Summer is chock full of holidays, from Memorial Day to July 4th to the culmination of the season on Labor Day weekend. But it’s safe to say that the entire summer is busy, busy, busy. The kids are out of school, which makes it prime time for Disney trips and long weekends away in the country.
But as with any holiday season, you can anticipate larger-than-normal crowds at the airport, lines, and wait times. Delays are par for the course during peak periods, especially with the later it gets in the day. If there’s any time of the year to plan your DTW parking and valet service well in advance, it’s this one.
In fact, nearly half of Americans planned to travel this summer season, with U.S. airlines forecasting a record 2024 summer travel season (up more than six percent from last year).
Early Planning is Key
With this in mind, early planning for your trip is critical, even as you eagerly anticipate getting away with family and friends to the beach, mountain, lake, or amusement park. Now that it’s midway through the summer season, you have hopefully already booked your flight. Experts say you should do this at least six months in advance for domestic flights, and even further out for international flights.
If your airline tickets are booked, it’s time to book DTW airport parking to coincide with your trip. Plan on the planes being at full capacity as families take advantage of the time off school. And if the planes are packed, the parking lots will be too. Making a plan now will ensure that when you do leave for the airport, you will feel calm and confident about a seamless parking experience.
Check out these tips to navigating the airport rush during the summer season.
1. Check Your Flight
Keeping track of your airline reservation as we progress through the summer is crucial. Waiting till the night before to check the flight status is not advisable. It may already be too late at that point. Check it at least each week before you leave. You can easily log into your account on the airline website to verify that your flight times, departures and arrivals are still on track. It’s also easy to check your seat assignments online.
Checking in advance is important, as airlines tweak their schedules throughout the day, and this is no less true in summer. Leaving yourself plenty of time to make a change is wise. There’s really not much you can do if you find out the night before that your aircraft or flight has been changed. Sign up for notifications so you don’t have to manually check each day.
It’s also helpful to know where your plane is coming from. There could be a potential delay even before your airline knows it. Just because the weather is mild in your location doesn’t mean it will be mild wherever the plan is taking off from. Many things cause delays, such as hurricanes in the south or blizzards in the Northeast.
Try a helpful app like FlightAware.com to check the status of your scheduled flight and location of your particular plane.
2. Explore the Airport Lounges
The possibility of layovers and delays is always present, especially in summer. When you know in advance where you can chill in between, especially traveling with small kids, you get peace of mind. Most larger airports will offer access to private lounges for a fee. Some credit cards offer complimentary airport lounge access, so be sure to look into this perk.
If you don’t have that perk, ask the airport how much a day pass costs, which usually ranges from $30 to $50, and kids under 12 are free. Why sit around on the airport floor for hours waiting for your connection when you can hang out in a quieter place as part of the airport lounge?
3. Embrace Carry-Ons
The chaos of the DTW airport is due in large part to the baggage claim area and accompanying process. There may be ways of avoiding baggage claim, but you have to be diligent. To avoid this most chaotic area of the airport at flight arrival time, you may want to consider solely using carry-ons rather than checking multiple bags. Not only will you save time and money, you’ll save your sanity by limiting each member of your party to one carry-on bag.
This may be easier said than done, though; it will depend on many factors, such as how long you’re going for, how many people you have with you, the age of each passenger, and your travel destination. Heading out for a few days with just your spouse? It’s totally doable to each use one carry-on. Headed to Disney with your large family and several small children for a week? This is much more tricky and probably won’t be feasible. While not impossible, it will pose a challenge indeed.
On the other hand, if you are traveling with older kids and teens, you can task them with packing efficiently. They are more than capable of rolling their own luggage through the airport, thus avoiding baggage claim. If it’s not in the cards for you and you can’t avoid checking your bags, find out from the airline if you will get one bag free; if so, what do they charge for the second bag?
Summer is certainly a wonderful time of year to get away from it all, visit with friends and family, lay on a beach somewhere, do some sightseeing, and travel to different corners of the world. But that being said, there’s little doubt that getting there is sometimes a stressful process. Planning out your parking strategy before even getting to the airport can lower your stress level at least in some small way.
Contact Valet Connections DTW Parking
It’s time to book your reservation for DTW valet parking service today for summer travel online or call us at (734) 992-4946.