Posted on 06/07/2011 9:53:21 PM PDT by jennychase
A team of returning soldiers from Afghanistan was hit with an unpleasant surprise upon their arrival into the United States this morning. The squadron, bringing a full load of gear with them back from the Central Asia was sacked with the baggage fees in place at Delta Air Lines, which, despite the agreement that they have with the armed forces charged the soldiers extra baggage fees.
In sum, the group spent nearly $2800 in baggage fees for their gear, money that had to come straight out of their pockets.
Obviously a policy is in place between the airline and the armed services that permits soldiers returning from war to bring back all of their gear without cost. What's likely is that an uninformed agent at the connecting airport didn't know about the rule and charged the group. Either way, Delta should fix the error and refund the fees.
UPDATE: Delta's policy states that for military members, THREE checked bags are allowed in coach and FOUR checked bags are allowed in first, so the baggage fees may actually be correct. Whether Delta's policy is palatable or not is another question, but it appears that the agents were charging the servicemen properly.
UPDATE 2, 11:34PM EST: Delta just posted a blog article discussing today's situation in which they discuss their policy. Specifically they state:
In the case of today's situation, we would like to publicly apologize to those service men and women for any miscommunication regarding our current policies as well as any inconvenience we may have caused. We are currently looking further into the situation, and will be reaching out to each of them personally to address their concerns and work to correct any issues they have faced.
Yup, and more proof is that I work and travel with several 0-6’s quite regularly and they’re right back there in Coach with my enlisted butt. LOL
As a military officer and guy who a few months ago took the trip to Iraq (where I am now typing this reply) and will soon be taking an R&R trip home - I am indifferent. When I traveled over here, I no kidding had four or five times the amount of baggage than an average passenger. I flew delta to Baltimore before transitioning to the lowest bidder contract fare to get me into the AOR. Delta did not charge me for my baggage - maybe I was under the allowable quantity/weight, I don’t know - but I would have had no problem paying its required fee. My opinion Delata is a business and has the right to charge for baggage. But, when it does charge a fee for additional baggage above and beyone what it already allows military members traveling on orders to check - which once again is significantly more than an average passenger - the military members just need use his or her government travel card. No member will ever have to pay these fees out of pocket. Should the member decide to use his or her own credit card instead of the gov travel card he or she runs the risk of not having the expense refunded. The use of the government travel card is required for these types of expenses, furthermore, the gov travel card is required when traveling. Hopefully this adds another perspective on this situation. Regards
Chip - an AF Lt in Iraq
The attitudes of the UAL people I dealt with except for the one agent in Chicago were totally arrogant. They noted twice that, after all, I did fly in economy class.
I try to Fly KAL or Nippon but sometimes that is not possible. Those companies treat passengers like they eagerly seek their business again.
I was a little bit prepared for UAL- I brought my survival rations. In Việt Nam the fare served up by UAL for dinner would be called Train Food. The trains are about the only regular source of unpleasant victuals in the country.
P.S. on one of those trips I had to abort because my passport "disappeared" in the TSA screening.
Delta is ìncompetent and staffed by disfunctionals. United is criminal and arrogant.
Great; now send the entire airline staff to Afghanistan. Let them try their nickel and dime crap on the terrorists.
United did that to me several years ago. I missed my meeting in PA and when I asked for re-route to go back to SNA they would not oblige until the next day. Of course my luggage went to PA and when it returned to SNA I was NOT entitled to having them deliver to me because I CHOSE not to complete the second leg of my journey... the one they bumped me from??? Never got a response to my complaint or my claim for compensation for the uncompleted second leg of my flight. Bastardos!!!!
Delta sucks.
My family and I fly Southwest fairly frequently, and we’ve never had any type of problem with rudeness, involuntary bumping, lost luggage, etc. SWA even lets you have two free checked bags per person. I know a lot of folks don’t like SWA because they don’t assign seating and don’t have some of the amenities that other airlines have, but we’ve never found that to be a problem.
I’m also active duty Air Force and I concur with Chip. These fees did NOT come “out of their pocket”. They all have a Government Travel Card, this expense would be put on their travel voucher, and paid off by the government. If they paid with a personal card-that’s the risk that they are taking. My finance department has lectured me REPEATEDLY that these fees are to paid on a GTC and listed on my voucher.
I’ve had several flights, some in which I get charged for bags, some in which my bags have gone free. I’ve never had to pay “out of pocket”.
You are assuming every soldier, Marine, airman and sailor has a government card. Not so! My son had one from his first base because he was on the funeral detail team. When he got to his second base no one below the rank of E5 had a travel card. His NCO demanded to know why he had a government travel card and informed him that he had to surrender the card. Life is different in the peon ranks which makes this situation even worse. Those who can least afford to pay the fees aren’t given the means to have the government automatically pay the fees for them.
That’s good to know. I have developed an aversion to American carriers. I have never been on SWA, though.
I'd recommend them for travel within the USA. The problem with SWA is that they are relatively limited in the number of cities they service, and I don't think they have overseas flights.
We use them travel between Raleigh-Durham and Phoenix, mostly.
Is Delta being officious and arrogant again? Remember -AMTRAK is ready when you are. Big comfy seats, no nickel-and-Delta charges for your bags, you get to keep your shoes on,no groping or porn-like Xrays, no expensive airport cab rides-you leave and arrive in town. Yup, it’s the train for us til we get Napolitano out of office. All aboard!
Delta is back-tracking and will allow returning soldiers up to 4 bags. They want soldiers previously charged to contact them. It was a policy issue that did not have rules for the service returning from the front. Reported a few minutes ago on local news.
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