Scotland's capital doesn't have a nonstop lift from Detroit, which surprises travelers who assume Delta's Motor City hub covers everything—it doesn't, at least not directly for Edinburgh. Instead, business class from Detroit to Edinburgh typically routes through Amsterdam or London, with Delta partnering through its joint venture with Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic, while British Airways offers its own one-stop routing via Heathrow. The most seamless option I've found after years working this corridor is Delta's connection through Amsterdam-Schiphol on a widebody with Delta One suites—fully lie-flat, sliding doors, and genuinely restful for the transatlantic leg before a short KLM or Delta hop up to Edinburgh. Alternatively, routing via London on British Airways puts you in their Club Suite on the long-haul segment, a proper suite with direct aisle access that's become the gold standard for BA's fleet-wide retrofit.
Virgin Atlantic is the wildcard worth considering: their Upper Class suite, especially on the A350 with the Loft social space near the front cabin, makes the Detroit-to-London connection feel like part of the trip rather than a chore, and their Heathrow arrivals process tends to move faster through immigration than midday Delta banks. My insider tip: if you're connecting through Heathrow, book a British Airways or Virgin itinerary that lands you in Terminal 5 or 3 respectively with at least 90 minutes buffer—EDI-bound connections often use bus gates that eat more time than the boards suggest, and rushing off a redeye business class flight defeats the point of splurging on the seat in the first place.
Seasonality matters enormously here. Scotland's shoulder seasons—January through March and October into November—consistently offer the softest business class fares on this itinerary, since Edinburgh's summer festival crush (Fringe, in particular) sends demand and fares climbing sharply from June onward. I've watched fares swing dramatically week to week on both the Delta and BA routings, which is exactly why serious business class flyers on this route should be tracking fares with automated alerts rather than manually checking—the volatility rewards patience and quick action in equal measure.
