Here’s a hack I never realized, because I don’t fly Delta often enough. Unofficially it seems that Sky Club agents will call down to baggage claim and have your bags pulled off the carousel and stored if you want to visit the lounge on arrival and have checked bags.
- While Delta only allows access to its lounges within 3 hours of departure, this rule doesn’t apply to connections or to visiting a lounge on arrival. (United has a 3-hour rule for one-day passes, American has no such rule.)
- I rarely check bags. Sometimes I’ll stop into a lounge to work, if I’m early for a meeting or for hotel check-in. I might take a shower after an overnight flight. I might just use the bathroom. And of course you can grab a snack. But people worry about their bags sitting at baggage claim.
If you don’t pick up your bag, it eventually gets pulled from the carousel and generally held at the airline’s baggage service office. But frequent flyers say they proactively ask Sky Club agents to call Baggage Services for them, pull the bag off the carousel, and hold it in the baggage service office for them. THey spend their time in the lounge and head to baggage claim later.
- Some say, “Do this all the time, works every time.”
- One traveler claims to have done this 50+ times, sometimes overnight or for days.
If home for only a couple of days between trips, they don’t bother claiming the bag. They might pick it up before the next trip and take it with them. Already packed! So they abandon their bags for a few days and let Delta babysit them.
After the first night, they say Delta calls to say the bag is still there. (Eventually, after a longer period, it might go to central lost & found.)
- In Delta’s app, the status eventually shows “moved to BSO”. That’s something American doesn’t have!
This is basically an unadvertised bag-holding service via the lounge, driven by staff willingness, not a formal product. And you’re doing this at your own risk. Baggage claim is public. Long ago in New York they used to check bag tags as you left. I haven’t seen this in years.
Airports have more law enforcement than almost anywhere. There’s TSA, FBI, DEA, local police and Customs and Border Protection to name just a few. Yet anyone can walk into baggage claim and steal your suitcase. Of course there’s plenty of surveillance video, too. Here’s a man at Delta’s Atlanta hub caught stealing luggage.
Famously, Biden administration official Sam Brinton had been stealing luggage from airports for years. Some passengers track their bags with Airtags and go vigilante tracking down the thief. Here’s a cofrontation also in Atlanta.
If you are going to head to the lounge and let your bag go to the baggage office, you migth feel more comfortable with an AirTag, Tile, Samsung SmartTag, or similar to see that it’s still at the airport rather than heading off with a thief. And as a bonus, since Delta lets you file 20-minute bag delivery guarantee claims electronically, you can see if your bag makes it in 20 minutes and claim the 2,500 SkyMiles even if you’re in the lounge.
Ultimately, I’m sure that some Sky Club agents are happy to help. Not all may! And pushing how long you leave bags – overnight, and for days – absolutely increases the risk that your bag disappears.
If you’re flying American, United or Alaska you can probably do this, too. Your bags ride the belt, and eventually goes to baggage services. I just haven’t regularly heard of flyers talking about having lounge agents reach out to baggage services to pull their bags proactively. Their lounge agents are not, as far as I am aware, running a “dial baggage and pull my bag” concierge service the way that Sky Club agents seem to be.
Have you done it? I bet the agents in the Austin Admirals Club would do it! They call down to the gate and call operations for me all the time to find out delay status beyond updates that are in their system, and they keep working on itineraries for me even after I’ve left the lounge. They do this for everyone and recognize all the regulars by name. I’ll ask them if they’ve ever worked to pull bags before.
As far as I know American does not allow a lounge visit upon arrival. When I last tried it they said that the lounges are only for departing passengers. The American person I talked to said it was because of TSA rules. Is this not true?
Or, just do carry-on-only. Wait, we can visit SkyClubs on-arrival?? Sonova! /s
Using a lounge upon arrival used to be a thing, but AA United and Delta stopped allowing use upon arrival somewhere during the pandemic. When did this change back?
My way is much simpler. No checked bags.
@ Gary — I had agents do this for me 20 years. ago. However, as already asked by @ 1990, why would one check bags (we were using 3x checked bags pp once per week to move items between homes)? I don’t think this any sort of secret benefit, but rather helpful DL agents simplying ringing down to baggage claim and asking them to hold your bag. Seems like a simple courtesy for employees that care about customers. Perhaps the only reason this seems so special is becuase the people at AA and UA don’t give a rat’s ass about customers?
I will do a lounge visit but never ask the reps to call the BSO (Baggage Service Office) for me. I just let it go, and then head to the bso to collect my bags.
I also have a habit of “forgetting” to collect my bags on overnight layovers…
Oops 🙂
Alaska will call you about an hour after arrival if you havent gotten your bag- just be honest with them, they are happy to hold them. Never had AA or UA call me.
I was pretty sure you could not visit a lounge after the flight.
Since when can you go to sky club on arrival other than a connection???
@Randy – that’s not correct
Lost too many bags (3) thst arrived at the destination only to have others take them (twice) or not appear from the back to fi this with comfort,
I visit AA lounges on arrival no problem
AA, DL, and UA allow access after arrival. I assume AS does, too.
I do this informally,but have never had the lounge call down. This is actually a valuable tip that I will try soon!
Since you mentioned it, I’ll ask: what I don’t understand is why have no US airports that I’m aware of – even in newer terminals – implemented a one-way exit from domestic baggage claim? (Other countries like the UK have implemented this sort of thing for many years. Next time you’re at Heathrow, go look for “UK Arrivals” in terminals 2 and 5, and notice how you can’t stroll into the baggage claim area from the public area – there’s a set of one-way doors to stop people from going the wrong way.)
I had a flight from ATL to LAX and upon arrival in Los Angeles I went into the Delta Sky Club Lounge. The BSO had my luggage in a secured area and I had to show my luggage tags to retrieve my bags.
I often carry on when I know I’ll want to visit a club upon arrival. This would be a game changer. BUT, I admit…I’m a little nervous. Have others done this regularly?
Unfortunately(?), I fly almost exclusively international and there is no way to get from aircraft to lounge without claiming my bag. A couple hours in the lounge to avoid rush hour traffic would be nice some days but in ATL at least, it’s just one long slog from aircraft to passport control to baggage and then out. You are past TSA after claiming your bag. Sigh…
I also have visited the Admirals Club post flight at both DFW and DCA, as recently as the past couple months.
OMG they put the point rewards back for their tardiness??? I got a notice a year or two ago telling me they were going to stop it. I just checked and THANK YOU!!!
Another blog has picked this up. Now it’ll become a TikTok “hack” and we’re all going to lose arrival access. At the very least, some SC agents are going to get very annoyed over the next few weeks as these requests suddenly pick up.
@Gene — You’re blowing my mind; this whole time I could’ve been loading-up before heading home… like that guy at CLT with the plastic bag!
Typical entitled pain in the ass passengers who pike more work on the lounge employees to call the BSO agents should already have enough to do tracking down bags and actually helping other customers.
Pick up your damn bags and go home!
On what basis did the Delta passengers wanting DL baggage service offices to hold the bags on arrival have Delta lounge access at their final destination airport for the day? Delta does this for 360s and lifetime SkyClub members, but which other Delta customers get Delta lounge access on arrival at final destination for the day and having no onward same-day SkyTeam flight departure?
When I get off a flight I just want to get where I’m going or go home. I have no idea, other than maybe the need to wait for a ride, why anyone would want to hang around an airport.
@George Romey — Well, either you stop at the Wawa on the way home, or you get a few sodas and snacks from that SkyClub, AdmiralsClub, UnitedClub, etc. before you hop in that Lyft.
It won’t be a think anymore since it’s been put on blast.
Delta 360 won’t be in my future for a while as SAS is to offer lifetime Diamond status on top of lifetime Gold status in the EuroBonus program. So I am curious on what other bases can a Delta customer use the Delta lounge at their final destination for the day?
@ 1990 — You may get entry post-flight, but you still have to stand in line for an hour to enter the SkyClub at JFK.
@ GUWonder, 360 requires spending, no? You are too cheap.
@Gene — First-Diamond-DeltaOne-360, etc. has the shorter line; eh, worth the 5-10 minutes. Unless we’re already delayed several hours by the airline, due to an issue under their control, in which case, hopefully we were returning from Europe, where they actually have consumer protections, because I’ll use that wait time to submit my quick and easy claim for EU261 compensation… @Tim Dunn….