Expedited Checked Luggage - frustration

Hi, just posting as a heads up to anyone who might have a similar situation come up. Long story short - always lock your luggage, label it, and if possible, have an AirTag or something.

Recently just flew into Boston with a group of ski/snowboard luggage. We had a long layover before, and delta decided to send our luggage on an earlier flight. The app was great at communicating this info and we were happy to hear the luggage would make it.

However, when we arrived at Boston, we went to baggage claim to find our bags just sitting out front of oversized luggage claim unattended. The app told us it would be at the baggage claim office but this was not the case. Based on the earlier flight timing, we think our bags had been sitting there for a few hours.

Luckily our bags were labeled and I had locked my stuff, but pretty frustrated to walk up to that. Our bags were filled with some pretty expensive gear. It’s stressful enough to trust airlines to not damage our stuff. Which, on a positive note, this was our third trip without any broken gear!

Overall, not the end of the world but figured this info might be helpful if anyone finds themselves in a similar situation