perhaps delta will not be your next choice for an air carrier.

[hdroadglide]

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.

“Just back from Afghanistan yesterday,” Hilliker says in the video, “... on an 18-hour layover, we had a little issue with the bags this morning.”

He soon turns the camera on O’Hair to explain further. Interview style, they note that their orders authorize them to carry four bags, and talk of having to pay “out of pocket,” despite an existing contract between the airline and the government.

“How much did we pay?” asks Hilliker.

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

O’Hair said his fourth bag was a weapons case, which includes his M4 rifle, a grenade launcher and a 9mm pistol — “the tools that I use to protect myself and Afghan citizens while I was deployed,” O’Hair said.

The soldiers may have been misinformed about the contract as it relates to traveling active duty military personnel.

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.”

According to an Army database, Hilliker and O’Hair are deployed with the 95th Infantry Division, a Reserve unit in Georgia. They say in the video that they were ultimately bound for Fort Polk, Louisiana.

as an aside, how many returning servicemen are gonna be flying first or business class?????

 

[CigarSaint]

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.

“Just back from Afghanistan yesterday,” Hilliker says in the video, “... on an 18-hour layover, we had a little issue with the bags this morning.”

He soon turns the camera on O’Hair to explain further. Interview style, they note that their orders authorize them to carry four bags, and talk of having to pay “out of pocket,” despite an existing contract between the airline and the government.

“How much did we pay?” asks Hilliker.

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

O’Hair said his fourth bag was a weapons case, which includes his M4 rifle, a grenade launcher and a 9mm pistol — “the tools that I use to protect myself and Afghan citizens while I was deployed,” O’Hair said.

The soldiers may have been misinformed about the contract as it relates to traveling active duty military personnel.

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.”

According to an Army database, Hilliker and O’Hair are deployed with the 95th Infantry Division, a Reserve unit in Georgia. They say in the video that they were ultimately bound for Fort Polk, Louisiana.

as an aside, how many returning servicemen are gonna be flying first or business class?????

I fly Delta and usually have no problems.... all airlines have problems that's for sure, but I'm glad to see that Delta is addressing the problem.

 

[Asher]

Sounds like a pretty simple misunderstanding to me. Hopefully Delta will reach out and refund the charges. However, it doesn't sound like Delta did anything particularly egregious. If Delta's contract says three bags, then that's their obligation. It's not fair to expect a private company to carry an arbitrary amount of luggage for a passenger.

 

[NCost]

I agree, there was miscommunication on the military side of things, not Delta's. I would bet they will make things good w/ the soldiers, either by refund or way of flight vouchers to them.

 

[hdroadglide]

yep. screw the soldiers. rules are rules .
"Revenue from fees charged to passengers to check their bags climbed to $769 million compared with $578 million collected in the first quarter of last year, the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said."

 

[cartisdm]

I haven't seen the video but I don't see any particular disrespect on Delta's behalf. From the representative's standpoint, he or she can only go by what information they are given. If their screen says three bags, she can't do much about it.

It sucks there was miscommunication somewhere but I'm happy to see Delta reaching out. We have to take care of our soldiers!

 

[Craig Mac]

yep. screw the soldiers. rules are rules .
"Revenue from fees charged to passengers to check their bags climbed to $769 million compared with $578 million collected in the first quarter of last year, the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said."

I am not sure they intentionally did it to "screw the soldiers", sounds like a misunderstanding and hopefully the airline will make things right. Today's media is so quick to demonize everyone.....

 

[Jwrussell]

yep. screw the soldiers. rules are rules .
"Revenue from fees charged to passengers to check their bags climbed to $769 million compared with $578 million collected in the first quarter of last year, the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said."

Come on, Bob. We are all for our soldiers, but how is it Delta's fault that someone told these soldiers the wrong thing? Your numbers above don't tell anywhere near the whole story. Checked into Delta's profit margin lately? Most airlines are struggling just to survive. They are most certainly not raking in the profits.

This sounds like a misunderstanding (one that started with people OTHER than Delta) and that will most likely be rectified to the soldiers' benefit.

 

[hdroadglide]

well the story was important enough that it was printed in stars and stripes. and apparently many of the airlines charge NOTHING for military baggage.
oh, and in 2009 the airlines "ancillary " fees went up up 42% to $7.8 BILLION. delta received the most of any airline. some news outlets called that windfall profits.

 

[Jwrussell]

well the story was important enough that it was printed in stars and stripes. and apparently many of the airlines charge NOTHING for military baggage.
oh, and in 2009 the airlines "ancillary " fees went up up 42% to $7.8 BILLION. delta received the most of any airline. some news outlets called that windfall profits.

Well, with all due respect, those news outlets would be morons.

Link

The major U.S. airline that earned the most money last year was one of the smallest: AirTran Airways. AirTran’s net income of $135 million, a record for that company even though we remain deep in recession, was best among big carriers for 2009.
And worst among airlines in the financial department: AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines, which suffered net losses of $1.5 billion last year.
By any measure, it was a difficult year for airlines. The list of ailments is long: the economic slump, relatively high energy prices, security woes, labor-management battles and too-often unhappy customers.
Among the nine major passenger airlines in the U.S., four turned in profitable years for 2009: AirTran, Alaska, Southwest and jetBlue. Five bled red ink: US Airways, Continental, United, Delta and American.
On the whole, those nine airlines collectively had losses of $3.4 billion. That was a huge improvement over 2008, when the same companies together tallied net losses of $19.5 billion

2009 Airlines Profit/Loss
Air Tran $135 Million
Alaksa $122 Million
Southwest $99 Million
Jet Blue $58 Million
US Air -$205 Million
Continental -$282 Million
United -$651 Million
Delta -$1.2 BILLION
American -1.5 BILLION

For a net of -3.4 BILLION dollars. So I ask. What profits?

 

[hdroadglide]

i know i hear the same things, and i'm NO believer in ANYTHING the media reports. but here is my question to you. how can ANY business, that does not receive any subsidies, stay in business and be able to operate if they've just LOST $1.5 billion. where does that money go? all the flights are full. they raised prices when fuel went up, they get got all of their "ancillary fees" in the billions, so how do you LOSE a billion? just curious.

 

[Jwrussell]

You have costs of $1.5B more than revenues.








J/K.:fencing:

All joking aside, because of the vagaries of accounting and how big corporations report things. Gotta say, my accounting classes I took for my MBA were an eye opener. It's amazing the games you can play with numbers as a business. Most of them make sense, but even after all the tightening up after Enron and such, there's still plenty of ways to play three card monty.

Delta's net loss for 2009 was $1.2 billion, including $169 million in special items. Excluding special items and $1.4 billion of fuel hedge losses, Delta's net profit for 2009 was $291 million.]/quote]

So there you go. The bulk of the losses were $169M in "special items"(who knows what that was, probably something to do with airlines they bought out) and $1.4B in "fuel hedge losses".

More to the point of your question, they stay in business because in large ways, these are only losses on paper. It's not like me and you balancing our checkbook (so to speak, haven't used a checkbook in years). Certainly they can only go so long posting such losses, but when you deal in the numbers companies like Delta does, it doesn't take much to post a series of gains that wipe out that loss (which you get to carry over year to year to some degree I believe).

For 2009 Delta had revenues of $28 Billion ($6.8B just in their 4th quarter). $23.8 of that was from passenger revenues ($5.8B just in their 4th quarter). Total revenues were $28B

With those kinds of numbers, it doesn't take much to wipe out that $1.4B loss.

That being said, their Operating Expenses for 2009 were $28.3B, so without looking at all the "other" stuff that comes into play, simply from operations they lost $300M.

Here's the annual statement. Scroll down about a third of the way for the "Year ended" section.

 

[cartisdm]

There's a lot of numbers being thrown around in this thread

*backs out slowly...*

 

[hdroadglide]

After careful consideration, effective immediately, U.S. military personnel traveling on orders in First and Business Class can check up to five bags at no charge and 4 bags in economy class. This change also adds dependents traveling with active military on orders. Each bag may weigh up to 70 lbs. (32 kg) and measure up to 80 linear inches (203 cm), which offers added flexibility over the standard 50 lbs. and 62 linear inches (157 cm) allotment. Because of weight, balance and space constraints, Delta Connection carriers will accept up to four bags at no charge. You can read the updates to the travel policy on delta.com.

 

[Jwrussell]

Just to play devil's advocate, what happens the next time some REMF issues orders to a squad traveling home and tells them they can take 5 bags free, flying coach?

 

[CAJoe]

I do not think what Delta did was in the wrong, but it was poor taste. I am happy they changed thier policy to help our soldiers.

 

[cvm4]

It was just some grunt on the ground enforcing the rules. I'm sure if a higher up president/vp/ceo was there then no soldier would have been charged because he knew of the bad press that would be generated.

 

[thegoldenmackid]

From what I've read, the U.S. military has contracts with carriers and has had these contracts for a few years now, and they've always said: 4 bags in coach; 5 in first class. It's beyond me why a supervisor would not just waive the fees (which they have the power to do, I've seen it time and time again...)

Regardless of the whole PR stank this could have and did cause, one could have just given those returning a bit of an easier time.

 

[cvm4]

Exactly... They don't need more stress.

 

[cmhicksusmc]

trust me most greens know this all too well