ome ME/air travel luggage tips:
- Always always always always pack a carry-on (heretofore referred to as CO) with: valuables, medications, travel documents, and whatever items you will need for the first 24 hours at your destination. While it may take Magical Express several hours to deliver your checked luggage, the airlines misdirect over three million pieces of baggage per year.
- A personal observation – it’s interesting how many people trust the airlines to transport their luggage hundreds or thousands of miles, but don’t trust DME (which uses GPS tracking on its delivery trucks and scans each tag five times and knows where each piece is once DME has possession of it) to move it twenty mile.
- Most frequently when luggage takes more than three or four hours, it’s because the airline sent it somewhere else; the passenger isn’t aware of this because by registering, checking in, and using DME, that service takes over responsibility for locating and delivering said misdirected luggage. However, passengers/Guests tend to blame DME if their luggage is late because, well, many aren’t aware of this – or that if they hadn’t used the luggage portion of DME, they’d be at the airport first futilely watching the baggage carousel circle endlessly, then stop without producing their suitcase; then they’d be in the Lost Luggage office fighting hordes of others in the same situation, filling out forms and stressing the urgency of their personal situation over that of all others…
- Yellow-tagged luggage never makes it onto the carousel. It’s all pulled before any luggage enters the airport. If you put the yellow tags on your luggage, it will not appear on the carousel and you will not be able to change your mind and pick it up yourself. Period.
- Guests who arrive properly prepared (see “always always… item”) should never need to go back and pick up their own luggage, at any time. According to a DME CM (see the Transportation Board), luggage IS delivered to Walt Disney World all night, albeit less frequently because, well, there’s less luggage to deliver at 1 AM than at 1 PM for example. Guests arriving late and not wanting to be awakened should take three steps: (a) Tell the CM while they’re checking in that they’d like their luggage held until morning; (b) Call Bell Services/Luggage Assistance from their room and repeat that message; and (c) Place the “Privacy Please” card in the key slot of the room door.
