DME and/or Southwest lost our bags...but, we may have been in error, not them!!

[gobo2]

Got home at 230am today. Currently on hold with Disney. Anyone else have this happen?
Thanks

 

[seashoreCM]

Your baggage claim filed at the resort front desk remains active. Unless otherwise instructed you may go about your day, go to the park, etc. Most likely the bag was misdirected or delayed by Southwest and will arrive on a later flight and then get to your room via Magical Express probably this afternoon.

 

[Gracie09]

If you got in after 10 you should have picked them up yourself from baggage claim. If they didn't come off plane then sw lost or misdirected them.

 

[Alesia]

One of my bags has gotten delayed about half of the times I've flown.

Are you at WDW or are you at home?

 

[SirDuff]

If you got in at 2:30am then DME would not have picked up your bags as the bag transfer is only for flights arriving before 10pm. If you didn't pick up your bags then they should be at the airport (likely in some some sort of "left behind luggage" area).

 

[tjmw2727]

Got in at 230am today. Currently on hold with Disney. Anyone else have this happen?
Thanks

Disney doesn't pick up bags for luggage delivery after 10pm so you should have gone to the luggage carousel and picked up your bags before heading to the DME bus.

That said - did you put the yellow claim tags on the bags? If so DME personnel "may" go to the SWA unclaimed bags office for you and try and find your bags but IME they require the luggage claim checks and your ID to release those bags.

Honestly if I were you I would have one person go back to the airport and grab the bags from the SWA luggage office especially if they don't have the yellow DME bag tags.

 

[seashoreCM]

Part of what happens after you filed your baggage claim at the resort would include CM's rechecking "left behind baggage" areas at the airport.

However, if the bag never gets into the Magical Express system, given that you were supposed to claim it yourself having arrived after 10 PM, Disney will normally not be cutting you a check or issuing you a gift card to replace it or its contents.

 

[seashoreCM]

(added later) Just noticed you mentioned you arrived home. You should have filed a baggage missing claim at your home airport. You did show them your claim checks given to you by "the skycap" at your resort, no?

Nitpicking: The homebound baggage checking process at your resort is not part of Magical Express and anyone traveling on a participating airline, using DME or not, may use it.

Also file a baggage claim arriving in Orlando Disney bound whenever you go to baggage claim (for non-yellow tagged bags anytime and for yellow tagged bags between 10 AM and 5 PM) and don't find your bags there.

 

[gobo2]

Edited to note that I am home. We are DVC, we WDW at least once a year and never dared to use DME in the past because I was afraid of exactly this. We took Happy Limo from MCO to the resort. So we are 0 for 1.

 

[tjmw2727]

Edited to note that I am home. We are DVC, we WDW at least once a year and never dared to use DME in the past because I was afraid of exactly this. We took Happy Limo from MCO to the resort. So we are 0 for 1.

DME has nothing to do with luggage especially on the return trip. You can check your bags via RAC at the resort but that has nothing to do with DME its more like curbside check in but from the resort rather than the airport. In fact you don't even have to ride the DME bus to use RAC.

Not sure what happened here - did you use RAC?
Were you able to claim your bags at your home airport - if not did you file a claim with SWA before leaving?

 

[gobo2]

I know that now!!

 

[EvilDrPorkchop21]

Yeah I'm confused, if you took DME home, then you're manually bringing your bags on and off the bus. Sounds like an airline issue....

 

[goofy4tink]

Many people think DME handles your luggage checkin at the resort for the trip home. It does not. RAC (resort airline checkin) handles it. Think of it as curbside service, but the curb is a long way away!!
A missing bag claim should be made at the airport before you leave there. If your luggage doesn't make it out, on the baggage carousel, you should speak to airline personnel, giving them the claim receipt info. Disney really has nothing to do with your luggage when heading home.
Could RAC have misdirected it? Possibly. You could call them and start a conversation.

 

[Shanti]

Got home at 230am today. Currently on hold with Disney. Anyone else have this happen?
Thanks

It's most likely due to the airline. Southwest has lost our bags before (as have other airlines). Fortunately, misdirected bags typically show up the next day. Make sure you're in communication with SWA as well as Disney's Resort Airline Check-in about this.

We've taken several Disney trips and we've never had any issue with DME or RAC misdirecting our bags, btw. I trust them much more than the airlines, who have misdirected our bags multiple times on different types of trips. So IMO, if you're trusting enough to check bags at all, you might as well be trusting enough to utilize DME/RAC luggage services.

 

[DebbieB]

Does the bag check receipt show your correct information? RAC tags your luggage and then loads it onto trucks out to the airport. They are then turned over to the airline. How long before flight time did you check it?

 

[jerseygal]

Many people think DME handles your luggage checkin at the resort for the trip home. It does not. RAC (resort airline checkin) handles it. Think of it as curbside service, but the curb is a long way away!!
A missing bag claim should be made at the airport before you leave there. If your luggage doesn't make it out, on the baggage carousel, you should speak to airline personnel, giving them the claim receipt info. Disney really has nothing to do with your luggage when heading home.
Could RAC have misdirected it? Possibly. You could call them and start a conversation.

Very well explained! Hope it never happens, but unfortunately bags are lost! That's where trip insurance cones in VERY HANDY! Hope you get your bag back! If you have Travelex insurance through DVC, contact them.

 

[LisaS]

Does the bag check receipt show your correct information? RAC tags your luggage and then loads it onto trucks out to the airport. They are then turned over to the airline. How long before flight time did you check it?

Good advice here from DebbieB. Do your baggage claim checks show the correct names and home airport? It's possible when you checked your bags at the RAC desk at your resort that they mixed up your bag tags with someone elses.

And did you in fact take your bags to the RAC desk? There have been cases where guests left their bags in their hotel room when they checked out, assuming Disney's Bell Services takes them down to RAC which is not the case. You must check your bags yourself if you are using RAC's airport baggage service.

Did you file a claim at the airline's office at baggage claim at your home airport? They will initiate a search for your bags to see if they are somewhere in their system and begin the process of returning them to you. If not, get in touch with your airline ASAP because they are in the best position to locate them, provided it's not an RAC issue. If they have no information on your bags, you will need to get in touch with RAC.

As others have already stated, DME is not involved here at all unless you took your bags with you and had them loaded in the luggage area under the DME bus and forgot to pick them up when you got off the bus.

 

[disney world dreamer]

happened once back in 2010.
we think RAC messed something up and then southwest was nasty to us when we didn't have a baggage claim ticket. (i have never ever received a baggage claim ticket from southwest so not sure whats up with that)
they figured out that it came home on a different flight and we picked it up the next day.

 

[maxiesmom]

I know that now!!

You need to deal with the airline. Disney can't help you. Southwest had issues yesterday so I'm not surprised your bags are missing.

 

[tjmw2727]

I know that now!!

Ok so can you update - did you use RAC or check your bags yourself at the airport?

With a 2:30 am arrival I would assume your flight left around 10/11pm and to use RAC you would have had to check your bags prior to 12pm that's very early. If this was the case its possible your bags arrived at your home airport prior to your arrival on an earlier flight and were being held in the office when you arrived at the carousel.

Either way you should use your bag claim tickets in order to find your bags - rather than call Disney I would call SWA and provide them with the Claim #s on the missing bags or head back to the airport to see if they are in the SWA baggage office.