Max Time Check Bag Through
 

Hi all,

My dad is flying YYZ-ATL-SCL with a 10 hour layover in ATL. He's just called me from YYZ and said they are not checking his bag through to SCL because his layover in ATL is too long. I was always under the impression that on a single ticket and an international-to-international connection this should not be a problem? I mean this is the ticket delta sold him...shouldn't there be some flag that pops up re: bags if it's too long? I've had bags checked through on far longer time frames. Is there anything he can do? He's kind of upset right now...

It doesn't look like ATL has any bag storage, so is he doomed to sit pre-security at ATL until 3 hours before his flight to SCL tonight? He's in J, if it matters.

Thanks in advance.

At the very least, I'm fairly certain that baggage check-in is more than 3 hours before departure time - - maybe 4 or 6?

It's still a cr@ppy answer to the problem.

This doesn't sound like it's the case in your situation, but I may be reading the numbers wrong, so here's my experience:

My mother-in-law once flew TLV-JFK-ATL, with the JFK-ATL departure time being >24hrs later than the time we got to the desk at TLV to drop off her bag, and they wouldn't check it through, even though it's on 1 ticket, etc.
Didn't matter much in this case since she had to pick it up at JFK customs anyway and recheck it, so they took care of it at the counter there. Unfortunately for your dad, he wouldn't have to pick it up in ATL if they had agreed to check it..

There have been some threads on this -- I thought you had to claim the bags if the layover was greater than 12 hours but I may be misremembering it (it is is the CoC) I often do a "23 hour layover" in Atlanta and once last year on my way to LHR I had bags to check. I asked if they could check them thru and they did, but that may be just a service to a DM.

That being said, there is a place you can store bags -- I think it advertises as a place that wraps your bags but they will store them as well (for a fee, obviously). That was my backup plan last year. It's on the DL side of baggage claim.

I was reading this morning -- I think this place was called "wrap-a-bag" but it is no longer in service.

Always best to just look at DL's rules as they are now, rather than rely on what happened to somebody else somewhere else at some time in the past. OP's connection is between 6 and 8 hours, so he may but need not reclaim his bags at ATL.

Rule 116(2)(a) Connection Time Exceeding Four Hours
Passengers making connections to the first available Delta flight departing from an intermediate point may reclaim their baggage at the intermediate point if the connection exceeds six hours, but is less than twelve hours. If the connection time exceeds twelve hours, the passenger must reclaim his baggage at the intermediate point.