Delta overweight baggage fee?
 

How much is the charge fee for Delta overweight baggage?
I was charged $25+$90 for one 65lb baggage.
On the Delta homepage website, it says the charge is $90 for one overweight baggage. Does that mean that there would be and additional $90 fee to the $25?

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

I am afraid so - if you do not have elite status or a Delta AMEX card. The $25 is for the first 'piece' of baggage. the 90 is because it weighed over 50 lbs

pretty hefty if you ask me, but fact of life :(

if you can, pack a backpack on the way back - and check in online. the fees are slightly lower (maybe $2)

Yes....$25 to check the first bag plus $90 if the bag is overweight.

As others have already stated, this is correct.

From Delta's website:

http://www.delta.com/traveling_check...gage/index.jsp

Penguin Mom

Welcome to FT. FWIW, if you're one or two pounds over, you'll usually get away with it. But the overweight fee is steep.

For next time, I'd suggest you get a scale from Macy's (or similar) so you dont' have a bad baggage counter experience. All that said, in MKE the 1st class bag check in does not weigh bags. Go figure.

Dave

Welcome to flyertalk!!

The non-stated way around this is to check 2 bags that way less than 50lbs each. Total cost for 2 bags = $50 which is less than $115. You can send me a check for $65 when you get a chance ;)

Overweight Sound System
 

We are travel to Nicaragua and taking with us a portable Sound System that weighs about 100 lbs. It's obviously overweight, but I am reading on the Delta website that I need to have media credentials to get this checked. I am a trainer, but not media. Does anyone have experience with this? Please email me, if so at [email protected].

I do this frequently... but my second bag is small enough to go inside the first bag. I travel to the airport with one bag, that typically ends up weighting 55 to 60 lbs. At the airport, I pull the second bag out of the first bag, and check them separately... so instead of transporting a single ~55 lb bag, Delta has to track and transport two bags, one ~35 lbs and the other about ~20 lbs. This doubles their likelihood of losing and/or damaging my luggage --and having to pay out for it, but the airline is the one making the stupid policy, not me!

Stupid policy? Purpose of discouraging overweight bags is to protect those that have to handle them. Tracking two bags is not nearly as expensive as paying workers' compensation claims.

It also results in an extra handling operation staffed by real people earning real wages and consumes a higher cube in the aircraft potentially displacing high margin cargo.

However, at the rates they are getting from others who are paying the high fees, it is still working in their favor.

follow up baggage question - First Class Domestic flights
 

The Delta site says First Class can check up to 3 bags (great) - and up to 70lbs each (or is the 70lbs just for international flights).
First time on Delta in a long time tonight to SLC (bags heavy - ski gear)....

Many thanks,

FC and Medallion members have a 70lb allowance domestically. Some international destinations have different restrictions. Very helpful for the multiple ski trips our family takes each year!

I don't see that an overweight bag necessarily results in worker injury -- I'm sure they train their personnel not to try to lift them unaided -- and they're not trying to discourage overweight bags, they're trying to make money off them. Some of the fee compensates for the extra fuel and inconvenience, but most of it will be gravy. These kinds of fees are what made many airlines profitable in recent months.

$50 if 2 people are traveling....$25 each. If there is just one customer...then it's $25 for bag one and $35 for bag two. Still better than $115. There is a little shop around the corner from the bag drop/ticket counter here that sells alot of small duffels for $16.99.....

I always have a couple duffel bags in my suit case. Never know when I need extra space. If I'm traveling on stingy partners I'll bring a travel scale. If I'm irked at DL I'll pack a couple cases of bottled water and max out of baggage allowance.