

DTW is indeed an excellent facility and compares favorably to any in the U.S. Especially the McNamara terminal. The Evans terminal is clean and efficient but pretty bare bones. The whole "new" facility is over 20 years though. Lots of new terminals have been built in the interim [Newark, LaGuardia, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Nashville, JFK, LAX etc] and just as with stadiums, it can be hard to keep up. With an older facility, you gotta keep up with the operational things [working walkways, clean bathrooms, baggage claim efficiency, security lines] and avoid too many food and retail vacancies in order to keep up with the arms race. DTW is doing this well so far. A centralized rental car facility would go a long way in keeping the facility in the top tier.

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Originally Posted by swingline

A centralized rental car facility would go a long way in keeping the facility in the top tier.

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I think the current system works OK as long as there not too much congestion at the airport, but I definitely prefer the more modern approach of the combined rental facility closer to the terminals.

Of course what the airport really lacks is a fast connection to the city--ideally there would be fast connections to both downtown/midtown and Ann Arbor. I realize that isn't mostly up to the people running the airport, but it would be great for the convention business, not to mention lots of normal people.

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Originally Posted by mwilbert

I think the current system works OK as long as there not too much congestion at the airport, but I definitely prefer the more modern approach of the combined rental facility closer to the terminals.

Of course what the airport really lacks is a fast connection to the city--ideally there would be fast connections to both downtown/midtown and Ann Arbor. I realize that isn't mostly up to the people running the airport, but it would be great for the convention business, not to mention lots of normal people.

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I flew in and out of DTW a few months ago and as usual it was a good experience. I certainly agree on the connection issue. I fly to SFO a few times a year and having a BART station right at the terminal is fantastic.

Having just flown back from Denver International last winter, DTW is an absolute dream.

For the uninitiated, to depart from a shuttle, you arrive at level 5, head up to level 6 to drop off your luggage, head back down to level 5 for security, drop down to the basement to get the tram to take you to the gates, head then back up to get to the actual gates. You can walk down the main spine to get to the various gates, but the walkway isn't linear, you have to keep diverging back and forth through the gates, and it's not always clear how to get to the other side.

It's a disaster. It was purposefully built that way. Everyone complains about it. They re-engineered it in the early 1990s and it made everything worse. It's mind bogglingly huge. It sits on a mostly empty piece of land that could house a good-sized city. There's a city train that takes you to Denver [[that you have to descend three flights of outdoor stairs to get to) and it takes a solid 25 minutes before your first stop, mainly going through the enormous void that surrounds the airport.

Yep, DTW is fantastic. Ten minutes off the freeway and you're at the gate. Through a door and you're at security, down a flight of stairs and your gate is either left or right, or forward a couple hundred yards then left or right.

Just got back home here in Vegas from a two week trip to Michigan. Yes, DTW is an excellent airport IMHO! Didn't have a problem one. Las Vegas Reid Airport is pretty good, but I'd rate it at a 8 compared to DTW's 10.

[[Memo: "Where the heck is Reid Airport in LV?" Ans: Formerly McCarran Airport. Re-named to honor the late Senator.)

The only real complaint I have about DTW is ground transportation. It's a clusterfuck.

Detroit airport is good. But fact that it's considered the best in the states just goes to show that American airports on average are pretty terrible by global standards.

Mega hubs like Istanbul, Beijing Daxing and Singapore Changi put our peer airports to shame. JFK is a mess and let's not even talk about the embarrassment that is O'Hare, much less Atlanta.

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Originally Posted by 313WX

The only real complaint I have about DTW is ground transportation. It's a clusterfuck.

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LOL, they were talking up Denver's brand new tram between union station and the airport, so we took it. There's one tiny shelf for people to store their luggage on the tram. It was meant to go to the airport and there's enough room for, maybe, two or three bags. I ended up standing in a wheelchair area pinning our luggage to the wall so it wouldn't roll around. If someone showed up with a wheelchair there would be nowhere to go at all. One poor guy had a ski bag because, you know, people fly to Denver to ski. He also ended up standing while awkwardly holding it.