Originally Posted by
adventuressa
I'm pretty sure there's a new (post 9/11) regulation that you must be on the plane if your bags are on the plane. So if you "miss" it, the flight will be delayed because they'll need to pull your bags off.
That rule was dumped in 2002 for domestic flights when TSA went to 100% screening of checked luggage. Now, bag matches are rare & random. But, for OP - if he gets caught on a bag match flight and DL figures it out, they will refare him, close his FF account (he's elite) and cause him all kinds of heartache.