[QUOTE=rackensack]
You can check in online on Delta up to 24 hours before the flight. I’m not sure how far in advance of the flight they’ll accept checked bags, however – six hours is swimming around in my head for some reason, but I don’t know whether that’s because I’ve seen the answer before or because I made it up. I did search Delta’s web site for this answer, and I’ve also tracked down Delta’s Domestic General Rules Tariff, which is explicit about the minimum time in advance bags must be checked, but doesn’t say anything about the maximum.
I know I’ve checked bags between three and four hours in advance on Delta (for a while, you had to be three hours early on Monday mornings in Atlanta to make it through the security lines in time for your flight).
I’ve never flown through ABQ – does Delta have self-service kiosks there? If so, you could take care of everything but actually checking the bags yourself, whenever it suits you. None of the Delta or Delta Connection carriers has any other flights going out in the interim, however, so they may not have anyone at the ticket counter/bag check until a couple of hours before your flight. I’d say your best bet is to high-tail it to the ticket counter as soon as you arrive in hopes of catching someone before they all go on break for the next several hours – there’s a SkyWest 6:45 flight to SLC that’s the last Delta-affiliated flight until yours, so there should be someone there up until 6:30 or so at least. And there are flights arriving from SLC and ATL in the meantime, so worst case you could go down to baggage claim and find the Delta baggage service office if there’s no one at the ticket counter.
Of course, if you can manage to do carry-on bags only, you can check in online and avoid worrying about it. Your flight’s on an MD-88, which doesn’t have tons of cabin storage, but at least it’s not one of the CRJs that SkyWest and ComAir fly. But I assume you’ve already considered that and ruled it out. One thing to consider is that many travelers believe that checking bags more than a few hours before a flight increases the chance of items being stolen, and that an early bag will be subject to the “first on, last off” principle. This could be a particular problem if you’re making a tight connection in ATL or if you’re connecting and there’s a delay on your ABQ-ATL flight.
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You’re much more helpful than the Delta rep I (finally!) talked to, whose first language was Obfuscation. I’ll try to check in online before I leave on Friday. They do have curbside bag checks at ABQ, so I’ll try that as soon as I get there. I’ve got three hours in ATL, so that’s not a big concern. If they misplace my luggage, then…well, it’s happened before, and I’m going home to my parent’s house, so I’ll be covered for the basics until my suitcase returns from Timbuktu.
You sound like you know what the deal is, so - would someone in the baggage office be able to help deal with my suitcase if no one’s at the ticket counter? If I need to I can always just haul my suitcase around with me as I kill time in the airport, but I’d rather not, and I’m irrationally nervous that, like, security will shut down or something. Traveling without a checked bag isn’t an option, unfortunately, but I appreciate the advice. (Also, it freaked me out for a moment that you knew I was going through Atlanta; then I realized that it’s probably pretty easy to deduce where someone’s going when they’re flying from a small airport on a certain airline at an odd hour.)