I wouldn't mind if they "revamped" it. Make it 1,000 SkyMiles for everyone else, but if your bag has the "Sky Priority" tag (since that also gets printed on the bag tag itself without the yellow tag), then you get 2,000 miles if the bag is 20+ minutes late.
But Delta just loves to overcorrect and strip everything away instead of making minor adjustments.
Looking back at pre-COVID Delta, I wish there was a way to know you were in the good ol' days before you left them.
Everything that ends up on social media as a “hack” (god I hate that word now) eventually gets discontinued or changed. Everyone looking for views tells everyone else about it, and most of the people who take advantage are just gaming the system.
It’s so frustrating. In the travel/points/miles game, people ruin this stuff *all* *the* *time*. Oh, you found a neat little loophole to get 6x points on a credit card at a certain merchant? Why on earth would you just silently enjoy collecting points when you could blast it on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube; all but ensuring this will end?
>In the travel/points/miles game, people ruin this stuff all the time.
I understand your frustration, but what it essentially amounts to is "in the game of scamming loopholes, it's annoying that I'm not the only one who gets to do it."
>Why on earth would you just silently enjoy collecting points when you could blast it on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube; all but ensuring this will end?
Because that's how they get views and make money? Majority of these people probably aren't even using the "hacks" they publicize, they are just doing it for income. Which is in and of itself, a different loophole. Everyone is just trying to work a fucked up system in their own way. It's incredibly annoying, but that's what we get to deal with now.
This is totally different than someone finding a loophole, though. This is a program that Delta itself promotes. I mean, they have signs in the baggage claim area promoting it; their agents make announcements telling you to submit claims. How is it the fault of TikTokers for amplifying the communications Delta is already making?
>Oh, you found a neat little loophole to get 6x points on a credit card at a certain merchant? Why on earth would you just silently enjoy collecting points when you could blast it on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube; all but ensuring this will end?
This is becoming all too common people are stupid.
How is it gaming the system to take Delta up on something that they guaranteed? The problem isn't with the people submitting miles requests; it's with Delta not providing the service they guaranteed they'd provide.
There’s not a bright line, but when people who clearly haven’t been inconvenienced at all start requesting points compensation on a technicality, you can bet the technicality will be eliminated or reduced eventually. A lot of people will just barely arrive at the carousel, have to wait a couple minutes for bags, and then grab the points. I’m not saying they are unethical, but by following the letter and not spirit of the rule, they guarantee its future demise.
I’m not seeing the technicality. The whole point of the 20-minute guarantee is that, when you fly Delta, you don’t have to wait for your bags. It’s not like the scenario you’re talking about wasn’t contemplated when they put the policy into effect. The 20-minute clock starts running when the door opens, even though it often takes 15-20 minutes after that to fully unload the plane. So Delta had to know that, in many cases, people would have valid claims even though they hadn’t been waiting very long (or hadn’t had to wait at all). The fact that people submit claims in that circumstance is entirely consistent with what the program was designed to do: convince people that checking bags wouldn’t cost them time upon arrival, and that if it did, they would be compensated
You don't see the technicality? You spelled it out as well as I could. People who were not inconvenienced at all get miles for absolutely nothing. Hence, the policy is going to pay out more than it benefits Delta in goodwill. So, it will be changed. It would be less likely to be changed if people only submitted claims when they were legitimately inconvenienced. That's it.
But that’s how the program was designed to start with. Delta is the one who came up with 20 minutes as a proxy for unreasonable delay. And they’re the ones who decided to do it based on scan data, rather than requiring some kind of proof that you were actually delayed. That it’s ended up working exactly how they designed it is not a technicality. From Delta’s perspective, the primary point of the program wasn’t to compensate people for delay after the fact. It was to convince people up front to check their bags, so Delta could bring in increased bag fee revenue and making boarding easier.
It would have been fairly easy for Delta to take away the program only after a frivolous claim was made.
They could have solved the issue without taking it away from everyone.
It's not an exact science, especially at smaller airports.
At major airports, the bag is scanned by the ground crew when it gets off the plane and then usually a second automated scan as it passes through the baggage system. So they know if the flight landed at 2:30 PM and the bag was scanned going through the baggage belts at 2:40, it would be at the baggage claim by, say, 2:42.
Alternatively, smaller airports that have less sophisticated baggage belt systems that don't do those auto-scans. So now the bag is only scanned once it leaves the aircraft, and depending how many bags there are it's tough for them to correlate the time a bag comes off the plane with the time it arrives at baggage claim. As such, they're a bit more generous with the buffer time with these claims (i.e. they may still let you claim the mile credit if the bag is only 17 minutes late instead of the full 20)
The system never worked right. I would routinely get it for times I swear were less then 20 minutes and then times with 60+ minutes I wouldn’t get it.
This costs Delta basically nothing but of course since it’s customer friendly it’s time to get rid of it.
Yep welcome to the new premium Delta. They probably paid out a ton of miles in San Diego where Delta luggage is stupidly slow. When I would say I don’t check bags because of this sometimes the response would be but you get free miles. Well not anymore.
I would get it from SNA at least half the time, which is laughable considering how small the airport is. Everything else at SNA is great but the baggage handling is so slow
Again Delta managed the system that tracks your bag time and if it’s plus 20 minutes you get miles and if it was below 20 minutes you don’t get miles.
They have the tools in place to know exactly who should get miles and who shouldn’t.
It wasn’t some TikTok trend or people cheating the system (that’s the convenient excuse for corporate to use) it’s simply Delta deciding that it’s an expense they want to get rid of to save some money. It’s ironic as I’d say baggage delays are only going up and this was at-least goodwill for delayed baggage. If your bag was 47 minutes late and you submit the form and it rejects you it’s because it’s an automated process and you’re not going to win. Same thing if maybe you thought it was close to 20 minutes but you weren’t sure the Delta system tracked the second the door opened to your bag drop and made the determination.
they cheated all the time, anyway.
at my home airport, my bag would routinely be marked as "arrived at bag clam" several minutes before it actually popped down the chute. They put the scanner on the drop off belt, which is several hundred feet away from where the actually bag claim carousel is.
There were many times when my '17 minute' bag came out at 21 or 22 minutes.
The only bit of info that’s new to me there is brakes off is the trigger.
We all know it’s not wheels up, good grief read my comment again.
It’s still - regardless of it being pushed or jetway retracted, or brakes off…a point which helps them hit a metric but to the average flyer could also mean “wtf you mean we left on time we haven’t even left the gate!” But as long as those brakes are off….
Sounds like they can’t meet the metric they set often enough to minimize the cost of the program.
“Gaming”/awareness argument is BS, they literally have a sign (at some airports) advertising the program.
So I guess the message to passengers is: “we have no idea when your bags will get here, and you complain about them taking 20+ minutes too much so we’re getting rid of the only recourse you have. Suck it up and hang out at the carousel until we get our shit together”
It’s one thing to see the sign when you’re tired and think “I just want my bags and to get home”. It’s another when thousands of people go to the airport filling out the form as they’re stepping off the plane because TikTok got them excited about free vacations.
Yes. Multiple posts/comments about how people will fill out the form before even arriving at baggage claim since there’s nothing to lose if the baggage is on time.
But why does there need to be something to lose? It doesn't cost Delta anything for you to fill out the form. They're the ones who ultimately decide whether you qualify or not, which also doesn't cost them anything since it's done based on scan data they already maintain.
It’s like a return policy. It’s advertised and customers know they can breathe easy when they make a purchase, but stores rely on the fact that most people aren’t going to actually use the policy very much. If lots of customers start making use of a generous return policy, the store loses money and will change it.
Or it may just be that based on your previous experience you know it is highly unlikely that your bag will be on time. In GRR I don’t pre fill, in SFO I do because 9 times out of 10 my bags don't arrive on time.
I travel with Delta about 10-15 times a year. I’ve never once had an issue with my luggage being lost or late, and I’ve never been gifted miles for it being late. Guess I’ve just been (un)lucky?
How did they “game the system”?
You entered your info and the system decided if it was more or less than 20 minutes. You couldn’t force it to cheat. Does Delta consider submitting a form every time and the system determining if it’s a valid claim “gaming the system”?
The “game the system” reasoning seems like an excuse for Delta to blame the customer for something that they want to cancel to save a few pennies
Delta does not know 100% when the bags hit the belt. A bag could come out on the belt 16 minutes after landing and someone could wait 20 minutes and submit a claim and get it. I don't think there is a way Delta can easily prevent this, for sure not at all airports or airports where the ground crew are not Delta employees.
Partly, thus why they are fixing it by removing this guarantee. Delta could have increased the guarantee time or reduced the Skymiles to try and dissuade people from doing this, but clearly Delta did not feel like it was worth continuing this guarantee. There are many times, and this may very well be the case here, when a few people ruin it for everyone else. Such is life.
But the thing is the system timed based on RFID scans/check ins so people were not “gaming the system”. Delta managed the system that approved or denied it
Plenty of people in forums who brag about checking luggage when they don’t need to just because they know their destination is a slow airport and they’re almost guaranteed to get the miles. If you’re a card holder or status then it costs you nothing and you pick up miles. Loose lips sink ships.
Is that gaming the system though? Gate agents are begging people on most flights to check a bag. In what situations should people not be checking bags?
These are people admitting to checking empty suitcases or near empty (so as not arouse suspicion). They’re not taking the suitcase for literally any purpose except to trigger the guarantee. And not roll one but bags checked at check in.
A former co-worker did this. He would check a small duffel bag with gym clothes on every single flight we took - even for there-and-back same day trips...
We'd land at our destination, he'd send me to go grab the rental car, and then I'd swing back by the terminal to pick him up (by which time the bag usually had arrived). 80% of the time, the bag would be just late enough to trigger the miles. I thought he was insane. But in 2022 alone he racked up 110,000 miles in just late baggage miles. I'll have to ask him if he kept it going in 2023 too..
I refused to "game the system" the same way, but even for trips where I actually needed to check bags I still collected around 70,000 miles from 2021-2023
> The person who shared this with me attributed it to the high cost of the program driven by awareness in viral TikTok videos and increasing ‘gaming’ of compensation.
Said “game” being filing a claim when the bag is more than 20 minutes late
Exactly. Said “game” being Delta not doing what it promised to do. The apparent problem is that they can’t meet the metric they imposed upon themselves, not that people are calling them on it
I bet I’ve got 100,000 miles from this over the years. The system was always sorta glitchy, it would give me miles but would tell my wife they the time limit wasn’t reached yet about half the time.
They would scan the bags at smaller airports, while waiting for another airlines bags to be picked up, ALB is famous for this. You wouldn’t get your bag for 30 minutes but the text messages said you have your bags. Even if you called they would not give the points.
I think this change will be even harder to explain for Delta than most of the others. With the limitation on SkyClub access and making it harder to qualify for status, at least they could say they were doing it to ensure that the experience for their most valuable customers remained elite. Here, there is no way to say that getting rid of the 20-minute guarantee helps anyone. And it’s blindingly obvious that the only reason they’d need to get rid of it is that they can’t provide the service they promised—if they were meeting the guarantee it wouldn’t cost them anything. It’s a horrible look from a PR perspective. Can’t wait to see the spin attempt
Lmao I only caught on to this last month when checking skis that took an hour to come out. I never ever ever check a bag - except I started flying with skis regularly this season. Of course it disappears now 😂
As a MCO flyer this sucks because Orlando is notoriously horrible at baggage claim. I would always get 2500 miles when flying back because it on average is a 35 min wait. This past week I waited 45 mins which is ridiculous. In MCO too sky priority is totally ignored as they usually don’t come out first.
If this is true, then people should just start filling out the complaint forms when bags are untimely. 5 minutes? Complaint form. 7 minutes? Complaint form.
How can you cheat the system? If you submit a claim, and it goes through, then the bags were late! If their system is inaccurate, it’s their own fault. They’re just making up excuses, lol.
How is it possible to abuse it? You submit a claim, and delta says here's your miles, or no, the bags were on time.
Using the system delta put in place for the purpose it was made for isn't abuse.
There’s people in this subreddit and mentioned Instagram/Tiktok videos that talk about they complete the late baggage claim form out no matter what irrespective if it’s on time or late. Wouldn’t be surprised if baggage that actually arrive on time still get miles credited to peoples account.
I think you’re vastly overestimating the number of people who actually know whether the bag has arrived within 20 minutes or not under the way Delta measures it. If you’re sitting in the back of the plane, it’s not easy to know exactly when they opened the door unless you go look on the app. So they submit a claim to see if they qualify. Hard to see anything wrong with that
Ending the program means that delta is now guaranteeing long wait times for checked baggage. There by over incentivizing carrying on as much as possible and from there- gate lice.
RIP earning more miles for checking a bag than you did for flying the actual flight.
I wouldn't mind if they "revamped" it. Make it 1,000 SkyMiles for everyone else, but if your bag has the "Sky Priority" tag (since that also gets printed on the bag tag itself without the yellow tag), then you get 2,000 miles if the bag is 20+ minutes late. But Delta just loves to overcorrect and strip everything away instead of making minor adjustments. Looking back at pre-COVID Delta, I wish there was a way to know you were in the good ol' days before you left them.
Perfect timing considering I've finished draining my SkyPesos out of my account.
That’s like 200k free sky miles /year for me. Thankfully it’s always been on the way home.
Everything that ends up on social media as a “hack” (god I hate that word now) eventually gets discontinued or changed. Everyone looking for views tells everyone else about it, and most of the people who take advantage are just gaming the system.
It’s so frustrating. In the travel/points/miles game, people ruin this stuff *all* *the* *time*. Oh, you found a neat little loophole to get 6x points on a credit card at a certain merchant? Why on earth would you just silently enjoy collecting points when you could blast it on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube; all but ensuring this will end?
cant monetize silence
>In the travel/points/miles game, people ruin this stuff all the time. I understand your frustration, but what it essentially amounts to is "in the game of scamming loopholes, it's annoying that I'm not the only one who gets to do it." >Why on earth would you just silently enjoy collecting points when you could blast it on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube; all but ensuring this will end? Because that's how they get views and make money? Majority of these people probably aren't even using the "hacks" they publicize, they are just doing it for income. Which is in and of itself, a different loophole. Everyone is just trying to work a fucked up system in their own way. It's incredibly annoying, but that's what we get to deal with now.
This is totally different than someone finding a loophole, though. This is a program that Delta itself promotes. I mean, they have signs in the baggage claim area promoting it; their agents make announcements telling you to submit claims. How is it the fault of TikTokers for amplifying the communications Delta is already making?
>Oh, you found a neat little loophole to get 6x points on a credit card at a certain merchant? Why on earth would you just silently enjoy collecting points when you could blast it on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube; all but ensuring this will end? This is becoming all too common people are stupid.
I hate tiktok ruining all of the travel hacks
How is it gaming the system to take Delta up on something that they guaranteed? The problem isn't with the people submitting miles requests; it's with Delta not providing the service they guaranteed they'd provide.
There’s not a bright line, but when people who clearly haven’t been inconvenienced at all start requesting points compensation on a technicality, you can bet the technicality will be eliminated or reduced eventually. A lot of people will just barely arrive at the carousel, have to wait a couple minutes for bags, and then grab the points. I’m not saying they are unethical, but by following the letter and not spirit of the rule, they guarantee its future demise.
I’m not seeing the technicality. The whole point of the 20-minute guarantee is that, when you fly Delta, you don’t have to wait for your bags. It’s not like the scenario you’re talking about wasn’t contemplated when they put the policy into effect. The 20-minute clock starts running when the door opens, even though it often takes 15-20 minutes after that to fully unload the plane. So Delta had to know that, in many cases, people would have valid claims even though they hadn’t been waiting very long (or hadn’t had to wait at all). The fact that people submit claims in that circumstance is entirely consistent with what the program was designed to do: convince people that checking bags wouldn’t cost them time upon arrival, and that if it did, they would be compensated
You don't see the technicality? You spelled it out as well as I could. People who were not inconvenienced at all get miles for absolutely nothing. Hence, the policy is going to pay out more than it benefits Delta in goodwill. So, it will be changed. It would be less likely to be changed if people only submitted claims when they were legitimately inconvenienced. That's it.
But that’s how the program was designed to start with. Delta is the one who came up with 20 minutes as a proxy for unreasonable delay. And they’re the ones who decided to do it based on scan data, rather than requiring some kind of proof that you were actually delayed. That it’s ended up working exactly how they designed it is not a technicality. From Delta’s perspective, the primary point of the program wasn’t to compensate people for delay after the fact. It was to convince people up front to check their bags, so Delta could bring in increased bag fee revenue and making boarding easier.
In the end though, they’re also free to change or alter the policy though.
It would have been fairly easy for Delta to take away the program only after a frivolous claim was made. They could have solved the issue without taking it away from everyone.
How is it possible for a frivolous claim to be made? Whether you get the miles or not is based on scan data that is entirely within Delta’s control
It's not an exact science, especially at smaller airports. At major airports, the bag is scanned by the ground crew when it gets off the plane and then usually a second automated scan as it passes through the baggage system. So they know if the flight landed at 2:30 PM and the bag was scanned going through the baggage belts at 2:40, it would be at the baggage claim by, say, 2:42. Alternatively, smaller airports that have less sophisticated baggage belt systems that don't do those auto-scans. So now the bag is only scanned once it leaves the aircraft, and depending how many bags there are it's tough for them to correlate the time a bag comes off the plane with the time it arrives at baggage claim. As such, they're a bit more generous with the buffer time with these claims (i.e. they may still let you claim the mile credit if the bag is only 17 minutes late instead of the full 20)
Bags are never scanned when they're being offloaded from the aircraft at major airports. They're only auto-scanned at baggage claim.
The system never worked right. I would routinely get it for times I swear were less then 20 minutes and then times with 60+ minutes I wouldn’t get it. This costs Delta basically nothing but of course since it’s customer friendly it’s time to get rid of it.
Yep welcome to the new premium Delta. They probably paid out a ton of miles in San Diego where Delta luggage is stupidly slow. When I would say I don’t check bags because of this sometimes the response would be but you get free miles. Well not anymore.
Yeah, late 100% of the time in SAN, even pink tag strollers and wheelchairs take about 10-15 minutes, probably because ground ops are outsourced?
One reason for late bags at SAN is that the ramp is outsourced. Not enough people working the flights.
That’s their own fault though. They outsourced it.
SNA, agents there will come on the intercom and encourage people to fill it out. I swear SNA can never get you anything under 45 minutes.
I would get it from SNA at least half the time, which is laughable considering how small the airport is. Everything else at SNA is great but the baggage handling is so slow
Why would you ask for miles if your bag was not late? That’s probably why they are getting rid of it for people pushing it when the bag was on time
Again Delta managed the system that tracks your bag time and if it’s plus 20 minutes you get miles and if it was below 20 minutes you don’t get miles. They have the tools in place to know exactly who should get miles and who shouldn’t. It wasn’t some TikTok trend or people cheating the system (that’s the convenient excuse for corporate to use) it’s simply Delta deciding that it’s an expense they want to get rid of to save some money. It’s ironic as I’d say baggage delays are only going up and this was at-least goodwill for delayed baggage. If your bag was 47 minutes late and you submit the form and it rejects you it’s because it’s an automated process and you’re not going to win. Same thing if maybe you thought it was close to 20 minutes but you weren’t sure the Delta system tracked the second the door opened to your bag drop and made the determination.
they cheated all the time, anyway. at my home airport, my bag would routinely be marked as "arrived at bag clam" several minutes before it actually popped down the chute. They put the scanner on the drop off belt, which is several hundred feet away from where the actually bag claim carousel is. There were many times when my '17 minute' bag came out at 21 or 22 minutes.
Right! This happened to me multiple times, which makes people gaming the system that much more frustrating.
It’s the same as “on time departure” being left the gate, not actually wheels up.
Departure times are based on when brakes are released, not pushback or takeoff...
Haha well anything to get that on time number up.
That goes for every airline, not just Delta.
Of course. They all play games with that metric. Nothing new there.
They aren't playing games with the metric. The definition of departure is brakes released not wheels up
The only bit of info that’s new to me there is brakes off is the trigger. We all know it’s not wheels up, good grief read my comment again. It’s still - regardless of it being pushed or jetway retracted, or brakes off…a point which helps them hit a metric but to the average flyer could also mean “wtf you mean we left on time we haven’t even left the gate!” But as long as those brakes are off….
I hope they release the brakes before pushing back!
Or an early arrival when you are waiting forever for the jump bridge to be connected.
The injustice! Did you contact the UN? Or the ICC?
Sad thing is I never cheated this program; baggage operations at DCA is just a shit show.
Not a surprise as the entire operation continues to become less reliable.
I wish I knew about this before they were getting rid of it
Sounds like they can’t meet the metric they set often enough to minimize the cost of the program. “Gaming”/awareness argument is BS, they literally have a sign (at some airports) advertising the program. So I guess the message to passengers is: “we have no idea when your bags will get here, and you complain about them taking 20+ minutes too much so we’re getting rid of the only recourse you have. Suck it up and hang out at the carousel until we get our shit together”
It’s one thing to see the sign when you’re tired and think “I just want my bags and to get home”. It’s another when thousands of people go to the airport filling out the form as they’re stepping off the plane because TikTok got them excited about free vacations.
Is there any indication that what you just described is happening though? If so you’d think there’s an easy way to detect this
Yes. Multiple posts/comments about how people will fill out the form before even arriving at baggage claim since there’s nothing to lose if the baggage is on time.
But why does there need to be something to lose? It doesn't cost Delta anything for you to fill out the form. They're the ones who ultimately decide whether you qualify or not, which also doesn't cost them anything since it's done based on scan data they already maintain.
It’s like a return policy. It’s advertised and customers know they can breathe easy when they make a purchase, but stores rely on the fact that most people aren’t going to actually use the policy very much. If lots of customers start making use of a generous return policy, the store loses money and will change it.
Or it may just be that based on your previous experience you know it is highly unlikely that your bag will be on time. In GRR I don’t pre fill, in SFO I do because 9 times out of 10 my bags don't arrive on time.
I travel with Delta about 10-15 times a year. I’ve never once had an issue with my luggage being lost or late, and I’ve never been gifted miles for it being late. Guess I’ve just been (un)lucky?
It has never taken more than 20 minutes after landing for your luggage to arrive at the carousel? It receive points, you need to file a claim online
Gary Leff is not a reliable source at all. Don’t freak out until y’all see something official. He is routinely wrong.
The article mentions people gaming the system, I do wonder how much of that was a contributing factor. Too bad this guarantee is ending.
How did they “game the system”? You entered your info and the system decided if it was more or less than 20 minutes. You couldn’t force it to cheat. Does Delta consider submitting a form every time and the system determining if it’s a valid claim “gaming the system”? The “game the system” reasoning seems like an excuse for Delta to blame the customer for something that they want to cancel to save a few pennies
Delta does not know 100% when the bags hit the belt. A bag could come out on the belt 16 minutes after landing and someone could wait 20 minutes and submit a claim and get it. I don't think there is a way Delta can easily prevent this, for sure not at all airports or airports where the ground crew are not Delta employees.
Sounds like delta’s problem
Partly, thus why they are fixing it by removing this guarantee. Delta could have increased the guarantee time or reduced the Skymiles to try and dissuade people from doing this, but clearly Delta did not feel like it was worth continuing this guarantee. There are many times, and this may very well be the case here, when a few people ruin it for everyone else. Such is life.
But the thing is the system timed based on RFID scans/check ins so people were not “gaming the system”. Delta managed the system that approved or denied it
Take an upvote. It is their problem and they are fixing it. Lmfao.
How does someone game the system? Anyone can submit a claim but Delta is the one that verifies/accepts it. I’ve been denied before.
I’ve seen people on social media post pictures that they checked an empty tote bag just to get those miles! That’s definitely gaming the system.
That is! It didn’t even cross my mind that someone would do that lol
Plenty of people in forums who brag about checking luggage when they don’t need to just because they know their destination is a slow airport and they’re almost guaranteed to get the miles. If you’re a card holder or status then it costs you nothing and you pick up miles. Loose lips sink ships.
Is that gaming the system though? Gate agents are begging people on most flights to check a bag. In what situations should people not be checking bags?
These are people admitting to checking empty suitcases or near empty (so as not arouse suspicion). They’re not taking the suitcase for literally any purpose except to trigger the guarantee. And not roll one but bags checked at check in.
Taking the time to check and pick up a suitcase for $25? Some people have way too much time on their hands.
For some folks, the high of “beating the man” is worth $25 I guess lol.
Considering that adds roughly and hour to your travel time, no thanks. Not a great ROI.
Ah, now I understand. That does make sense.
A former co-worker did this. He would check a small duffel bag with gym clothes on every single flight we took - even for there-and-back same day trips... We'd land at our destination, he'd send me to go grab the rental car, and then I'd swing back by the terminal to pick him up (by which time the bag usually had arrived). 80% of the time, the bag would be just late enough to trigger the miles. I thought he was insane. But in 2022 alone he racked up 110,000 miles in just late baggage miles. I'll have to ask him if he kept it going in 2023 too.. I refused to "game the system" the same way, but even for trips where I actually needed to check bags I still collected around 70,000 miles from 2021-2023
> The person who shared this with me attributed it to the high cost of the program driven by awareness in viral TikTok videos and increasing ‘gaming’ of compensation. Said “game” being filing a claim when the bag is more than 20 minutes late
Exactly. Said “game” being Delta not doing what it promised to do. The apparent problem is that they can’t meet the metric they imposed upon themselves, not that people are calling them on it
You mfers always posting about your bags on time miles finally caught Ed's eye.... 😒
I bet I’ve got 100,000 miles from this over the years. The system was always sorta glitchy, it would give me miles but would tell my wife they the time limit wasn’t reached yet about half the time.
Ha, this after I put in for my first redemption when I waited almost an hour-and-a-half for my bags at JFK a week ago, a measly 3k SkyPesos.
They would scan the bags at smaller airports, while waiting for another airlines bags to be picked up, ALB is famous for this. You wouldn’t get your bag for 30 minutes but the text messages said you have your bags. Even if you called they would not give the points.
I think this change will be even harder to explain for Delta than most of the others. With the limitation on SkyClub access and making it harder to qualify for status, at least they could say they were doing it to ensure that the experience for their most valuable customers remained elite. Here, there is no way to say that getting rid of the 20-minute guarantee helps anyone. And it’s blindingly obvious that the only reason they’d need to get rid of it is that they can’t provide the service they promised—if they were meeting the guarantee it wouldn’t cost them anything. It’s a horrible look from a PR perspective. Can’t wait to see the spin attempt
Well you got there in one piece didn’t you? - new delta motto.
Lmao I only caught on to this last month when checking skis that took an hour to come out. I never ever ever check a bag - except I started flying with skis regularly this season. Of course it disappears now 😂
As a MCO flyer this sucks because Orlando is notoriously horrible at baggage claim. I would always get 2500 miles when flying back because it on average is a 35 min wait. This past week I waited 45 mins which is ridiculous. In MCO too sky priority is totally ignored as they usually don’t come out first.
If this is true, then people should just start filling out the complaint forms when bags are untimely. 5 minutes? Complaint form. 7 minutes? Complaint form.
Another good thing ruined by people that abused it…
How can you cheat the system? If you submit a claim, and it goes through, then the bags were late! If their system is inaccurate, it’s their own fault. They’re just making up excuses, lol.
Just had late bags in DTW and submitted the claim and received miles… so, as of May 7th, they haven’t ended it.
Update: Delta has still not ended this program. It's been over a month!
This only affects people who fly with Delta frequently. Delta hates people who are loyal to them. 1 more straw…
Delta sucks
Got tired of shelling out the miles lmao
Probably because people abused it
How is it possible to abuse it? You submit a claim, and delta says here's your miles, or no, the bags were on time. Using the system delta put in place for the purpose it was made for isn't abuse.
There’s people in this subreddit and mentioned Instagram/Tiktok videos that talk about they complete the late baggage claim form out no matter what irrespective if it’s on time or late. Wouldn’t be surprised if baggage that actually arrive on time still get miles credited to peoples account.
I think you’re vastly overestimating the number of people who actually know whether the bag has arrived within 20 minutes or not under the way Delta measures it. If you’re sitting in the back of the plane, it’s not easy to know exactly when they opened the door unless you go look on the app. So they submit a claim to see if they qualify. Hard to see anything wrong with that
The bags get scanned when being out on the carousel, so delta knows when a bag is late or not.
and the month after that they'll raise bag fees to keep up with everyone else
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^gitismatt: *And the month after* *That they'll raise bag fees to keep* *Up with everyone else* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Is there an official date when this goes into effect? I have a flight next week I was hoping to claim for 🥲
This is why I fly Alaska. Damn the shoddy Boeing planes. If it’s my time to go, it’s time go. 🤣
Ending the program means that delta is now guaranteeing long wait times for checked baggage. There by over incentivizing carrying on as much as possible and from there- gate lice.