Originally Posted by
Beckles
That being said, I think a general rule of air travel (this is not specific to Delta by any means) is that if your bag can make an earlier connection, you should look for it in the baggage office upon arrival, even before bags start coming out. I'm not saying you should of have had to do this in your case, but I've saved myself time waiting more than once following this general rule.
As I mentioned above, baggage handlers rarely look at flight numbers, especially at the connecting hub.
When I worked for UAX @ IAD, I once had a UA 1K come up to me looking for his bag. He was on a layover from DEN on his way to PHL. The guy's PHL flight was cancelled, and wanted his bag before he went to the hotel. We did not have his bag. He asked me a very reasonable question: Where is it? There was no scan entry for its arrival at PHL. I checked all of the connecting flights to that city, and there was no way his bag would have made it up there -- everything was either delayed or cancelled.
Finally, after about 90 minutes more of waiting, I notice a scan entry for his bag at PHL. I called to double check, and sure 'nuff. Boy, was that guy pissed.
To this day I have no idea how his bag got up there. I've seen some weird baggage incidents in my time.