Jezreel

I'm a gold medallion member and I booked a flight atl-sea on delta.com where it said my two checked bags would be free. When I get to the airport lo and behold the flight is operated by Alaska and they charged me 50 dollars for my bags. Any chance I can get delta to refund the charge? Who should I contact? Thanks in advance.

xliioper

Not likely to get refunded unless you purchased your tickets before May 1st (DL and AS ended their reciprocal luggage benefits then). Luggage fee policy is always dictated by the operating carrier. DL Medallions are also subject to luggage fees on codeshared Hawaiian Airlines flights. Discussion here -- http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...-airlines.html

The DL Checked Baggage page notes the following:

"NOTE: Please refer to our Codeshare Partners page for information on a specific carrier's baggage policy."

Here is the URL linked by that text -- https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...-partners.html

flyerCO

Actually if it's a DL coded flight on AS then DL baggage limits would apply. It's not the carrier that operates, rather the carrier that markets the first flight that fees apply. AS's own website says you could have travel wholly on AS, however you might not be subject to AS rules.

ashill

The problem, I think, is that the Delta ticketed checked bag allowance for a domestic flight is zero no matter your elite status. If you check in with Delta, they waive the fees if you have Delta elite status; if you check in with Alaska, there's no such waiver. But because it's not part of the ticketed allowance, I don't believe it matters who the marketing carrier is.

(Also, if it were a ticketed checked bag allowance, the status at time of ticketing would matter. Because it's a waiver granted at check in, it's status at time of check in that matters.)

ETA: In fact, I think that the flight being Delta-marked technically means you are subject to the Delta checked bag fees (1st $25, second $35 for domestic flights), not the Alaska checked bag fees ($25 each) if you check in with Alaska. Looks like that wasn't enforced for the OP.

xliioper

We've had this discussion here before. It is the responsibility of the marketing carrier to disclose the baggage rates, not that they are always the same regardless of operating carrier. DL does this by providing a link to it's codeshare partners baggage fee pages from it's baggage fees page. Again, see the recent discussion from July on Hawaiian flights linked above. Note the following from the HA website --

"Exemptions from bag fees related to frequent flyer status on partner airlines may not apply when checking in on Hawaiian."

Alaska has a decent write up on their site --

http://www.alaskaair.com/content/tra...rotection.aspx

Note this section -- "Require the marketing carrier to disclose on its website any difference between its optional services and fees and those of the carrier operating the flight." Ask youself this -- If only marketing carrier policies apply, why do the airlines need to disclose operating carrier policies?

Note also http://www.alaskaair.com/content/tra...ices-fees.aspx

"Alaska Airlines may market a flight using our flight number that is actually operated by another carrier. If you are on one of these codeshare flights, their fees may differ. Additionally, anytime your travel includes multiple airlines, different or additional fees may apply."

flyerCO

Sorry to disappoint but here is an excerpt on the rules in question from the IATA:

IATA Resolution 302, which became effective on 1 April 2011, defines which airline’s baggage rules (both allowance and charges) apply on an interline or codeshare journey. It uses a geographic-based process to select the MSC on the checked portion of a flight (that is, from where a passenger checks a bag to the point he or she picks up that bag). Resolution 302 specifies that the MSC is the airline flying the passenger, also known as the operating carrier. The US DOT approved IATA’s concept for baggage disclosure with the exception that the MSC must be the marketing, not operating, carrier.

Alaska's own website very clearly states "That while you may have travel wholly on Alaska Airlines, your baggage fees/limitations may not be those of Alaska Airlines."

xliioper

Again, while the marketing carrier are required to disclose fees, the fees DO NOT need to be identical when flying codeshare flights. DL discloses the codeshare partner luggage fees by links on it's website. All the website information I referenced is post DOT regs and are compliant. I guess you didn't even bother to look at them. Look at your domestic DL reciepts. Notice that they do not list baggage fee waivers for status holders. They only list the standard rates of $25 for first bag and $35 for second bag as mandated by DOT. Above the rates is the following text --

"Thank you begin a valued customer. The fees below are based on your original ticket purchase information. If you qualify for discounted checked baggage, this will be taken into account when you check in"

and then below,

"At the time of check in with Delta for Delta-marketed and Delta-operated flight(s) (including Delta connection), SkyMiles Medallion® members, SkyTeam Elite & Elite Plus and active US Military personnel are eligible for fee waivers and other benefits. For more details, visit delta.com/baggage."

Note the requirement for Delta-marketed AND Delta-operated for the fee waivers. Neither AS nor HA will waive luggage fees for DL marketed flights for DL status holders, nor are they obligated to under DOT regs. AS only recently starting charging DL elites due to the cooling of the relationship, but HA has been doing it prior and after the regulations went into effect 3 years ago. Pretty absurd to claim they have been violating the law for 3 years now without being called out by DOT.

MSPeconomist

By not making elite checked bag waivers part of the ticket, DL avoids having to give free checked bags to passengers who were elite at the time of ticket purchase but no longer are.

flyerCO

I was replying to the post that stated the rules are those of the operating partner. I was not replying to the OP with this statement. I agree Elite Benefits are not "part" of the baggage rules, they're "part" of the Elite Benefit rules. However the rules that govern fees/number of bags allowed are governed by the marketing carriers fees. US DOT has clearly ruled that the marketing carrier must inform the person of the rates, and that it's rules are the ones that apply. If DL chooses to set different rules/rates for Alaska flights then it's free to do so. However absent it setting different rates, the default is the regular DL rates. DL doesn't have a different set of rates for Alaska thus, DL limits/fees apply. Absent him being in 1st class/BE he's going to have to pay for baggage on Alaska.

Now there is one part that may give the OP an out. If his ticket was bought BEFORE April 30, 2014 then as a GM he was entitled to 2 free checked bags on Alaska. If it was after then he should be charged fees, which actually should have been DL's which are higher then Alaska.

ashill

Which is correct. The ticketed checked baggage allowance is zero bags, so the only way there's a free baggage allowance is if the operating carrier has an exemption. The whole digression about IATA rules was just a distraction.

As LBJ said in the first sentence of the first reply....

flyerCO

I was correcting his post where he stated that the OPERATING carriers rules governed the baggage fees/limits. I used the IATA posting so that I wasn't asked where I was getting my information. It's called supporting your statements. I tried to make the last post as clear and full of all exceptions as possible. Sorry I had to make it so long. Lately if I only post info on the error I'm pointing out, I'm told I left out all the exceptions. Although I never said any of them were wrong.

I was told yesterday that I was making a woman property. Why? I made the mistake of replying to a husband's request to help his wife in a format of giving him advice to help her. He didn't ask for advice on what his wife should do, but what he should do to help her. I apparently should have formatted the advice in the format of talking to his wife, even though she was not the poster.

People don't seem to understand you reply in a format to the person you're talking to. In my previous post I should have been able to leave out the exception. However if I had I'm quite certain I would have been told I was wrong because I didn't post the exception.

Sorry, rant over. I've expressed my feelings, and to be quite clear I'm not mad with anyone. Just lamenting the loss of something called context.

Jezreel

Thank you all for your replies, will have to be more careful when booking next time.

BobH

Ironically, we booked a code share flight on Alaska (ANC-SEA), but got switched to Delta and because we had two bags each, we saved $100 because of our status.

Of course, we didn't find about the change until we tried to check in with Alaska in ANC

Bob H