Those people don't work for the airlines and receive none of their benefits. They work for tips. IMO, its easy, if you want to be cheap go inside.

I used to encounter this in MSP pre merger. I hated it. Employees or not, unless it is going to save you tons of time in line that you do not have, I would not use it. They would even get somewhat threatening in MSP back in the day saying, "A tip will make sure your bag gets to the plane." Seriously?

In MSP, they were doing the EXACT same job. Ticketing it and putting it on a belt. Why should they be any different than the inside agents?

Because they don't work for the airline and they work for tips.

The inside agents got a Delta salary and benefits.

so true. A smile and a tip goes a long way

I always tip the skycab but I remember reading somewhere that some skycabs at the busy airports do very well with tips esp around holidays.

Yes, tip the sky caps. But asking for or mentioning tips is the quickest way not to get one from me.

I'm sure this will change when one day your ride pulls up to the terminal at 31 minutes before departure. ;)

Your FT handle says you are a road warrior yet you are a "newish frequent flyer"? You check bags curbside, don't tip the skycap and your bags end where they're supposed to be? Here's a travel pro tip: tip the skycap at curbside check in!

Yes and no. Pre-baggage fees they were totally independent. At a certain point the requirements of the airline and TSA/DOT/FAA made them de facto employees. These days I think most of the DL skycaps work for a subsidiary like DSG. Then again a lot of the ground staff is funneled through subcontractors and front companies to whipsaw any potential labor organization.

On the other hand some airlines have been pretty underhanded with the skycaps. I know of at least one that was charging $2/bag for curbside check. Which more or less ruins the tips. To my knowledge DL has never tried to do that.

A long, long, time ago, 1980 to be exact, I was flying DTW-SEA to start a backpack trip. I was responsible for the food, so had two rather large boxes (certainly oversize if not overweight), one with food for a ten day trip for four people, and the other with my pack, boots, sleeping bag, pad, tent, etc. I used the curbside that time, and flashing a ten while the skycap did his thing ensured I didn't pay a huge excess bag fee and that the boxes made it to SEA safe and sound. Definitely the best ten bucks ever to ensure a perfect trip, and not have to pay maybe a hundred in excess baggage charges.

I'm sure that's the only time I've used curbside, because I pack so we're not overweight, and am OCD enough that we arrive at the airport in sufficient time to check in, go through security, even get a bite to eat if our flight is over a meal hour, and still get to the gate to gate check my husband's wheelchair when the GA has a minute of downtime.

It used to be that you could check bags curbside, remove the claim tickets from your ticket, and check more bags inside.

Now, obviously, that doesn't work, but the system automagically tracks the actual location of your bags (except when it doesn't). I prefer the current method, even more if it worked correctly more often.