davetravels

Just curious . . . .

Did you check the baggage arrival time at the carousel online vs the time your flight actually arrived at the gate?

Throw Down Your Leavy Screens

There was a Delta sign at baggage belt A-2 in CLT on Tuesday promoting this gah-ron-tee.

I want to say it said 18 minutes and/or 28 minutes, but I'm writing this at 0424 EST and the coffee hasn't yet permeated my brain so I may be misremembering...

kettle1

OP here: DL is trying something new (for DL) - guarantee bags be delivered within 20 min. to the baggage claim or you get 2,500 miles. Comparing this to AS is apples to oranges. How many passengers does AS carry a day, compared to DL? (I am sure someone has the numbers). DL is risking a lot of miles in certain airports, where it is almost impossible to get the bags to the claim within 20 mins. LAS and DEN come to mind (many others).

DL is simply testing this. Some (most) airports it will work if DL beefs up staff. I have heard other reasons for DL doing this test and it is very important for DL, so I am told. (I will Post the reason after this is done - in 1-1/2 months). I know the reason and it matters to DL for many reasons and the people on FT complaining about something DL is doing that is nice. DL did not have to do this.

I posted something I was told (by people that do not work directly for DL). I do not check bags 95% of the time. I just do not understand why people complain about something an airline offers (with a test, for a reason) complain (it could be DL, WN, UA, AA or any other carrier).

I understand (and agree) SkyMiles suck, compared to other carriers. I also understand Y+ on DL is getting improved (free booze, better snacks, etc). I get it. I fly FC on DL, UA and AA, so I do not care. I will post the reason for this "test" after it is over.

Cheers from Sin City.

orca15

ashill

I remember noting a banner like that at GEG in December. I'm pretty sure it said "Bags will start coming out within 28 minutes of arrival" (with no mention of any guarantee, emphasis added). I noted it as a rather hilarious reaction to AS's 20 minute guarantee for all bags in an AS stronghold DL's trying to enter.

Esltroy

Ill test out the new policy on monday. Flying into ABQ. They tend to be pretty quick though.

ashill

Though I hear what you're saying, DL has proportionally more staff and revenue, and AS is fundamentally a hub and spoke airline with DL that operates mainline planes in large airports. In fact, I suspect that AS has more airports (as a fraction) in which they rely on contract staff to handle baggage, which seems like it would make it harder for AS to meet the guarantee since they have less direct control over the training of contract staff. I'm virtually certain that AS also has more interline bags than DL (again, as a fraction), which only makes things harder. So no, I don't have much sympathy for DL (and AA and UA)'s difficulty in getting bags out quickly when AS can do it every time, including in fairly nasty operational airports like SEA, EWR, PHL, etc.

I guess the one real difference between AS and DL that I do have some sympathy for is getting bags off a widebody. But DL is much slower getting bags off their 737s, A320s, and RJs than AS is getting bags off their 737s and Q400s in the same airports.

And I'll say that I suspect that worrying about priority tags may slow bag delivery for everybody. I'd rather have all bags come out after 20 minutes than priority bags come out first after 28 minutes (see my comment about DL's advertising in GEG above).

TrojanTraveler

So if your bag is late and you get 2,500 miles, that's worth the equivalent of spending on Delta towards redeemable miles:

$500 - non status passenger
$357 - Silver Medallion
$227 - Diamond Medallion

BenA

How... cryptic. Sounds like you're hinting that Delta expects increased baggage volume shortly; perhaps related to the pink tag changes rumored in another thread?

BenA

AS has outsourced their entire baggage handling operation in the lower 49, actually. Even in their main Seattle hub, their ground handler is Menzies Aviation. There was a huge scandal over the more or less overnight transition ten years ago in the local media, and the resulting union arbitration dragged out for years afterward.

jiburi

Tho,non-status passenger would likely need to pay baggage fee to play, as they will likely be assessed fees for checked baggage.

Jiburi

Note to self. I will check an empty bag so I can play. :-)

EZEDoesIt

I didn't check any bag stats in the app, but th website has us arriving at :20, and the carousel didn't even activate until :40, with the first bags not showing up until a couple minutes later...mine much later.

Sabai

My take is that it is way to get more people to join SkyMiles

jiburi

Alaska's guarantee is that first bags will arrive by :20 after gate arrival, not necessarily when my bags arrive, tho often my bags beats me to the carousel. PS-make sure to save the promo details before DL removes that from the website.... :-)

sethb

I'm sure they aren't. I had two bags miss my flight a few days ago, only one showed on the flight they were supposed to be on. They both arrived together.