AJC: Delta criticized for charging returning soldiers $200 each for extra bags

[Bliz]

is responding to a firestorm of criticism emerging from an incident on Monday in which a group of U.S. soldiers returning home from deployment in Afghanistan was charged $200 each for extra bags on a connecting flight to Atlanta.

According to a video shot on the plane by Staff Sgts. Fred Hilliker and Robert O’Hair and later posted on , the soldiers were authorized to check as many as four bags, free of charge. But on their flight from Baltimore to Atlanta, they were hit with a $200 fee per soldier for a fourth bag, with the group paying a total of $2,800.

In a blog posting on Delta’s website, the airline’s social media manager, identified only as “Rachel R.,” apologized for the incident and outlined a policy that allows three bags per military passenger in coach, and four per passenger in business and first class.

more at

[SkinInsite]

Public relations, not a strong suit of Delta.

[Unforgiven]

Why would they possibly try and justify this? It seems like even if they meant to charge them, when this hit the fan they would simply lie and say it was a misunderstanding and they would refund their money. The PR hit from something like this is a million times more costly than letting them have a fourth bag for free.

[Predicto]

PR nightmare. Some middle manager screwed up, and is going to get chewed out royally.

[Special K]

**** DELTA!!!

I've had such bad experiences with Delta, Delta flight attendants, and on and on and on. I'm a pretty non-reactionary person (in public), but even I was pushed to flipping out on a flight attendant when I was coming home from Africa b/c she was being such an unreasonable beyotch.

United can KMA too.

Domestically, it's Southwest all the way, whenever I can. I love their baggage policy and their NICE flight attendants!

[Dan T.]

Meh, if the policy was established and known, tough crap for those soldiers. Their whining elicits no sympathy from me. Now, if they were misled about having to pay for a bag beyond what is allowed, then they have a legitimate concern.

And I see that Delta has now changed its policy, now allowing four checked bags (5 for first class) for soldiers traveling on orders.

[Corcaigh]

I don't know who was at fault in the soldiers case. The Pentagon has to pay its way if it's using commercial carriers.

However, airlines do dumb **** all the time because many really don't care about treating customers properly.

I could give you a dozen examples from my personal experience where a customer who had spent tens of thousands of dollars with them, got treated badly rather than they spend a few hundred dollars to fix their mistake.

Sometimes individual employees may do their best to overcome this, but more typically they just want to move onto the next schmuck.

[Unforgiven]

It seems pretty simple, according to the video the United States government has a contract with Delta that allows soldiers up to 4 bags when returning from Afghanistan or on military orders. When the soldiers arrived they were charged for any bag over the standard 3 bag limit. The point being they are claiming Delta did not honor the contract between themselves and US government and ignored the military orders the soldiers had.

This is assuming the soldiers were being entirely honest, and from what I can tell they seemed to be. The video wasn't overly dramatic in any way and they didn't seem to exaggerate any claims, just stated the facts of the situation.

[DM72]

That's BS on Delta's part. They should be ashamed of themselves. I will be traveling later this month with three others and lets just say that those overhead bins will get a workout.

[Sticksboi05]

**** DELTA!!!

I've had such bad experiences with Delta, Delta flight attendants, and on and on and on. I'm a pretty non-reactionary person (in public), but even I was pushed to flipping out on a flight attendant when I was coming home from Africa b/c she was being such an unreasonable beyotch.

United can KMA too.

Domestically, it's Southwest all the way, whenever I can. I love their baggage policy and their NICE flight attendants!

Southwest is the best.

[DM72]

Southwest is the best.

They seem very expensive.

[Mickalino]

Pretty much all airlines suck.

[Redskins Diehard]

May be a pain but these guys can get reimbursed for the baggage charge. By the military. As long as the military authorized them to have the number of bags they had.

[afkidd]

May be a pain but these guys can get reimbursed for the baggage charge. By the military. As long as the military authorized them to have the number of bags they had.

what he said. it looks bad if you don't know how the military does it's travel, that's about it. i've never had to pay for a bag, even in Europe where you pay for all luggage that isn't ur carry on.

[Dan T.]

It seems pretty simple, according to the video the United States government has a contract with Delta that allows soldiers up to 4 bags when returning from Afghanistan or on military orders. When the soldiers arrived they were charged for any bag over the standard 3 bag limit. The point being they are claiming Delta did not honor the contract between themselves and US government and ignored the military orders the soldiers had.

This is assuming the soldiers were being entirely honest, and from what I can tell they seemed to be. The video wasn't overly dramatic in any way and they didn't seem to exaggerate any claims, just stated the facts of the situation.

I don't know about that. All the news accounts I've seen said that Delta's contract with the military allowed for three free checked bags for soldiers traveling coach, and four free checked bags for soldiers traveling business or first class.

[Heisenberg]

JetBlue FTW!!!!

[Unforgiven]

I don't know about that. All the news accounts I've seen said that Delta's contract with the military allowed for three free checked bags for soldiers traveling coach, and four free checked bags for soldiers traveling business or first class.

Yeah, I was just going by what the soldiers said in the video. I've seen it reported a few different ways since I watched that though.

[Always A Commander Never A Captain]

I'm not surprised by this story at all.

However, my biggest beef by far is with United. Flown at least a dozen times with them and never had one trip that resulted in me being anything but incredibly unhappy.

Southwest is good. US Airways is actually good (in my experience), it's just that they partner with United and I always seem to get shoved onto a United flight. Continental is good, but I haven't flown with them since (I think) Delta bought them...which probably means Continental is going to go down the ****ter really soon.

[adam@section118]

Weird, only fly United and never had a issue with them

Flew SW once. Flight to Vegas wasnt bad, but I hated the no assigned seat thing

[Bang]

isn't this part of what they're fighting for?

That's what I get told every time i complain about big coprs ****ing us.

It's their right to **** us.

~Bang

[twa]

I'm not surprised by this story at all.

However, my biggest beef by far is with United. Flown at least a dozen times with them and never had one trip that resulted in me being anything but incredibly unhappy.

Southwest is good. US Airways is actually good (in my experience), it's just that they partner with United and I always seem to get shoved onto a United flight. Continental is good, but I haven't flown with them since (I think) Delta bought them...which probably means Continental is going to go down the ****ter really soon.

I believe United bought Continental.....I'll probably be looking for another carrier soon.

[SkinnedAussie]

As much as I appreciate what your guys have done, and our guys who are still getting killed helping you out, why would soldiers return home from duty with extra luggage? It's not as if they went over for a holiday! Why would they have more luggage coming home than what they went over with?

[Redskins Diehard]

It seems pretty simple, according to the video the United States government has a contract with Delta that allows soldiers up to 4 bags when returning from Afghanistan or on military orders. When the soldiers arrived they were charged for any bag over the standard 3 bag limit. The point being they are claiming Delta did not honor the contract between themselves and US government and ignored the military orders the soldiers had.

This is assuming the soldiers were being entirely honest, and from what I can tell they seemed to be. The video wasn't overly dramatic in any way and they didn't seem to exaggerate any claims, just stated the facts of the situation.

The carrier authorizes 3 bags for free. The military authorizes 4 bags. The military will reimburse you for anything you have to pay up to 4 bags. Anything over that and you are SOL.

---------- Post added June-8th-2011 at 10:35 PM ----------

As much as I appreciate what your guys have done, and our guys who are still getting killed helping you out, why would soldiers return home from duty with extra luggage? It's not as if they went over for a holiday! Why would they have more luggage coming home than what they went over with?

Who said they have more luggage coming back than going over? They probably didn't fly over commercial. The Standard packing list called for 2 duffle bags, a rucksack, and a carry on. The carry on for me was an assault pack that essentially was another bag. Bingo...4 dags is the standard packing list. And probably why that is what the military authorizes. Now all that aside...Joe accumulates **** everywhere he goes which is why they start shipping it home in boxes about a month prior to redeployment.

[nonniey]

We don't return with extra baggage, we get saddled with four to five bags when we deploy (two of which we never empty).BTW, This is all just a misunderstanding on the soldiers part. Previously and even currently deployers had fund codes/vouchers to pay for this which were managed at levels higher than the individual. Now individuals manage it (and if they don't for some reason thet claim it on their travel claim) . I would say Delta managed to get the short end of the stick but these airlines have been pocketting differences in the vouchers since the army started issuing them to soldiers, so they airlines get no sympathy from me.

---------- Post added June-9th-2011 at 04:01 AM ----------

The carrier authorizes 3 bags for free. The military authorizes 4 bags. The military will reimburse you for anything you have to pay up to 4 bags. Anything over that and you are SOL.

---------- Post added June-8th-2011 at 10:35 PM ----------

Who said they have more luggage coming back than going over? They probably didn't fly over commercial. The Standard packing list called for 2 duffle bags, a rucksack, and a carry on. The carry on for me was an assault pack that essentially was another bag. Bingo...4 dags is the standard packing list. And probably why that is what the military authorizes. Now all that aside...Joe accumulates **** everywhere he goes which is why they start shipping it home in boxes about a month prior to redeployment.

Actually the military can authorize more than three bags and always does when weapons are included. I was authorized six and a carry on two weeks ago and checked five (my four bags plus the weapons case).

[Special K]

Continental is good, but I haven't flown with them since (I think) Delta bought them...which probably means Continental is going to go down the ****ter really soon.

Continental is now owned by United. THUMBSDOWN!

I just flew United yesterday, I hate them so much I want to spit. I hate almost all domestic flights. I've always had good experiences on Southwest and JetBlue though, and I'm very relieved to be flying Southwest on Friday as I won't have to deal with a bunch of stupid bull****.

As much as I appreciate what your guys have done, and our guys who are still getting killed helping you out, why would soldiers return home from duty with extra luggage? It's not as if they went over for a holiday! Why would they have more luggage coming home than what they went over with?

They are bringing home extra gear...at least that's what I've gathered from the reports.