Massachusetts Cop Forum banner

Delta Airlines: Handgun In Checked Luggage Experiences?

2K views 10 replies 5 participants last post by  msw 
#1 ·
Does anyone have any recent experiences with checking a handgun in checked luggage on a Delta Airlines flight? I usually fly JetBlue, Alaska and American, and have never had any issues. But an upcoming domestic USA trip might require me to fly via Delta for the first time in many decades. So if you've had any recent experience with declaring a handgun in checked luggage on a Delta Airlines flight - and how it went when you retrieved your luggage at the destination - please feel free to share it! Thanks.
 
#3 ·
Over the years, I've found the advice from Airline Customer Service Agents regarding checking guns in luggage to be of greatly varying degrees of accuracy. I travel frequently via airlines other than Delta, and am very familiar with the TSA and general airline requirements for securing, declaring and checking - in checked luggage - a handgun. (But never in 30+ years of doing so, have I ever had to disassemble or "break one down". Just make sure the mag is out.) My main issue - and my desire to query the members here - stems from rumors I've heard that Delta Airlines somehow marks or codes bags containing a declared firearm and has them re-routed to their baggage claim office, rather than having them go down the chute and show up on the baggage carousel. Marking a bag would seem to violate a regulation - or maybe it's a TSA rule - that checked bags containing firearms NOT be so marked on the outside. I may try to find and call Delta's "Ground Security Coordinator" (these folks are typically the only ones with any reliable info on this kind of topic) at my nearby Airport and ask this question, but trying to find the right phone number for that person is likely going to be difficult. Anyway, in the meantime, I thought I'd ask the members here if anyone had any recent first hand experience with this on Delta Airlines.
 
#5 ·
I last flew Delta a little over a year ago and my bag ended up on the carousel with all the others with no apparent markings. It was a welcome contrast from American Airlines, who I flew a few months earlier and had to show my ID and claim sticker at the baggage service office on both ends. They know that a firearm is in the bag as one clerk straight up told me that firearms can be very dangerous under his breath when I was leaving the office with my bag.

I don't know if there was a marking on the sticker or if the bag was designated as such in the baggage system.
 
#10 ·
Only American recently - but in addition to the unloaded firearm declaration that I signed, which then went into the luggage atop the hard gun case inside, they also attached a "Return to BSO" tag - Baggage Service Office, I think. Which means my bag either got taken off the conveyor once it appeared or was brought out by a supervisor. In both cases I had to show ID to retrieve it.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top