Some might say there are only two types of bags: carry-on and lost. But I think it’s also fair to consider a third type: a source of miles.

Bags on Time Guarantee

I know I’m not the only one who has had to wait nearly an hour for bags to be delivered after a flight. It’s frustrating and a huge waste of time.

Thankfully, there are a couple of airlines that recognize the problem and offer an incentive to place your trust in them. Both Alaska and Delta have a baggage delivery guarantee, promising a delivery time of 20 minutes. If the delivery takes longer than 20 minutes, you’re entitled to receive 2,500 miles as compensation (or a $25 voucher in Alaska’s case). The original intent was to reimburse the passenger for the then-$25 bag check fee. Of course, bag fees have gone up since then but the compensation has stayed the same.

However, there is a distinguishing feature between the ease of getting your credit: Alaska requires you to go chat with the bag counter to get the credit but Delta allows it online. With Delta’s 2026 policy update, both airlines now require you to file the claim within two hours of your flight’s arrival. Still, it’s better not having to go up to the bag counter and wait in a potentially long line like Alaska forces on its customers.

When Bags Fly Free on Delta

You don’t need a free bag for the bags on time guarantee, but it helps offsetting costs as much as possible.

There are still a few ways to get a free checked bag on Delta. One of the most popular methods is to have the right Delta credit card (anything other than the no-annual-fee Blue card) will come with a free checked bag for you and up to 8 other passengers on the same itinerary. It’s also nice that you don’t need to pay for the flight with your credit card to receive the benefit (helpful if paying with gift cards or if someone else is paying for your flight). You just need to make sure your SkyMiles number is on your reservation.

There are also credit cards that offer a reimbursement of airline incidental fees, and that includes checked bag fees. You’ll find these credits on cards like the Chase Ritz Carlton credit card (cannot apply directly, need to upgrade a different Chase Marriott card to it) or the American Express Platinum card.

Holding elite status with Delta or its airline partners can also result in free checked bags. You’ll need to hold at least the entry status level to get free bags. There’s not a real “trick” to earning status–if you want to do it via credit card spend, then you’re going to get free bags anyways since the cards that give you the ability to earn status also will give you free bags.

Other options include flying in a premium cabin, flying to some international destinations in economy (not basic economy), or if you’re an active-duty military.

Lastly, a lesser-known option that’s talked about but is difficult to rely on, is when checking in at the airport. I’ve seen the Delta kiosks ask me if I want to proactively check in my carry-on if it’s going to be a full flight. Doing so will result in a free checked bag for you, so it’s worth it to check the kiosks to see if you get an offer (it’s after the screen where it asks if you have any bags). I’d recommend you first say you have no checked bags just to see if this screen shows. Then start the process over and pay for a bag if it doesn’t show.

How Delta Counts the 20 Minutes

I’ve had a little bit of fun trying to figure out how Delta determines when the 20 minute threshold has passed. From what I can tell, it seems to be based from the time the Delta app thanks you for traveling to the time the Delta app tells you your bag is now appearing at the baggage carousel. However, that doesn’t always seem to be the case, as I’ve had it once credit my account when I only counted a 19 minute gap between the two messages on my phone. There could be some rounding at play, or it could be some other metric is being used as the proxy for the 20 minutes not being met.

Please let me know in the comments below if you know how it’s actually being tracked.

Filling Out Delta’s Form

Delta’s online process is pretty basic, but do note the restrictions: it has to have been a Delta flight, you need to have been a SkyMiles member at the time of travel, it must be a domestic flight, and you have to submit the request within two hours.

First, head to their website: https://www.delta.com/bag-guarantee

I think it’s fair to say that not every time is going to result in a success in getting miles credited to your account. The system knows when the bags are clearly delivered on time and you’ll get a note back stating the following:

Based on the information provided, the bags in this reservation arrived at the baggage carousel on time.

There’s no downside to putting in your details, other than the wasted time filling out the form.

If your flight is eligible for credit, you’ll receive a different message from the system:

Based on the information provided, your submitted claim was successful and miles have been posted to your account.

In my experience, points post immediately.

An Offset to Credit Card Annual Fees

Remember that miles have a non-zero value attached to them. If you’re able to take a couple of trips and get credited points back for late bags, that’s adding money back in your (virtual) wallet. Obviously how much you get back versus someone else will depend on a variety of things including how many domestic flights you take and how often you check bags.

Could you rely on these credits to apply several times a year? Quite possibly. I personally view these as a way to make owning some of Delta’s credit cards–in particular the Delta Gold card–more affordable if you can get a few of these credits to appear annually. Frankly, there has to be some way to help combat the rising annual fee costs, amirite?

…At What Cost?

First of all, yes, there is a risk that you check your bag and then it ends up lost. This has happened to me before (they misplaced a stroller that I checked in), so it’s definitely a non-zero risk. At that point, the guarantee won’t do you much good. But if you have proper documentation of the contents of your lost luggage, you can get it reimbursed (which happened in my case). But that’s a conversation for another day.

More realistically, there will be some lost time in the process to check a bag–both to give it to the airline and to pick it back up from them. Before you go checking in a bag for free just on the hopes they offer the credit to you as compensation, it’s probably a good idea to check bag check lines at the airport of origin before committing yourself to checking a bag. Having Delta elite status or using the Delta Digital ID feature at crowded airports can help reduce the wait drastically.

Would more attention to this bring about change? Again, it’s a possibility. There was noise in the frequent flier world that Delta would change this earlier in 2024, and they finally tweaked it in 2026. The payouts have stayed the same but they reduced the window for claims down from 3 days to just 2 hours. It’s a significant change, but if you’ve been doing it quickly anyways, you won’t feel much of a change. Plus, it aligns with Alaska. Hopefully that’s all the change that will happen for the near future. As long as Alaska offers it, I think Delta will too in at least some capacity.