Thanks everyone for the feedback. I agree the prudent thing is to get there earlier. But prudent is not what I'm interested in. In my opinion if delta is going to have this policy re checked luggage, their communications are woefully inadequate and misleading. The simple solution would be to fix this by explaining that there is no way to check bags at foreign airports past the original departure time in clear terms. That this is their policy is also unfortunate given the prevalence of delays. Seems like it would be easy to offer later check in for delayed flights. I'm not sure how other airlines handle that but am now interested to know.