Baggage Fees

Hello Annabelle,

We recently booked our flights back to Denver from Ottawa after Christmas for the girls and I.  I ended up getting 50K bonus points for Delta with the Gold Delta SkyMiles AMEX and I was able to find 12.5K flights for mid-January.  Still need to book the flight to Ottawa.

In the flurry of wanting to just book the tickets before the award seats went away we were a bit confused about what credit card to use for the taxes and what that would mean for baggage fees.  I have been really wanting to book flights on the Chase Sapphire Preferred (even though it only gives 2X rather than the 3X bonus of some cards) because it provides nice looking trip interruption and cancellation insurance as well as baggage delay and such.  Basically it provides the kind of trip insurance that we used to buy for our trips.  But the Delta AMEX gives first bag free for everyone on your reservation (up to 9 people).  We ended up going with the CSP and tonight I finally looked into the details of baggage fees.

I knew I had some other options because the AMEX Gold cards we have got have a $100 airline credit that can go towards baggage and the Delta AMEX offer did say that you could get a $50 credit towards a Delta purchase and I had read about people just getting a $50 gift card (which I am assuming I could use towards baggage later).

But first I went looking at the details on the First Checked Bag Free of Delta.  It wasn't clear that you needed to book with the card to have the benefit apply so I just had an online chat with an AMEX agent who assured me that you definitely need to purchase with the card, but couldn't direct me to the terms and conditions where that is specified.  Million Mile Secrets is saying, in a recent post, that you definitely DO NOT need to purchase the flight with the card to have it apply.

So I think we will just hope the baggage fees get covered.  The nice thing about the AMEX Gold one is that it gets assigned right away so I might be able to use that as a back-up.  And I might as well try to get the $50 gift certificate if it is essentially going to be free.

People really complain about Delta availability but I think we might have some luck with them for YOW-DEN flights during off peak times.

Some other links on credit cards and waived bag fees by airline are here and here.

Hugs,
Jen

Update:
I got the Delta gift certificate.  It turns out the fine print is "eGifts and Cards may only be used for the total purchase price of air transportation, including taxes, fees, and surcharges imposed on the air transportation. They may not be used for any additional fees (including baggage fees) or for any other products or services (including class upgrades, in-flight purchases, premium seating, mileage booster, SkyMiles Cruises, cargo, hotel stays, or car rentals)." But "eGifts and Cards are not reloadable and do not expire. No service or inactivity fees apply."
So that won't work for the baggage but I am sure we will book a ticket on Delta at some point.  Hopefully the cost is covered by the credit card sign-up bonus credit!