Delta Wants You to Skip the Baggage Carousel After Sydney and Tokyo

Delta Air Lines has widened a program that spares international arrivals from collecting and rechecking their luggage. Passengers flying from Sydney to Los Angeles, and from Tokyo Haneda to Atlanta, can now go straight to their connecting gate after U.S. Customs and Border Protection and security, unless a bag is selected for additional inspection. Open Jaw reports that the change can save up to 25 minutes on average.

The service builds on a 2025 rollout covering London Heathrow to Atlanta and Seoul Incheon to Atlanta with partner Korean Air. Newer routes include Incheon to Detroit, Minneapolis and Seattle, plus Incheon to Los Angeles on Korean Air. Together they turn some of the most tedious connections in U.S. air travel into something closer to a domestic transfer.

Delta announced a handful of other ground-experience upgrades at the same time. TSA PreCheck Touchless ID, which uses biometric verification at bag drop and security, is live at more than 60 airports including all Delta hubs. To qualify, a traveler must be a SkyMiles member enrolled in PreCheck with a Known Traveler Number and a valid passport, and can opt in through the Delta app.

App-based bag drop is now available at all Delta hubs for customers who check in through the app before reaching the airport. U.S. and Canadian permanent residents can also scan their resident cards in the app to check in digitally. A Delta and Uber preferred drop-off option, started at LaGuardia and later expanded to Atlanta, rounds out the package for travelers heading to those two airports.

Sources: Open Jaw, Delta News Hub