2+ hour wait for bag
 

Flight arrived at gate 11:26 pm, baggage arrived at claim 1:34 am. Issue was mechanical with cargo hold door. International flight. Told we could not leave customs area without checked baggage. Meanwhile all rental car agencies closed for the night. Lost my hotel I had paid for an hour away. Paid for new hotel at the airport and got rental car the next morning. Odds of Delta reimbursing me for the airport hotel?

What cc did you use for booking? It may be quicker to go through Chase/AMEX/Citi

​​​​​​Sorry to hear all of the nightmare.

What if you didn't have any luggage? Would you still be held?

I would assume not. This reflects the CBP rule that you walk all of your checked luggage through customs.

BTW, has OP contacted the original hotel to explain and ask for a refund or credit toward a future stay? Many hotels will do this, but of course one needs to talk with someone having the authority to do so.

Curious what airport... I saw this horror story at SFO recently and thought of this. They had to have a truck deliver the bags to the oversize claim, then a human chain of people moving them to the conveyor.

Wells Fargo Propel Amex. I don't think it covers anything unless a bag is lost, which it wasn't.

YYZ. Delta outstation with minimal staff. Contracted maintenance didn't even show up for the first hour.

Have had UA pay for my hotel when I arrived, but bags weren’t coming until the next day… but prob because I’m a United 1K
that sort of thing encourages loyalty!

Why did you lose hotel? If it was paid, it was yours regardless of time got there.

Also who said had to stay? Yes in general one must clear bags through customs. However there is procedures in place for when bags don't appear.

File a missing bag report. This doesn't even need be done at airport, if agent refuses/line too long. You can call reservations the next day and get transferred to baggage.. They can open report.. Your bags will be treated the same as if they hadn't been loaded on the flight..

I don't think he lost the hotel room, sounds like he didn't get the rental car in time to get there.

What about taxi/rideshare?

Is this a preclearance airport? Most places in Canada are. If so, passengers and luggage should not have been dumped into customs and immigration upon arrival in the USA.

96 thousand posts and you can't use Google to find that answer?

? OP was flying into YYZ.

I couldn't get to the hotel I had paid for. It was an hour away from the airport and I needed the rental car once I was there. If rental cars were available overnight at YYZ, I wouldn't have had any issue. Didn't help that it's impossible to reach anyone at Hertz counters by phone.

Delta Baggage Service Office employees said anyone who leaves is abandoning their baggage and that it could be returned to origin. They were not taking missing bag reports and did not offer any other assistance with transportation, etc. Most folks were local and just wanted taxi vouchers so their friends/family could go home.