Reader Asks About Airline Credit Card Luggage Benefits for a Traveling Family Member

Someone holding an airline credit card bought a family member’s flight home for the holidays and used a Delta card to pay. They contacted me to ask whether their nephew could use the card’s free first checked bag benefit.

Can that work?

First Checked Bag Free

Most (if not all) airline credit cards allow members to check their first piece of luggage for free whenever they fly a same-day flight marketed and/or operated by that carrier. Plus, the benefit can usually be shared with several other people traveling on your confirmation number/PNR. For example, someone holding a Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card can extend the first-checked-bag-free benefit to up to eight other people traveling on the same confirmation number.

For example, Delta Air Lines charges $35 each way for a passenger’s first checked bag on domestic flights. So, if you have eight others traveling with you, that’s $315 in first checked bag fees. One way. ($730 round trip.) All of that is waived with an eligible Delta SkyMiles® American Express Card. (Which is all of them except the Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card.)

Even if you travel with an airline a couple of times each year and check a bag, you can potentially save a lot of money. Yes, even with cards that have annual fees. 🙂

Do I Need to Use the Airline Card to Pay for My Ticket?

Nope! (Though the airline would love it if you do.) Read this post for more details.

Can I Pay for Someone Else’s Luggage if I’m Not Traveling with Them?

You cannot extend your airline credit card’s free checked bag benefit to someone not on your itinerary.

For example, our generous reader (let’s call him “Uncle Bob”) used his [sc name=”delta-skymiles-reserve-american-express-card-affiliate-link” ][/sc] to pay for his nephew’s holiday Delta trip home. Uncle Bob is not traveling with the nephew.

Uncle Bob — kind guy that he is — would love it if his nephew didn’t have to pay for checked luggage. Unfortunately, Bob’s free first checked bag benefit doesn’t work in this situation. Why? He’s not even traveling, let alone on the same confirmation number as his nephew. It doesn’t matter how the nephew’s flight was paid for. Even if Uncle Bob pays for the nephew’s checked baggage fee online with his Delta Amex, that still won’t work. (Although, this is where the American Express Platinum Card® or The Business Platinum Card® from American Express may come in handy with their airline incidental features.

It’s a very nice thought on Uncle Bob’s part.

Let’s say you’re traveling with a friend or colleague on the same flight. But she is on a different confirmation number. She’s checking a bag and you’re not. Can you check her bag as yours and save her the fee? I guess stranger things have happened…

Final Approach

Even if you’re a generous soul who pays for others’ airline tickets, the only way your free checked luggage benefits extend to them is if you’re actually traveling with them and on the same confirmation number.

For rates and fees of the American Express Platinum Card®, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, please visit this link.