Delta Airlines, Checked Baggage

[Thanyaburi Mac]

Just curious, is Delta checking closely for overweight bags when you check in at Swampy? Are they really picky about the 50 pounds/23 kg limit, before charging for overweight?

Three years back coming out of PDX on United, the check-in gal didn't even bother weighing my 67 pound bag. Great!

Two years back, also coming out of PDX, the check-in gal must have had a bad night. She held right to the 50 pounds, and sort of giggled when I started pulling things out to get down to 50#. Handed the non-essentials over to my sister who lives in the area so was OK, but not a real happy camper.

Delta??

Mac

[IMA_FARANG]

Undoubtedly, they are or will be.

The last time I flew a long-haul flight from BKK to Boston was in June 2011. That was with United airlines. They were announcing then new stricter baggage rules to take effect in July 2011 at the departure lounge for long-haul flights from the U.S. Surely other airlines have put the same or similar rules in effect now.

Some things you need to know:

1. From the airlines viewpoint...baggage doesn't make them any profit...passengers do. From that viewpoint it makes economic sense to enforce baggage rules...because every kilo of baggage consumes extra fuel to carry it with no money from that baggage to compensate for that fuel cost.

2. There is an IATA (IATA rules must be followed by all commercial airlines flying international routes) that mandates a minimum fuel left on arrival at destination airport requirement for all international flights. The purpose of this requirement is safety...so that that aircraft arriving has enough fuel left in case of landing delays to circle the airport for 30 minutes if required. That rule is now being enforced more strictly by IATA. Airlines can pay a hefty fine for violating this IATA rule.

3. It makes economic sense to have more long-haul flights with minimum stopovers...because each take-off consumes a lot of expensive fuel.

4. Most airlines use a computer program at check-in that automatically calculates the:

estimated passenger wieght

passemger baggage

in-flight weather information on that particular route

estimated delay times for destination airport

and fuel consumption of that type of aircrfat.

From these , and the number of passengers, the program calculates how much fuel is likely to be required/used on that particular flight. This information is shown on the computer for that flight when you check-in. The check-in clerk COULD be fired of disciplined if he/she let you "get away with" a few extra pounds of luggage on that particular flight which is in the yellow warning or red danger zones as shown on his/her computer.

Bottom line: those facts above mean you can expect more and closer baggage checks...especially on long-haul flights...to become more common.

[Thanyaburi Mac]

Good reply, thanks.

But, next trip I take to the U.S. will be back to EVA or try one of the other airlines who still have the free two checked bags at 50 pounds each rule.

Delta charges $60 for the 2nd bag, United charges $60.

Mac

[lomatopo]

You can search for first-hand experiences here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles-665/

In general I would plan on having to pay, and at $60 just go for the second bag option, unless that breaks the bank.

Airlines are making a lot of money on, let's say non-ticket related items these days and excess baggage fees are a pretty large percentage of this ancillary revenue.

UA always weighs my bags ex-USA and ex-BKK.

[stickyrice2000]

It depends on where you departed or landed. If you have to take domestic flight to reach your state, you should not exceed 50 pounds. If you depart or return to the state directly from/to international flight, you may be allow higher weights. You might want to check with the airline to confirm.