There are some things that are great about living in Orlando. We’re within driving distance from the world’s best themeparks. We don’t have to deal with winter weather, as it’s hot and sunny for most of the year. And since we’re a vacation destination for most of the world, we can get almost anywhere with a single connection, or in rare cases, three flights.
One of the downsides is coming home to Orlando Airport. While I love MCO, the ground crew is in no rush to get bags to arriving passengers. Despite having to walk from your gate to wait for an APM to take you to the main building, then walking down to baggage claim, there’s often still a long wait for bags to arrive on the belt.
If there’s an incoming thunderstorm, a delay is understandable as ground crews can’t work if there’s lightning in the area, for their own safety. However, sometimes you’re just standing there, waiting for your bags. It’s gotten to the point where we don’t rush to baggage claim because we know our bags won’t be there.
But there is one instance when we’ll head directly to baggage claim, and that’s when we’re flying on Delta.
Delta Air Lines has a 20-minute baggage guarantee for all domestic flights operated and marketed by Delta within the United States 50 and Puerto Rico. If your checked bag doesn’t arrive at the baggage claim carousel within 20 minutes of the aircraft door opening, you’re eligible for 2,500 bonus SkyMiles.
To be eligible for the guarantee, you must:
- Be a SkyMiles member in good standing at the time of travel
- Have your SkyMiles number included on your reservation
- Submit a claim within three days of your flight’s arrival
You can submit a claim online at delta.com/bagsontime. You’ll need to provide your flight information, SkyMiles number, and the baggage tag number for your delayed bag.
On a recent flight, we arrived late in the evening. We walked to baggage claim and waited. And waited. And waited.
At 21 minutes after we exited the plane, I texted Sharon that we each just earned 2,500 SkyMiles. It took another 10 minutes for our bags to arrive. I filed our claim as soon as we arrived home.
Immediately after hitting submit, I received a message that our claim was accepted. Delta’s system tracks your bags so they know the exact time when your bags are put on the baggage claim belt.
All I had to do was log back onto my SkyMiles account and the 2,500 miles were already credited to my account.
While Delta does have some loopholes in claiming the baggage guarantee, we didn’t have any problems. We earned 5,000 miles in total for waiting an extra 10 minutes. Since this was our flight home, we were just happy to have our bags and be on our way to our own bed.
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2 comments
Incorrect. They can work in a thunderstorm, but not when lightning is present. Stop posting incorrect information.
Most times in Florida, the two are interchangable but it is an important distinction.