Wife is traveling home to Argentina, MSP-ATL-EZE. MSP was snowing, but not terribly, and the snow had stopped by the time we boarded. We sat at the gate for about 2 hours waiting "to be called for de-icing" and other pax, who slowly trickled in up to an hour past scheduled departure time. There was a total of one announcement about the delay during the entire time, saying we were just waiting to be called for de-icing.
We were still in the air when DL101 ATL-EZE was supposed to depart, but given the delay we were cautiously hopeful. We had to hold for ~20 additional minutes in the air and landed after DL101 had left the gate and was "waiting for takeoff." Went to the gate anyway just in case but it was indeed gone.
Went to "Need Help?" agent who put her on DL147 ATL-SCL then on Air Canada 92 SCL-EZE. Biz product on ATL-SCL is crap compared to the direct ATL-EZE, but that's neither here nor there. She gets in at 4:00 pm instead of 8 am and will miss her non-Skyteam domestic LAN flight. (That's not DL's problem and I can't be bitter about that, but it sucks for us.) As the "Need Help" agent is reissuing ticket, we ask specifically about her bag and the agent says "don't worry, on an international flight your bag won't be put on any flight that you personally haven't boarded." Okay, at least they didn't rush it to DL101 that already left.
We run to the DL147 gate and she hurriedly gets on and leaves. I go to check the bag just in case and find that it WAS put on DL101. I call DL baggage to confirm and see what she needs to do to get her bag that will be waiting in the airport for 8 hrs without her. Agent tells me to tell her to just find the Delta baggage agent and all will be well, CONFIRMS the bag was supposed to be there at 0755 this morning in EZE.
Lunch break. She's in the air on Air Canada 92 so I check on her bag and figure I'll call just to see if it did arrive at EZE. This time, agent tells me no, it was never sent but will be going out on tonight's DL101 and will be there at EZE in the morning. Also says it's no longer DL's problem and that she needs to talk to Air Canada on the ground at EZE because that's the last airline she flew. I try to explain that DL rebooked her onto them and the bag is still coming in on DL metal tomorrow morning, wouldn't it be easier to check with DL? She gets snappy and tells me it's all on Air Canada. I don't know if this is true or not because DL will have the bag until it gets unloaded tomorrow morning.
So as of now she's going to try and figure out the procedure for getting the bag once she lands in EZE and overnight near EZE to hopefully get the bag in the morning. Add in wacky/lengthy Argentine customs/baggage procedure expected. I don't want to buy her another LAN flight yet without the bag because who knows if it will really show up tomorrow.
I do not want to have DL handle it and just arrange to send her bag on to her destination in interior Argentina because that happened to me one time and I waited a week for the bag to show up and it was impossible to get any status about its whereabouts or talk to a human during the entire time. I'd much rather have her physically grab the bag when it shows up at EZE.
What is DL responsible for, and what would you do?
We were still in the air when DL101 ATL-EZE was supposed to depart, but given the delay we were cautiously hopeful. We had to hold for ~20 additional minutes in the air and landed after DL101 had left the gate and was "waiting for takeoff." Went to the gate anyway just in case but it was indeed gone.
Went to "Need Help?" agent who put her on DL147 ATL-SCL then on Air Canada 92 SCL-EZE. Biz product on ATL-SCL is crap compared to the direct ATL-EZE, but that's neither here nor there. She gets in at 4:00 pm instead of 8 am and will miss her non-Skyteam domestic LAN flight. (That's not DL's problem and I can't be bitter about that, but it sucks for us.) As the "Need Help" agent is reissuing ticket, we ask specifically about her bag and the agent says "don't worry, on an international flight your bag won't be put on any flight that you personally haven't boarded." Okay, at least they didn't rush it to DL101 that already left.
We run to the DL147 gate and she hurriedly gets on and leaves. I go to check the bag just in case and find that it WAS put on DL101. I call DL baggage to confirm and see what she needs to do to get her bag that will be waiting in the airport for 8 hrs without her. Agent tells me to tell her to just find the Delta baggage agent and all will be well, CONFIRMS the bag was supposed to be there at 0755 this morning in EZE.
Lunch break. She's in the air on Air Canada 92 so I check on her bag and figure I'll call just to see if it did arrive at EZE. This time, agent tells me no, it was never sent but will be going out on tonight's DL101 and will be there at EZE in the morning. Also says it's no longer DL's problem and that she needs to talk to Air Canada on the ground at EZE because that's the last airline she flew. I try to explain that DL rebooked her onto them and the bag is still coming in on DL metal tomorrow morning, wouldn't it be easier to check with DL? She gets snappy and tells me it's all on Air Canada. I don't know if this is true or not because DL will have the bag until it gets unloaded tomorrow morning.
So as of now she's going to try and figure out the procedure for getting the bag once she lands in EZE and overnight near EZE to hopefully get the bag in the morning. Add in wacky/lengthy Argentine customs/baggage procedure expected. I don't want to buy her another LAN flight yet without the bag because who knows if it will really show up tomorrow.
I do not want to have DL handle it and just arrange to send her bag on to her destination in interior Argentina because that happened to me one time and I waited a week for the bag to show up and it was impossible to get any status about its whereabouts or talk to a human during the entire time. I'd much rather have her physically grab the bag when it shows up at EZE.
What is DL responsible for, and what would you do?