Delayed Baggage
 

I transferred in MSP yesterday. I had 45 min to transfer. The flight was pretty empty and took off 20 min early. Of course my checked bag did not make the transfer (yes, I had to check the bag).

Delta did notify me via email that my back was delayed which saved me the ling wait at baggage claim and I'm was at my home destination so I wasn't left with no clothing or toiletries.

I had to cancel my Sunday afternoon plans to wait for my bag to be delivered. The delivery guy called at 2 and said he would be here in 30 min - 2 hours. He showed up 2.5 hours later and I had to go out to the street to meet him (I live in a NY apartment bldg) while I was in the middle of cooking. The track my bag feature doesn't track once it's handed to the delivery service.

This could have been avoided if they had waited for baggage transfer and still departed on time.

What should I ask for/expect for mileage or other compensation? I'm a silver medallion.

Hey Spikethecat, welcome to FT!

Honestly, doesn't sound like a horrible ordeal.
Baggage delays can happen, it's one of the risks of checking a bag.

DL contracts a delivery so obviously no tracking and limited responsibility of their punctuality. Sounds like they actually did a good job letting you know and getting it to fairly quickly.

DL ops are extremely complicated, especially at hubs. It's really hard to know why your flight left early and why your bag wasn't on it. It could have been simply forgotten, and there's a very real chance that even had your flight departed on-time and not early, you would still be bag-less. Who knows.

Sounds like a reasonable event that happens once in while for us FFers (same as IRROPS), and since it doesn't seem like you were very much inconvenienced - I wouldn't ask for any compensation if I were in your shoes.

However, sending in a complaint will probably warrant you 5K as a CS gesture - that seems to be a standard response.

Again, welcome!

For a bag delayed a couple of hours = 0. But, DL will toss 5K miles your way as it does everybody. And, then read the threads about how the miles are "devalued".

OP traveled yesterday and received their bag this afternoon it sounds like. Quite longer than 'a couple of hours' delay.

OP - doesn't sound like you were without clothes or toiletries, so not sure how much compensation you'd get. Mentioning your afternoon plans were cancelled due to have to wait for the delivery driver should net you ~10k depending on the agent you get. Do you have status with DL?

Thanks
 

Yes, I've definitely had worse experiences but an inconvenience still the same and wanted to know what's standard operating procedures for this.
Thanks for the feedback It helps.

It was almost 24 hours. Yes, a lowly Silver.

I'd start with tweeting @DeltaAssist first.

Really? That would be one of the last places I would go for this.
Max I would do is write-in on the website.

Personally, I wouldn't even ask. I save my complaints for thingz that truly ARE much larger inconveniences. Sure, they'll probably give you a few miles, but this type of a complaint seems like a nuisance complaint. Have you seen the story about the Rabbi who complained too much? Just sayin'.

Welcome to FlyerTalk - Delta forum! :)

Congrats on achieving Silver Medallion status! When you get more miles under yer belt, you'll look back on this story and realize just how trivial it really is! :)

edited to add . . . Here's a royal baggage F-Up:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...n-bag-sfo.html

Not sure why that's the better way, but to each their own. I've written a complaint through the website, requested a response and have A). Waited weeks before finally receiving one or B). Flat out ignored and never received a response. Over twitter not only is the response somewhat immediate (within an hour or so for me), but they've always been more generous for compensation. YMMV

When luggage gets lost, go shopping and send DL the bill for reasonable out of pocket expenses. I'd rather get some nice new shirts and underwear than 5k miles that I can't use.

Davetravels Please don't be so condescending. I've traveled for decades and have had much higher status and much worse issues that I just sucked up and dealt with. The purpose of a forum is to learn from others.

I state the situation as it was upfront and did not try to blow this out of proportion.

Many on the forum talk about getting miles for the slightest thing. With miles being devalued so much I thought it was it's about time I reach out to others to see what they have learned.

I'm VERY sorry that you thought my post was condescending! ESPECIALLY the part about congratulating you on Silver status! I had absolutely NO IDEA how well traveled you actually are! Believe me! I may have been a tiny bit condescending when I referenced your having to change your Sunday plans and interrupt your cooking, but, you really misread my tone - sorry about that! I just typed what I truly felt. You made a point of mentioning that you're a Silver Medallion, so I simply wanted to wish you my best! :)

That said, I think this is a petty type of complaint, and will probably get you a very small mileage goodwill gesture. I really don't know, as I have only complained once that netted me miles. The other (maybe) 2 times that I complained, they were bad enough that I got $$$ ECVs.

Safe travels!

DT :)

In 50 years since my first flight, I've had delayed bags 4 or 5 times and I've always chalked it up to "meh, stuff happens". Of course the only time it might have been serious was when I was going for an interview day while I was in grad school, but that time the bag caught up with me at the hotel overnight. The other times I was either young or on my way home (one time DL sent my bag to DFW rather than DTW).

Worst I heard of was one time the CEO of my company was on a RTW business trip and BA lost track of his bag on a nonstop DTW-LHR. The bag caught up with him about a week later in Beijing.