RSSrsvp

One of my neighbors who is a FO recently encountered an issue checking a bag that weighed 55 pounds at JFK. At first the agent asked him to pay the $90 fee for bags over 50 pounds. My neighbor pointed out that as a FO he was allowed 2 bags up to 70 pounds each on DL and DL connection flights. They had to get a supervisor involved to sort this out and he avoided the overweight fee.

The DL site clearly says the following regarding elite members and their baggage allowances;

SkyMiles Medallion® Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond members, Million Milers, Air France & KLM Elites, and Alaska Air MVP & MVP Gold Members traveling in Economy may check up to two bags up to 70 lbs (32 kg) each at no charge on Delta and Delta Connection operated flights. The benefit applies to up to 9 people traveling in the eligible member's reservation.

Are the agents checking and weighing the luggage simply ignorant of the weight allowance for elites or are they simply trying to charge people and see what they can get away with? My personal take on this is with the extremely large number of elites that travel through JFK they have to know the weights that are allowed and they are intentionally doing this and hoping that people will be ignorant of their elite benefits.

DCAproducer

I often travel with equipment for work in Pelican cases just under 70 pounds and every once in a while I run into an agent who doesn't know the rules. Once I mention I'm a medallion and kindly ask them to double check they always retreat on this.

JFK is one of the airports I've experienced this issue. As well as DCA.

Thomas Hudson

It seems to me that at some point, this benefit was for Gold and up.

OHDL1

Well...I don't think it's intentional. The pop-up scale reading comes on screen automatically when the bag is over 50lbs. I think the agent sees that and doesn't look at the screen showing charges. I use the pop-up to know what weight to print on the orange Heavy Tag, continue to the next screen and print the tag. The tag will come out with the overweight designation and away we go. Also, rarely, the customer won't have the SM number on the BP and it has to be added to get the correct charge or in this case....non-charge.

Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

Well, this is certainly news to me as well.

I remember many moons ago on NW that KLM Elites were allowed additional luggage allowance, but this benefit has been gone for years and I was not aware that the benefit of having 2 free 70 lb bags instead of two free 50 lb bags was available today on DL. I recently paid an overweight baggage charge on DL for a bag under 70 lbs. when traveling on an economy ticket in the US as an FB Plat Elite Plus.

Thank you very much for posting this information, RSSrsvp.

florin

What about int'l flights? For a DL flight to AMS that connects to a KL intra-EU flight, the 3x70lbs rule still applies for medallions, right?

RSSrsvp

3x70 pounds is for B/E tickets on DL flights according to the website. I would inquire about the KL intra-EU connection as you may have an issue there.

RSSrsvp

If you have a receipt or can get one from your credit card company for that overweight charge I would contact DL and demand a credit!!! @:-)

Dovster

It has been my experience with all airlines that if you are traveling across the pond and merely connecting in Europe you are allowed the full trans-Atlantic baggage allowance, even on the intra-EU connection.

However, if you have a stop over, the intra-EU segment (or even a segment from Europe to Israel) permits only the more restricted weight concept.

meballard

I had it happen in SFO in the elite line. She processed my bag, and as I was about to walk away, she commented on the overweight. I responded that I'm Alaska MVP so it shouldn't matter, she thought about it for a few seconds and then basically said okay.

I thought it was odd, since all elites on Delta get the higher allowance, and I was using the elite line, although I think she may have been distracted, as she was working on something else when I walked up (there was no line).

Gajan

I think you did know, see here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/flyin...-merged-5.html

Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

I didn't realize that was for US DOMESTIC without International connection too -- and apparently neither did the DL agent.

Not to mention of course that the above linked thread [merged, yes, ad nauseum merged] is typical for the Flying Blue forum: it is one of those unwieldy and unusable consolidated threads, stretching across several years and straddling several policy changes, therefore containing superseded, contradictory and incomplete information all at once. It is not user friendly and contributes to more confusion than clarification.

RSSrsvp has composed an effective, Delta forum style thread that can serve as a good example to us all on how to effectively communicate.

florin

I'm asking about travel in Y. The website is ambiguous.

It is not clear if a medallion traveling on a DL flight to AMS connecting to intra-EU KL has to pay for the second checked bag (doubtful, but not impossible), if 2 bags x 50lbs are allowed or if 2 bags x 70lbs are allowed. Of course I would like to inquire, but chances are:
- either I get a random answer that has NOTHING to do with my question (if asked online)
- if I do get an answer to my question (online or by phone), it is not a reliable answer (they do make a lot of stuff up when they don't know the answer)
- if I do get an accurate and correct answer to my question, I'm still going to be playing "Simon says" at the airport

Alexflyer

If the KL flight is on the same ticket, then you you will be allowed 2 bags because everything is based on the originating flight/airline. If the intra-EU flight is on a different ticket, then the KL baggage rules applies.

houserulz77

It's been around ever since you became a DL customer.