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http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/afghanistan/on-youtube-soldiers-home-from-war-recount-paying-delta-for-extra-bags-1.146040

As a brief aside, American was amazing to my Leah, and upgraded her to first for free.

Two U.S. soldiers returning from a deployment in Afghanistan said Delta Air Lines charged them $200 each for extra bags for their connecting flight from Baltimore to Atlanta.

While on board Delta Air Lines flight 1625 Tuesday morning, Staff Sgts. Fred Hilliker and Robert O’Hair shot a video laying out their case. In the video, which was posted on YouTube, the soldiers say they are authorized to check as many as four bags, free of charge, on their return trip from Afghanistan.

Filming while in their seats, Hilliker opens the video by saying he and the other 33 members of his unit were told in Baltimore that they were only authorized to check three bags for free.

“How much did we pay?” asks Hilliker.

“Over $2,800, and there’s only 34 of us,” O’Hair replies.

Active military personnel flying in coach on travel orders are only allowed to check three bags free of charge, Delta said on its website. Active military traveling in first or business class may check up to four bags for free.

A Delta spokeswoman who only identifies herself on a company blog as Rachel R., further wrote:

“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.”

Delta owes these troops an apology. Period.

And I don't care what the policy - it's assinine to charge baggage fees to soldiers returning from a Combat Zone. Just how pathetically sad is that? The agent(s) at Delta that did this should personally apologize to each and every soldier.

ANCFlyer wrote:Delta owes these troops an apology. Period.

And I don't care what the policy - it's assinine to charge baggage fees to soldiers returning from a Combat Zone. Just how pathetically sad is that? The agent(s) at Delta that did this should personally apologize to each and every soldier.

So long as they're not affecting the plane's weights, surely DL can accommodate a few extra bags for a few (clearly exhausted) soldiers on a marathon trip back from Afghan?

DL need to look at their BWI operation if they don't have anybody there with the common sense to such issues before they become a global embarrassment for the company

Surprise . . . well, no not really . . . .

DL has changed it's policy . . . morons have to eat a LOT of crow . . .


http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/ ... /index.jsp

Active duty U.S. military personnel traveling on orders to or from duty stations, and active U.S. military dependents traveling on relocation orders, are allowed up to four checked bags in Delta's Economy Class and Delta Connection® carriers (regardless of cabin), and up to five checked bags in First and Business Class on Delta aircraft only, at no charge. Each bag may weigh up to 70 lbs. (32 kg) and measure up to 80 linear inches (203 cm).

Additionally, military personnel traveling on personal business will be allowed two checked bags up to 50 lbs (23 kg) and 62 linear inches (158 cm) at no charge.

Remember the old days of customer service when the front desk person could actually make a judgement call.

I think we have a situation where the person at the counter is limited by what the computer system will let them do. They ask to print out 4 baggage tags, it will print out 3 for free, but the 4th one needs a credit card. Just a guess.

Or the person at the counter is just afraid of their boss giving them crap for thinking.

captoveur wrote:Remember the old days of customer service when the front desk person could actually make a judgement call.

I think we have a situation where the person at the counter is limited by what the computer system will let them do. They ask to print out 4 baggage tags, it will print out 3 for free, but the 4th one needs a credit card. Just a guess.

Or the person at the counter is just afraid of their boss giving them crap for thinking.

A desk agent unfamiliar with the tradition of waiving baggage charges for servicemen returning from overseas has been blamed. Delta's PR people are spinning over this and are promising to reach out to all the soldiers and resolve their concerns individually:-

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/08/de ... ning-from/

I recall one BA employee (with whom many of us are familiar) talking about using his discretion to waive charges and provide an upgrade for a travelling serviceman who needed to change his schedule. Funny how one employee with a bit of common sense can be the difference between a favourable impression and a barrage of damaging publicity.

captoveur wrote:I think we have a situation where the person at the counter is limited by what the computer system will let them do.

Computer says no.

The talking heads on ABC News also mentioned United, American, Continental, US Airways, Frontier (and possibly a few others) had the same economy baggage policy as Delta, and like Delta, they changed theirs today. Not a DL fanboy by any means, but you should be pointing your fingers at all of 'em, not just DL, who just happened to get outed first.

I dunno what the big deal is. This happens all the time. Honestly I think those guys are being whiny bitches. ...We get reimbursed for all of these expenses. Travel costs have always been incurred by service members transiting for deployment and TDY. Filing your claim is easy and painless. Shut the hell up and be happy you're home. Bitches.

UH60 wrote:I dunno what the big deal is. This happens all the time. Honestly I think those guys are being whiny bitches. ...We get reimbursed for all of these expenses. Travel costs have always been incurred by service members transiting for deployment and TDY. Filing your claim is easy and painless. Shut the hell up and be happy you're home. Bitches.

Not the fact you may/may NOT get reimbusred, it's the principal of the thing . . . really.

Geezes, don't go all Officer on us here Chief . . . DL was AFUs on this, simple as that. And if it was AA, or US, or UA, or Podunk Air, the story would be the same. Really, troops coming home from the Big Sand Box? Charge them extra to bring their shit home? How SNAFUd is that. Appreciate your opinion, but, it sucks . . .


Bitch.

The way I see it, is it's just another sign of a weakening force, mentally and physically. Not to mention it's a strong example of the military's growing crisis of leadership. This should not have happened. And it's not the airline's fault, it's our own fault.

Prior to redeployment, the unit packs the vast majority of their gear in their containers. You should not be carrying the bulk of your gear out. It's just absurd to do so, when there is a well tested way of rotating gear and equipment back to garrison. And if it does happen, it's due to horrible prior planning on the part of the officers and NCOs.

Additionally, the service members are briefed prior to movement that most airlines will only accept 2-3 bags for free. Any additional luggage WILL BE CHARGED, but that the military will reimburse you, so long as you retain the receipts.

And speaking more towards the whole absurdity of this situation... the regular Army has really gotta stop this retarded policy of traveling "battle ready". Some of these units are making these guys travel with all their battle rattle. IBAs, helmets, M4/M16, rucksack, etc. ...It's just totally unnecessary. Especially considering their moving from Balad, to Kuwait, to Germany, to the US. Never leaving a secure zone. ...And even more humorous, these fools are flying with their primary weapons... but they are forced to take the bolts out! So they're just carrying dead weight.

Anyway, it's a hell of a lot easier to blame an airline, than admit in the last ten years, the military has bred a very poor pool of mid grade officers and NCOs. These joes should have never been put in this situation in the first place. And they shouldn't be trying to wrongly embarrass an airline, when it's their own internal failures that caused this.

No one, especially me, is not blaiming the Army for their dumbing down of the leadership . . . believe me when I tell you I feel your pain. That is not the point of the topic Chief.

The point here is not the dumbing down of Army (or Pentagon in general) leadership, the point here is that some douchebag agent at DL didn't have the common sense to waive the fee or get someone that could. Why?

Well, the continued dumbing down of US Flag carriers . . . .