Airline checkin and checkout confusion at OKW

[mybabesuz]

Is it normal for the resort to print your boarding passes and luggage tags
ahead of time and hang them on your door in the middle of the night?
We were very confused and concern about this at OKW.
When we woke up the morning of our departure there were boarding passes and luggage tags hung outside on our door.
We always thought you needed to go down and show Id to get the boarding passes.

What made this even more bizarre is that we had changed our flight.
We added three more nights at Kidani.
The boarding passes printed had someone else's name on them.
They printed out four boarding passes that were all the same but not our name.
The first page had our names with the flight on it but the boarding passes were wrong.
We returned them to the desk and didn't make a big deal about it.
But is this normal for them to just print them and hang them on your door?

They also charged us FIVE times for our room balance at OKW.
Actually they only authorized the amount 4 times and charged it once.
But it put a hold on our account for the total amount authorized for five days.
Of course it had to be the one time we didn't use the Dining Plan and had all of our meals charged to the room $743 (x 5)
When they finally charged it they did 7 $100 transactions and one $43 one.
So none of the holds dropped off.
Apparently there was a system upgrade and they were having trouble that day.
I didn't find out until our credit card was declined when we returned to the airport to get our car out of parking.
Luckily I had another way to pay for my car.
At Kidani they hung what I thought was a receipt on my door.
I grabbed it and threw it in my bag. We hadn't charged much there because we did the dining plan for our second segment of our stay.
And they usually send the receipt to my email and we left early in a hurry.
It wasn't until we were home that I read it and realized it was a note saying there was a problem with our credit card at checkout.
Oops... They should have called and left a message.
The credit card company said only the merchant could remove the authorization.
I called MS and they connected me to the billing department.
I ended up having to wait the five days for the charges to drop off.
Then I had to call the billing department back and have them recharge the Kidani part of our trip.
What a headache!

 

[Chuck S]

It is not at all unusual to have credit cards declined after a Disney trip. Many banks/CC companies will routinely decline cards after unexpected amounts show up, especially in Florida, as Florida is a hotbed of CC fraud. I usually drive to WDW, and I make sure to take several charge cards, as they often start declining at the gas pumps unless I specifically call the banks and authorize the charges, even though there is more than enough of a credit line on the cards. It is part of increased loss prevention at the banks.

Also be sure to inform your bank before your trip, as some cards will not authorize a charge over $100 without prior authorization. I know CHase lets you set up those options on many of their cards via their website. I receive emails from my banks and Credit Union for any charges over $100. And the Credit Union has declined transactions if they feel thee is a chance of fraud, and I've had to call them to authorize the charges.

These were not debit cards, but standard credit cards. I do not have a debit card.

The boarding pass mix up was surely human error, and is likely something they are experimenting with for ME. I haven't used ME, so I've always had to go to the baggage check area at the resort to get my boarding passes.

 

[mybabesuz]

My card was only declined because they said it was over my credit limit.
OKW authorized $3715 in charges on my account.
They tied up my credit for 5 days!

I did notify them I was going to Florida.

 

[vicki_c]

We never use ME, but I've seen many (saying 100 would not be exaggerating) posts talking about getting their ME stuff on the door knob the night before check-in. I thought that was the standard practice.

 

[Chuck S]

That does sound like a system glitch, as OKW usally authorizes $1500 at the most, and once you reach that with a room charge, they charge it out and authorize another $1500. The reservation system was down the other day for upgrades, which probably also had an effect on the resort system. The new reservation system, and making the DVC reservation system cross-talk with the regular Disney resort reservation system, has had a LOT of glitches since they took the first step to integrate them a couple of years ago.

 

[mybabesuz]

We never use ME, but I've seen many (saying 100 would not be exaggerating) posts talking about getting their ME stuff on the door knob the night before check-in. I thought that was the standard practice.

We always get the ME paper for the bus the night before we check out.
But we have always had to bring our luggage down and show ID before being issued Boarding passes and luggage tags for the airplane.
We were not taking the ME only switching resorts.
I really don't like the idea of my Boarding Pass and Luggage Tags hanging on my door all night.
It doesn't sound very secure. Someone could put one on any suitcase and send it to the airport with MY name on it!

 

[TDC Nala]

You have to show the ID to check your bags. And you still have to bring your own bags down to the airline check-in. I've never received a luggage tag on the door, just a claim check. I've received those even when I do not intend to check anything. I ignore it.

But they do not need to ask for ID before issuing a boarding pass. Anyone can print their boarding pass online these days. The resort is just printing it for you.

You must show ID at the airport with the boarding pass.

 

[mybabesuz]

That does sound like a system glitch, as OKW usally authorizes $1500 at the most, and once you reach that with a room charge, they charge it out and authorize another $1500. The reservation system was down the other day for upgrades, which probably also had an effect on the resort system. The new reservation system, and making the DVC reservation system cross-talk with the regular Disney resort reservation system, has had a LOT of glitches since they took the first step to integrate them a couple of years ago.

They were trying to cash out my account. The total amount $743 !
Instead of putting the credit through they kept just authorizing the amount by mistake.
It wasn't coming off my bill so they did it FOUR more times.
Then they decided to try it in smaller increments. $100 seven times and the $43...
They finally charged it correctly but they had run it 5 times already.
And they didn't bother to call and fix it or let me know.
I don't think Disney ever preauthorizes the cards anymore.
That is how people skip out on their bills.

 

[disneynutz]

I will comment on the luggage issue.

RAC (remote airline check in) is staffed by BAGS employees (a subsidiary of MEARS). They are a outside vendor responsible for getting your luggage to MCO and they can also issue boarding passes. Not all airlines participate in the program. You can use RAC even if you are not using DME, (Disney's Magical Express). I have never heard of RAC leaving luggage tags on a guests door, especially when they haven't weighed the luggage. I expect that the tags were meant for someone else with special circumstances.

DME will leave your DME instructions on your door, they are also a MEARS company contracted by Disney.

Bill

 

[mybabesuz]

I will comment on the luggage issue.

RAC (remote airline check in) is staffed by BAGS employees (a subsidiary of MEARS). They are a outside vendor responsible for getting your luggage to MCO and they can also issue boarding passes. Not all airlines participate in the program. You can use RAC even if you are not using DME, (Disney's Magical Express). I have never heard of RAC leaving luggage tags on a guests door, especially when they haven't weighed the luggage. I expect that the tags were meant for someone else with special circumstances.

DME will leave your DME instructions on your door, they are also a MEARS company contracted by Disney.

Bill

The luggage tags had our names on them for the flight we were supposed to be on originally.
The tags have the gate, the flight and the flight time on them.
Four tags with each of our names on them.
On the back of the tags it says BAGS www.airportbags.com with instruction on how to attach the tags to your bags.
The envelope says resort airline check-in on it.
The tags are the same as the ones we got at Kidani when we actually came home.

 

[disneynutz]

The luggage tags had our names on them for the flight we were supposed to be on originally.
The tags have the gate, the flight and the flight time on them.
Four tags with each of our names on them.
On the back of the tags it says BAGS www.airportbags.com with instruction on how to attach the tags to your bags.
The envelope says resort airline check-in on it.
The tags are the same as the ones we got at Kidani when we actually came home.

This is something new in the last couple of months then. How do they know that you intend to participate?

I would send a email to the following for an explanation:

wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

Please let us know what you find out.

Bill

 

[DebbieB]

When I stayed at BWV in May I used DME for the first time. They hung our SW boarding passes and luggage tags on the door the morning of check-out. The boarding passes looked like your typical home printer version. We put the tags on our luggage and took them to the RAC desk. They took them off and put new ones on plus gave us new boarding passes that looked like airport boarding passes. So I don't know what the purpose was of putting them on the door.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

When I stayed at BWV in May I used DME for the first time. They hung our SW boarding passes and luggage tags on the door the morning of check-out. The boarding passes looked like your typical home printer version. We put the tags on our luggage and took them to the RAC desk. They took them off and put new ones on plus gave us new boarding passes that looked like airport boarding passes. So I don't know what the purpose was of putting them on the door.

Same thing for our group members using ME back in Dec of 2010 so it's been going on for awhile. And not making complete sense. The luggage tags were the strangest part.

 

[mybabesuz]

This is something new in the last couple of months then. How do they know that you intend to participate?

I would send a email to the following for an explanation:

wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

Please let us know what you find out.

Bill

I sent an email. I will post when they respond.
Thanks

 

[wildernessDad]

Ahh, yes, a system upgrade...

 

[Simba's Mom]

I'm confused. If they include luggage tags, how do they know whether or not you have to pay for luggage? I know that on some airlines no one pays, so it doesn't matter. But on some, like Continental, DH is a premium Frequent Flier, so we don't pay. But other people do. So how do they know whether or not to charge us? I don't want to get charged for something I don't have to pay for, then try to get the charge removed.

 

[vicki_c]

I'm confused. If they include luggage tags, how do they know whether or not you have to pay for luggage? I know that on some airlines no one pays, so it doesn't matter. But on some, like Continental, DH is a premium Frequent Flier, so we don't pay. But other people do. So how do they know whether or not to charge us? I don't want to get charged for something I don't have to pay for, then try to get the charge removed.

A person up thread mentioned exchanging those tags for others at the RAC desk, so you would pay then.

 

[Pirate Granny]

We go three x a year and always use ME flying Delta, Southwesr and Air Tran...we have never gotten luggage tags on our door. The day before we leave we get the info letter telling us what time the bus leaves on departure day and the check on info regarding luggage. Curious

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

We received luggage tags and I believe boarding passes for SWA on our door at SSR last summer. I remember that they still needed to do something in the computer, though, when we actually checked the bags in with them. It's only been that one time, though, that they did it.

It may be something they only do on days when there's a particularly large number of DME reservations and they know the RAC desk will be mobbed.