Adding checked luggage on a layover
 

Hey there! I’m intending to stop at the next Delta surplus sale on a 6 hour domestic layover I have next month. Since I’ll obviously have to reclear security, could I also add checked luggage too?

To be clear I won’t have any checked luggage on my first leg into ATL. I would add it at the ticket counter in ATL after stopping at the surplus sale.

Interesting question! You might be prevented from doing so, for “security reasons” (which justifies just about anything these days). Isn’t it highly suspicious to add a bag mid-way?

I had the opposite problem in 2018, flying CHS-ATL-SRQ. I needed to check one bag only to ATL as I was meeting a friend at the airport and wanted to give him a couple of wine bottles I was carrying from Europe. It was absolutely impossible to negotiate this with the check-in ladies. (They said I could only solve it by buying a new ticket, CHS-ATL, but I pointed out that my next leg to SRQ on the original ticket would be canceled then...).

Just to add the solution for my case if anybody is interested: I asked the gate agent on arrival to ATL to kindly pull my checked bag (gave her the number) and she did pull it on the belt at the bag claim area.

This is no problem whatsoever. I have done it multiple times. You can drop bags at either the domestic or international side in ATL regardless of the destination.

Just keep in mind that ATL is an exception airport with a higher time cutoff for dropping bags - 45 mins before departure for domestic, and hour for international.

Not suspicious at all. Happens all the time. This is why the bags are still subjected to a security check like every other checked bag... 🤦‍♂️

What you’re describing in your other example is short checking. Yes, their system blocks this to prevent hidden city travelers. It is nearly impossible to get around for any agent in the current implementation of their check in system.

I’ve never heard of, or seen, a gate agent in ATL (or anywhere for DL) pulling a bag at a connection point/hub, short of an emergency, or a serious delay/cancellation of the onward flight.

You should consider yourself very lucky because the gate agent you had do that for you was definitely at least written up with a warning for doing that for you. They were probably new and didn’t realize it, but any short checking like that is flagged and goes to the Station Management for review because it is seen as a large potential revenue loss.

I checked a bag during a layover in PHL while traveling on American a few years ago. I had been delayed by a traffic problem on the way to my departure airport and arrived at the counter just too late to check a bag, and the agent was inclined not to bend any rules. (In truth, there was a slight chance that a bag checked then wouldn't be loaded.) The bag happened to be small enough to carry on and so I did, then went outside security to check it at PHL since I thought that overhead space might be short on the next leg. The first leg was on a Dash-8 so I didn't have actually to carry it on for that flight.

What you were trying to do may seem similar but is actually very different. You were trying to “short check” a bag. The reason you weren’t allowed to was short checking enables hidden city ticketing. OP is asking about adding a checked bag after completing the first leg. You were asking about only checking it halfway and claiming it during the layover.

What OP seeks to do is easily accomplished and many people do it for all manner of different reasons every day.

Simply bring the bag to check-in and check it in as you would if you were originating at ATL. It does not matter whether you have bags checked through from the first segment. If your "new" bag takes you over your allowance and waiver, the agent will collect the fee.

Not sure where the warnings about security issues come from as there are none and I doubt that anyone here can point to an issue that has arisen on the specific facts OP presented.

OP says six hours an ATL, but I wonder whether the "layover" is a connection or a stopover. PreCOVID-19, the line was four hours for domestic and there were also time limits for bags being checked through, even on long connections. IIRC over six hours on a domestic itinerary is considered a stopover now, but OP's six hours could be under or over. It might be useful to look at the fare construction on the ticket to see whether there's a broken fare.

Except for a very few airport you can check bags anytime same day before flight from it. Domestically your bag may even fly before you do. Regardless 6hrs is when you can short check, 12hrs is when you must short check domestically.

DL routinely offers 6 hour connections. While 4 hours remains the domestic rule of thumb, one must look at the fare rules for the specific ticket.

Due to CV reductions 6 hours is the new cutoff for connections domestically.

You didn’t have to exit security and do all of that if the bag was small enough to take to the gate.

You could have just asked either the first or the second flight’s gate agent to simply check the bag for you to the final destination. They can print the white baggage tags at all gates.

I’ve done this frequently with DL when my bag fit through security but I was too late to check, and didn’t want to check. No problems whatsoever and the agents are happy to accommodate at the gate and free up overhead bin space.

I’ve also advised senior citizens who may already have hit their business class checked bag allowance on DL at check in - but have carry ons that they don’t want to/can’t lift to the height of the bins - to not pay the extra checked bag fee for a carry on sized item, but rather take it to the gate, where the agent will be happy to check it for you without a fee.

I remember having to do this once shortly after they instituted the liquids rule. Had bought some liquor at duty free and they hadn't fully developed the system where the duty free store seals it up, and I had to go through security again. Had to put the liquor in my carry on and check it.

One way around this, that I've had done before several times, is to clear a CARNET at customs.
I always call to have the information added to my record, then when I get denied at the counter, they check the record for the notes and see that it's literally a legal reason that I have to go to the customs office in ATL or LAX to get stamped before leaving the country.
But yes, they will vehemently tell me that it can't be done, until they check the record and/or call a super over.