It's been about eight months since my last post in this thread, and Delta is still inconsistent and silly with regard to its handling of luggage generally, and its handling of luggage containing firearms in particular.
In February, I flew to and from LAX. My Zero Halliburton case, adorned with the "Steal This Bag" CAGPT special tag, was delivered at LAX with a ruined wheel. I didn't notice it until I was at my hotel, so it was pointless to file a damage claim. I paid for the repair myself. "Check and Give Protection To" does not, apparently, extend to the wheels on the luggage.
This last week, I took my annual trip from PSC to LAS and back. I have to bring quite a bit of gear with me for this trip, so I checked two ZR bags, the big one and a smaller, carry-on size. I flew first so as to be able to check two bags at no extra charge. The smaller one had the gun in it, fully declared and marked with the CAGPT tag.
On arrival at LAS, no bags, on the carousel or otherwise. The baggage office was dealing with roughly a dozen people from the same flight with a similar problem. The baggage office employee speculated that an entire cart of bags had been left off of the airplane, despite being scanned as loaded. She told me that there were three more flights between my connecting airport of SLC and LAS before midnight, and that my bags would be placed on one of these and delivered to my hotel, likely before 5 PM.
5 PM comes and goes. A call to Delta's "dedicated Sky PriorityŽ information line" revealed that my luggage was, rather than in between SLC and LAS, somewhere in transit from DTW. When I asked why Delta had chosen to send the bags 2000 miles in the wrong direction, I got, "Sir, I'm just working in a call center."
The bags were delivered around 4:00 AM. I had asked the bell desk at the hotel to call me as soon as they were available, as the bags also contained a CPAP machine that I need to sleep. Just as an added insult, the CAGPT bag had the special Delta zip tie around it, requiring the deployment of my Leatherman tool. Note that this bag was delivered to me outside the airport, so there was no security purpose served by applying it. I regard this as Delta's special upraised middle finger to people who fly with declared firearms.
On the trip back, I waited at the baggage carousel at PSC. This is a small airport, and the usual practice is for any regularly checked bag to be placed on the carousel, and the CAGPT bag to be brought out by the baggage handler, who asks to see my ID before handing over the bag. They have never bothered with the zip tie. Surprise! My two checked bags, one with the CAGPT tag and the gun, were the second and third bags on the carousel.
Not only does Delta have a stupid policy; they can't even bother to follow it consistently.