You now have less time to submit a request for late checked bags after your Delta flight to get free SkyMiles from their 20-minute guarantee.

Delta restricts time window for submitting a claim regarding their 20-minute guarantee

Let’s say you’ve just flown Delta and your bags took longer than promised to arrive at baggage claim. Well, it’s as simple as filling out the form on their website. Information you’ll need includes:

• First and last name
• SkyMiles number
• Date of departure
• Departure and arrival cities
• Confirmation number (PNR)

If Delta agrees that the bags took at least 20 minutes to arrive at baggage claim, you’ll find 2,500 extra SkyMiles in your account.

Previously, Delta used to allow you to submit the form a full 3 days (72 hours) after the flight. However, that is now limited significantly to just 2 hours after flight arrival.

Why we’re relieved by the change

Rumors have been abound for over a year that changes will be coming to Delta’s 20-minute checked bag guarantee. Stories of “easy points” went viral on TikTok for a period and all the eyeballs on it made people question whether it would persist. Some were convinced that the change was imminent but then it persisted without any edits. I wondered if they would start declining more requests in practice, but there wasn’t anything noticeably different from our perspective. We still checked bags often and still collected the rewards many times over.

And now that the feature is tweaked, we can breath a bit of a sigh of relief. Changing the window to submit a claim isn’t the end of the world. We would do it right away anyways–who wants to risk forgetting that you need to submit a request? Our favorite place to submit the request was on a shuttle, in a car, or on public transit after leaving the airport anyways. From our perspective, not much has changed and we would encourage others to develop the habit.

Honestly, this is still better than what the competition offers. Of major US airlines, only Alaska and Delta offer a baggage guarantee. While just having a guarantee is awesome, Alaska has a more troublesome process. With Alaska, you need to physically walk over to the baggage office and request points or a credit in person. That might not sound too bad but what happens with the bag office is backed up with many others trying to find their bags? No one wants to wait that long just to get a voucher and others in line don’t want to see the line crowded with people without real issues. It’s a lose-lose scenario.

We assumed Delta would be moving this to a similar approach, but the fact that it’s still possible to submit a claim online makes this an acceptable change in our minds.

This is one of the easier ways to collect extra SkyMiles

Say all you want about the usefulness of the miles these days. We get it–the points are deliberately not as valuable as with other airline programs. But, worth less doesn’t mean worthless. If you fly Delta with any regularity and get free checked bags via credit card or elite status, you might want to try to submit the form anyways. With how stingy airlines are for reducing mileage earnings, this can add a substantial boost to your earnings.

The 20-minute guarantee encourages Delta to stay honest with its checked bag delivery times. Having the guarantee is good, but having the 2,500 SkyMiles enforcement mechanism is even better. Submit the form if you believe you qualify and watch the points roll in.

Do you find the requirement to submit in 2 hours to be too limiting?

Suggested reading:

• How to Use Delta GUCs on KLM
• Volunteering for Delta Flight Bumps
• ATL-LAX Becomes A Delta One Route: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly