Can we talk about the literal mob scene at the SW Baggage check/Boarding Pass area, and how much we miss RAC??

[jo-jo]

To the OP, yes spoiled by ME and RAC. We were there in April. Felt like we walked 3 miles getting bags to ME and 8 miles from ME to SW checkin. We were lucky, for some reason as we headed toward the million people in line, a SW person told us to go to an empty checkin desk. Maybe it was for business class, I don't know, but we were happy.

 

[Lewisc]

SW passengers arriving at MCO using DME schlep their luggage to level 3 and to the opposite side of the airport. You have the option of exiting the terminal and waiting on the civilized curbside check in. Service isn't limited to passengers dropped off at the curb.

Prior to SWs participation with RAC check in desks at level 1, near DME drop off was being explored.

I wouldn't take DME if I had much luggage. Car service or ride share gets me where I need to be.

Precovid skycaps were available at DME drop off. The driver could have one paged if necessary. They'll take your bags and assist in getting you checked in. Well worth a generous tip.

 

[NotUrsula]

Wow, this seems new; we've always found the SWA counter to be pretty orderly at MCO, though the bag check line was often insanely long.

We flew through MCO twice during the height of the pandemic, and while the rental car situation was a hot mess, SWA at that time was as orderly as normal. (We were last at MCO on the day after Christmas.)

I guess this situation must be arising from staffing shortages now that passenger volume is picking back up?

 

[Lewisc]

Wow, this seems new; we've always found the SWA counter to be pretty orderly at MCO, though the bag check line was often insanely long.

We flew through MCO twice during the height of the pandemic, and while the rental car situation was a hot mess, SWA at that time was as orderly as normal. (We were last at MCO on the day after Christmas.)

I guess this situation must be arising from staffing shortages now that passenger volume is picking back up?

also loss of RAC

 

[buzzrelly]

Precovid skycaps were available at DME drop off. The driver could have one paged if necessary. They'll take your bags and assist in getting you checked in. Well worth a generous tip.

I would happily generously tip to avoid that nightmare again!

 

[TikiTikiFan]

What came in real handy... TSA Pre-Check. The security lines in MCO can be insane. 45 minutes or 90 minutes are not unusual. Our local airport EWR isn’t much better. This is money well spent if you travel every year.

Does the Clear service help at all with the crazy line situations at MCO? I have a free trial of that right now but not sure if I'm better off just getting TSA Pre-Check.

 

[Heather07438]

Does the Clear service help at all with the crazy line situations at MCO? I have a free trial of that right now but not sure if I'm better off just getting TSA Pre-Check.

We haven’t tried Clear yet but some people say it is amazing. I’d probably give it a try with a free trial. Might spoil you tho lol.

Expensive... $179/yr vs TSA Precheck $85/5yrs. It’s only $119 just by signing up with Delta and some credit cards pay back some expense, like AmEx Green gives $100 so it can cost only $19/yr.

 

[Gitelfor]

Does the Clear service help at all with the crazy line situations at MCO? I have a free trial of that right now but not sure if I'm better off just getting TSA Pre-Check.

I notice the CLEAR checkpoint at MCO when heading over to the TSA PreCheck lines, and I have never seen more than an occasional business traveler use it. The PreCheck lines move very quickly, even when the regular Security lines are very backed up. During the 6+ years that I have had PreCheck, I've never waited more than a couple of minutes to reach the I.D. checkpoint at MCO and usually no more than about another 5-6 minutes to complete the screening process. For those who travel frequently, including international travel, Global Entry, which includes TSA PreCheck, is a better option.

A couple of years ago, I was standing in one of the PreCheck lines at MCO and recognized the person in front of me; he was a well-known travel journalist whose contributions include authoring travel books, producing and hosting his own weekly radio broadcast, and serving as the travel editor and a contributor to a major TV network's morning show. He was using TSA PreCheck - not CLEAR. By the way, he was very friendly, and we had a nice chat while working our way up to the metal detector. So, you never know who you might meet in the PreCheck line!

Here is a good comparison between CLEAR and PreCheck:

Is PreCheck or CLEAR better?

 

[kylenne]

I notice the CLEAR checkpoint at MCO when heading over to the TSA PreCheck lines, and I have never seen more than an occasional business traveler use it. The PreCheck lines move very quickly, even when the regular Security lines are very backed up. During the 6+ years that I have had PreCheck, I've never waited more than a couple of minutes to reach the I.D. checkpoint at MCO and usually no more than about another 5-6 minutes to complete the screening process. For those who travel frequently, including international travel, Global Entry, which includes TSA PreCheck, is a better option.

A couple of years ago, I was standing in one of the PreCheck lines at MCO and recognized the person in front of me; he was a well-known travel journalist whose contributions include authoring travel books, producing and hosting his own weekly radio broadcast, and serving as the travel editor and a contributor to a major TV network's morning show. He was using TSA PreCheck - not CLEAR. By the way, he was very friendly, and we had a nice chat while working our way up to the metal detector. So, you never know who you might meet in the PreCheck line!

Here is a good comparison between CLEAR and PreCheck:

Is PreCheck or CLEAR better?

People don’t use Clear because outside of very frequent fliers and people who are very plugged into credit card rewards (and that Venn diagram is a circle) most have no idea what it is. They see the signs at airports and assume it’s some kind of fancy first class situation that they can’t access just like how the average person at the parks thought FP+ was paid.

I have Pre through Global Entry membership but I still signed up for Clear to try it out for my upcoming trip. Reason being it’s also used in stadiums here in NYC but also having Pre doesn’t mean you always necessarily get to use the Pre line. It will not prevent you from being randomly selected for extra screening and in those cases you have to use the regular security line...it’s happened to me twice at YYZ going back to JFK, and is a royal PITA.

Any security line advantage at MCO is imo worth it to avoid the clown fiesta that place always is.

 

[bookgirl2632]

I was planning on using Uber or Lyft to go back to MCO to avoid schlepping our luggage up from DME drop off. The last time we flew out of MCO, we used Uber from Universal and loved checking our luggage in at the curb. It was well worth the tip since the Skycap was so helpful. I’ll have to keep my eye on this situation for our October trip.

I’d really just like the RAC back.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

Awesome feedback folks, thanks! I think Clear is worth using that 3 month trial for our travel this summer. I just had it randomly pop up on Facebook, I'm sure anyone else could find it too if they wanted to use it. I'm not sure I'd pay that large of a price to keep it (pre check is much more reasonable) but hey, I'll use it for the summer!

 

[NotUrsula]

The primary reason that CLEAR never really caught on is the limited number of airports that initially honored it (only 4 for the first several years it existed), and the corporate mess that it originally was. It was founded in 2005, went bankrupt and ceased operations in 2009, was resurrected by Federal bankruptcy court in a sale to a different management company in 2010. Oh, and there was a data breach in there with the original company somewhere, too.) They have been stepping up the number of airports they are contracted with, but it's still not that many, especially not the smaller ones. I considered it when it first appeared, but decided against it at the time because it did not serve my home airport. (It finally opened up here about a year ago, just before the pandemic.) I already have Global Entry, so there's no point now.

Here is the list of airports that have CLEAR: https://www.clearme.com/where-we-ar...GJFDGaUj_xjzeS9Tu-AaAqPGEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[Cheburashka]

There was a single mom with three small children struggling to hold a baby and get her bags tagged, and the SW agent was just yelling orders at her instead of helping. It was ridiculous.

That is horrible. I stopped flying Southwest a couple of years ago, partly due to a poor customer service incident: check-in agent assumed my son and I didn't belong in their Business Select line (we did belong there) and loudly and rudely called us out (we were several feet away, so it was very public) to leave the line and join regular boarding- I guess we just didn't fit her visual profile of Business Select passengers. Then I walked up and showed her our Business Select status. She looked sheepish & barely apologized under her breath. I've also other had issues with them, too. Overall very unimpressed with their "service".

 

[Craig Larson]

If arriving by DME, drop off is on the "B" side of Level 1. Southwest departures & curbside check-in are located on the "A" side of Level 3. Curbside check-in for Southwest is convenient for those arriving by other means of transportation, dropping off on Level 3. There's also a check-in area in parking garages "A" and "B"; I'm not sure if that's currently in operation, though.

This is giving me anxiety already, and I don't go to WDW until August. Hoping it gets better by then.

What exactly is the process to get from Terminal B to Terminal A with Checked Luggage? Pre-covid, I knew we would go through security then take the tram to the other side. Is it possible to get to the other side without going through security? Seems like it would be a nightmare taking checked bags through security just to leave the secure area to check bags and then go through security again.

 

[joelkfla]

This is giving me anxiety already, and I don't go to WDW until August. Hoping it gets better by then.

What exactly is the process to get from Terminal B to Terminal A with Checked Luggage? Pre-covid, I knew we would go through security then take the tram to the other side. Is it possible to get to the other side without going through security? Seems like it would be a nightmare taking checked bags through security just to leave the secure area to check bags and then go through security again.

First of all, Terminal A & Terminal B are just 2 sides of the same building. The trams run between the airside (secured) and landside (unsecured) parts of the building.

There are 4 airside pods: 2 for A & 2 for B. Each pod has it's own tram.

Baggage check and claim are in the landside (unsecured) part. If you needed to retrieve your bags from B and check them again in A, you would simply take the tram from airside to landside, exit security, go downstairs to the baggage claim, then go back upstairs to the departure level where you can walk from the B side to the A side, check them, and go thru security on the A side.

But why do you need to do this? Are you transferring between different airlines that won't check your bags thru?

 

[Craig Larson]

First of all, Terminal A & Terminal B are just 2 sides of the same building. The trams run between the airside (secured) and landside (unsecured) parts of the building.

There are 4 airside pods: 2 for A & 2 for B. Each pod has it's own tram.

Baggage check and claim are in the landside (unsecured) part. If you needed to retrieve your bags from B and check them again in A, you would simply take the tram from airside to landside, exit security, go downstairs to the baggage claim, then go back upstairs to the departure level where you can walk from the B side to the A side, check them, and go thru security on the A side.

But why do you need to do this? Are you transferring between different airlines that won't check your bags thru?

Yeah, I think I was confused at what point we got on the trams. Looking at the map solved it for me. Just thinking about the chaos made me confuse the actual layout of the airport.

 

[gharter]

And why can’t RAC come back to wdw now?!

For all the changes that happened with Co-Vid at WDW, this was the one we missed the most.
It was wonderful to check our bags at the resort, get to the airport and head directly to security.
We flew American and checking our bags wasn't bad. Certainly not the nightmare PP had with SW.

 

[Moliphino]

It looked like a hot mess, but it didn't actually take very long to find an open kiosk, check in, and hand over my bags.

 

[mom2rtk]

Maybe they should subcontract with Chic-fil-A to manage their lines?

 

[Castlequeen5]

Maybe they should subcontract with Chic-fil-A to manage their lines?

They can move those lines quickly! It’s AMAZING!