bostontraveler

Hi I'll try to keep this as succinct as possible.

1) I was originally booked in F from BOS-LGA on Saturday. After 2 hours my LGA flight was cancelled due to weather. The Skyclub gave me a standby pass and sent me downstairs in a rush to see if I could get on a departing JFK flight. Albeit downgraded, I made the flight to JFK.

2) I was told the bags were in Boston but that they would *try* to get them to me that night so I proceeded to file a claim at the Baggage Center. At the baggage center I explained I was leaving in under 24 hours for Paris and I needed the bags delivered the same night. Delta proceeded then to tell me that the system would not allow them to send me my luggage by courier because I was a "standby" passenger. They also bizarrely refused to give me a baggage incident report (which take 45 days to get if you request them from DL....) although I asked them to specifically add that DL would not deliver my bags to me.

3) So at 1am I had to go back to JFK and then return again to my hotel. All of which cost me $150 back and forth.

Who will most likely pay the $150? I have excellent Amex Platinum insurance but I'm almost certain they will deny those expenses as they don't fall under the "up to 400€ in necessities/toiletries/clothes, etc".

As an AF Plat DL probably doesn't give a hoot about me but do I request a reimbursement from DL? Or try my luck with Amex?

Thanks.

davetravels

Two things, I think . . . .

1) You chose the voluntary reroute, so, you're likely on the hook for expenses. I can't speak to insurance stuff.

2) Couldn't you have just picked up your bags the next day at JFK before the flight to Paris?!?

flyerCO

They can send bags anywhere they want. The line about being standby was pure BS. Even if the bags had been sent to LGA, a file should have been created at JFK. If agent refused you needed to ask for a redcoat/manager. You could also call DL who then would get someone in baggage on the phone. If the bags had been sent to LGA (system should see you flew to JFK and automatically reroute) they could either;

Option 1, pay for a taxi to bring you over, allowing to pickup yourself, and pay to taxi you back.
Option 2, LGA puts on plane to ATL, DTW, etc and then onto JFK if bags could arrive in time for your CDG flight
Option 3, same as 2, but instead of sending onto JFK from ATL, DTW, etc, send onward straight to CDG from ATL, DTW, etc.

For option 3 to work they would've required the file reference from JFK. Otherwise they couldn't send the bag to CDG. This is due to positive bag matching and CDG being a separate reservation.

Sadly they will not send bags by taxi between LGA/JFK without the passenger. I had this issue on the 1st.. They put my bag on earlier flight to LGA, after rerouting my from JFK to LGA due to weather in ATL. My LGA flight got cancelled and they rebooked me to fly to JFK on 2nd. I was flying out to NZ on Latam via SCL at 1845. ATL manager called to have bags sent to JFK. They flat out refused. Instead they'd send back to ATL on one of the early morning flights. Of course they screwed up and didn't. Despite a pissed off ATL manager calling, they still refused to send to JFK. One seat opened on the 1230 departure to LGA. They rebooked me to LGA, paid for taxi to take me to JFK, and issued a travel voucher of $200 for the screwup. Made it into LGA on time, then had to go bag office hunting! They knew what flight I was coming in on and were to have bags ready. No one even knew which office (LGA for some reason has three bag offices) bags were in. It of course was the farthest, meaning had to goto ALL three. By time found it, and took taxi to JFK, I MISSED CHECKIN by 20 minutes due to traffic. DL accepted fault in the mess. JFK agents were shocked how badly LGA dropped the ball. They got Latam to release control of their ticket (this was the return portion of a NZ-US J sale) and rebooked me JFK-LAX-SYD-AKL as there was no Latam J for at least four days. Got to fly VA J class (booked as DL codeshare) LAX-SYD and NZ J class SYD-AKL (booked as VA) on the 777. (Agent I dont believe noticed the VA flight was really a NZ codeshare)

ETA;

Your number three point confused me. However I believe you were trying to say the bags came into JFK later that night. Is that correct?

Since they did goto JFK why didn't you just wait and pickup next day when went to checkin for Paris?

pvn

what? He's in IRROPs. Picking one of many re-route options doesn't make the re-route "voluntary".

davetravels

I disagree.

First of all, he CHOSE to change destination airports, as opposed to keeping the same destination. That's voluntary. Secondly, he was put on standby, and the OP said he had to rush to get to the gate for the new flight. None of those circumstances would allow for guaranteed baggage delivery.

flyerCO

It was all voluntary, but it was all due to IRROPS. If OP had done a SDC/SDS then yes Delta wouldn't be responsible to deliver. However that wasn't the case. They were on standby simply due to IRROPS and plane being sold out and unable to be confirmed. Heck the IRROPS rebooking tool will allow airport changes. Doesn't mean it wasn't an IRROPS rebooking.

davetravels

I just don't think that, if your flight is delayed due to weather, and you decide at the very last minute to change destination airports without enough time to switch the bags to the new flight, that Delta is required to deliver the bags to you on YOUR terms, or pay for a RT taxi to go to the airport to get your bags.

btonkid12345

In this case, OP was on a paid F ticket. So they absolutely should have taken care of getting the bags to them.

Generally, I believe standbys can only be added up to 30 minutes out at most stations. Doors close somewhere between 10-15, but sometimes less, from departure. If OP was standby 30 minutes from departure, DL had plenty of time to find the bags. If they decide not to, and they allow the customer to change airports, yes, they and any other airline should absolutely make sure the customer is reunited with their bags, at the airline's expense.

BenA

tennessetom

davetravels

Deliver them to the OP - Fine. Deliver them when the delivery service is able to get them there! But, if the OP needs them by a certain time the next day, I don't think Delta would have to pay $150 for the OP to take a taxi to the airport and back to get the bags.

The OP still hasn't chimed back in to tell us why he couldn't simply leave the bags with Delta at JFK and pick them up on the way to Paris.

bostontraveler

Well, there were no more flights to LGA that day so it wasn't really that voluntary.

As for picking them up the next day, I needed things in the bag for New York.

I chose based on a lack of choices. There were no other flights operating that day to LGA. It was clearly an IRROPS situation....

Originally Posted by btonkid12345 View Post
In this case, OP was on a paid F ticket. So they absolutely should have taken care of getting the bags to them.

--Apparently no longer as I was downgraded (huh?). But agreed.

Generally, I believe standbys can only be added up to 30 minutes out at most stations. Doors close somewhere between 10-15, but sometimes less, from departure. If OP was standby 30 minutes from departure, DL had plenty of time to find the bags. If they decide not to, and they allow the customer to change airports, yes, they and any other airline should absolutely make sure the customer is reunited with their bags, at the airline's expense.

-- This is exactly what happened. They actually had 45 minutes but I was told in the Skyclub that "normally we would have time but it's crazy down there and we can't today".

--It was not really voluntary. There were no further flights to LGA that day.

Deliver them to the OP - Fine. Deliver them when the delivery service is able to get them there! But, if the OP needs them by a certain time the next day, I don't think Delta would have to pay $150 for the OP to take a taxi to the airport and back to get the bags.

Well wasn't that simple. What they told me was that they could not guarantee I would receive them until Monday since there were thousands of bags awaiting delivery. Since my flight was leaving on Sunday night that wasn't really possible.


The OP still hasn't chimed back in to tell us why he couldn't simply leave the bags with Delta at JFK and pick them up on the way to Paris.

Three reasons- the primary one being I needed things in there that would stay in NYC. The second was that between JFK mismanagement and CDG mismanagement it wasn't a very attractive proposition. Oslo to Zurich? Maybe. Third reason, I would have had three bags sitting in T4 (open, for anyone to grab-- there is nobody there checking tags as I found out...) to lug back to T1 the next day....if they were still there.

Sorry for the sloppiness... haven't figured out this multi-quote reply function.. my answers are above.

TerryK

That's sop, unfortunately. You could request to have bags rerouted to pretty much anywhere but they cannot guarantee delivery time. I once had a bag, checked by DL but flown by DL/KL/AF, forwarded through 4 countries before re-united with me after 10 days. Interesting to note that the bag was not damaged and all contents were intact.

bostontraveler

In normal circumstances, yes. But when an airline has thousands of bags lying around in an unsupervised location for anyone to take- no.

davetravels

I'm a little confused . . . .

You admit that there were weather IROPS, and they likely had many bags displaced, and you still feel that they should have been able to get your bags to you exactly when you wanted them - or else, pay $150 for your round trip taxi to get them?