Luggage issue at jambo house

[cvjw]

My son and friend checked into jambo house yesterday on my DVC points. They spent all day at animal kingdom, only checking in after rivers of light. They flew into mco and had magical express handle their luggage.

When they went to their villa, only the friend’s suitcase had been delivered from the magical express. My son went down to try and figure out where his luggage was. He spoke with bell services and the manager at jambo, and no one was really much help or concerned. He finally convinced them to call their contacts at the airport and they couldn’t find his bag. They were very indifferent to his plight.

Now, it is 10:30 at night, and no luggage. My son finally decided to call the airport himself and got someone really nice on the phone who searched and found his luggage still sitting at the airport. He promised to put it on a shuttle and get it to jambo house.

It arrived to him at 1:30 last night. His suitcase had been torn apart by the TSA. My question is this - is this a common occurrence? If the TSA decides to pull your bag out for further screening, does it just miss the magical express transport? You would have no way to verify that your luggage actually makes it on a Disney transport until you get to your room and it is missing.

It was a very frustrating way for him to start his vacation.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Not common. TSA has no reason to search arrived luggage. If you can prove where the damage occurred, you might be able to get compensation. YEA no, airline possibly, DME apparently didn't handle his luggage at all, so again no.

 

[dansdad]

My son and friend checked into jambo house yesterday on my DVC points. They spent all day at animal kingdom, only checking in after rivers of light. They flew into mco and had magical express handle their luggage.

When they went to their villa, only the friend’s suitcase had been delivered from the magical express. My son went down to try and figure out where his luggage was. He spoke with bell services and the manager at jambo, and no one was really much help or concerned. He finally convinced them to call their contacts at the airport and they couldn’t find his bag. They were very indifferent to his plight.

Now, it is 10:30 at night, and no luggage. My son finally decided to call the airport himself and got someone really nice on the phone who searched and found his luggage still sitting at the airport. He promised to put it on a shuttle and get it to jambo house.

It arrived to him at 1:30 last night. His suitcase had been torn apart by the TSA. My question is this - is this a common occurrence? If the TSA decides to pull your bag out for further screening, does it just miss the magical express transport? You would have no way to verify that your luggage actually makes it on a Disney transport until you get to your room and it is missing.

It was a very frustrating way for him to start his vacation.

If TSA flags a piece of luggage for further inspection, it can be missed by the Magical Express folks unless TSA brings it back to the staging area for Magical Express gathering of bags. As your son found out, this does not always happen.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Or, if in the process of giving it tender, sweet love, the TSA destroy the ME tag. It will get missed on that basis.

 

[georgina]

My last trip I came back to my room to discover someone else's luggage had been delivered to me. Same last name, slightly different spelling. It took me a while to notice it sitting by the door though, I was pretty tired. I usually only travel with a carryon or have a rental car and have only used ME for luggage once, but I'm not sure I ever would again.

 

[sndral]

Love and use DME’s luggage delivery in spite of that one snafu at the GF were my suitcase was left at MCO. It was finally delivered at around 2 a.m. - but since I’d arrived from the west coast it felt like 11pm, so not so bad. Too bad about the lack of concern by AKL staff, when it happened to me the staff at the GF called the airport/DME or whomever and located the bag right away at MCO.
I hope my bag next December doesn’t get yanked by TSA!

 

[Lovinallthingsdisney]

In January while checking into AKL, I got a phone call from a 407 number. I let the call go to VM since I was talking to CM. When we got to room, I called the number back. It was DME asking me to describe my bags to them because a tag had been lost. We went downstairs to eat and when we came back less than an hour later our bags were in the room. My bag had absolutely no tags on it. No DME tag, no airline tag...nothing. I was super impressed that my bag made it to me, and rather quickly. I didn’t even know it was “missing”

 

[jerseygal]

My son and friend checked into jambo house yesterday on my DVC points. They spent all day at animal kingdom, only checking in after rivers of light. They flew into mco and had magical express handle their luggage.

When they went to their villa, only the friend’s suitcase had been delivered from the magical express. My son went down to try and figure out where his luggage was. He spoke with bell services and the manager at jambo, and no one was really much help or concerned. He finally convinced them to call their contacts at the airport and they couldn’t find his bag. They were very indifferent to his plight.

Now, it is 10:30 at night, and no luggage. My son finally decided to call the airport himself and got someone really nice on the phone who searched and found his luggage still sitting at the airport. He promised to put it on a shuttle and get it to jambo house.

It arrived to him at 1:30 last night. His suitcase had been torn apart by the TSA. My question is this - is this a common occurrence? If the TSA decides to pull your bag out for further screening, does it just miss the magical express transport? You would have no way to verify that your luggage actually makes it on a Disney transport until you get to your room and it is missing.

It was a very frustrating way for him to start his vacation.

FRUSTRATING to say the least! And if your son is young, more frustrating(younger people often times don't know the procedures for such issues). Not good, hearing that the CM's were not helpful at Jambo...HAPPY that your son got the luggage FINALLY BUT wow, to hear that it is torn apart...Hopefully nothing valuable is missing(we never pack valuables, always in a carry on with us)….HOPE that the rest of the trip is magical for them! PS..Since your son is at Jambo now, is my assumption correct that pool is now closed, probably since Tuesday?, Thanks!

 

[kaytieeldr]

And if your son is young, more frustrating(younger people often times don't know the procedures for such issues)

He knew to call her!

But it sounds like he knew all along, that he called the OP only after tracking down the luggage.

 

[patty57]

Did your son ride on the DME bus to get to his resort? The only reason that I'm asking is that I have read here on the forums that if you don't ride the bus, and just have DME take your luggage, that WDW isn't too interested in helping to find missing bags. No judgment if he did.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

FWIW, TSA's tender mercies may have been at your home airport, not MCO.

 

[AngiTN]

Or, if in the process of giving it tender, sweet love, the TSA destroy the ME tag. It will get missed on that basis.

Excellent point. OP, you don't mention, was the yellow ME tag still on the bag when it made it to you? If yes, then no suggestions but if no, then that's it right there. No ME tag, then ME won't grab it.

 

[gillep]

I had the ME tag ripped off once and didn't have the bags in our room, I called ME gave them my claim number and they tracked it down for me. I wouldn't have thought to ask at the hotel unless ME told me that they had delivered it to my resort.

 

[cvjw]

Yes, he rode the magical express bus to jambo house. I just found out that the yellow tag was not on his bag when it made it to jambo house. Guess the TSA took it off when they went thru the bag. There in lies the problem, I guess.

Yes, he is 22, so he hasn’t had much experience handling issues like this by himself. He was very frustrated with the staff at jambo house. They kept asking him for proof that he checked his bag at the airport. Of course, he no longer had the baggage claim ticket. He felt like they thought he was lying about missing his bag.

It all worked out in the end. This whole situation has made me question letting Disney handle my luggage with the magical express because there is no way to verify that Disney actually has your bag. I think we will pull them ourselves from now on.

 

[gillep]

Yes, he rode the magical express bus to jambo house. I just found out that the yellow tag was not on his bag when it made it to jambo house. Guess the TSA took it off when they went thru the bag. There in lies the problem, I guess.

Yes, he is 22, so he hasn’t had much experience handling issues like this by himself. He was very frustrated with the staff at jambo house. They kept asking him for proof that he checked his bag at the airport. Of course, he no longer had the baggage claim ticket. He felt like they thought he was lying about missing his bag.

It all worked out in the end. This whole situation has made me question letting Disney handle my luggage with the magical express because there is no way to verify that Disney actually has your bag. I think we will pull them ourselves from now on.

Just for the future you always need to retain your baggage claim information. The system works really well for the most part but things happen. Like I said I had a tag ripped off but I had my claim information and gave it to ME they were able to find my bag very quickly and called me once they did letting me know it was going on the next bus at the resort. There really wasn't anything for the hotel to do in this situation as the issue was with ME.

 

[ShirikiUtundu]

I can't think of a scenario why screening would be done as the baggage is unloaded. The tag had to have been inadvertently removed during screening at the home airport. It is very inconvenient but I don't think it would affect the usage of ME because it seems like a fluke. And now your son has learned the importance of holding onto claim tickets.

 

[AngiTN]

Yes, he rode the magical express bus to jambo house. I just found out that the yellow tag was not on his bag when it made it to jambo house. Guess the TSA took it off when they went thru the bag. There in lies the problem, I guess.

Yes, he is 22, so he hasn’t had much experience handling issues like this by himself. He was very frustrated with the staff at jambo house. They kept asking him for proof that he checked his bag at the airport. Of course, he no longer had the baggage claim ticket. He felt like they thought he was lying about missing his bag.

It all worked out in the end. This whole situation has made me question letting Disney handle my luggage with the magical express because there is no way to verify that Disney actually has your bag. I think we will pull them ourselves from now on.

Oh, many issues that started with TSA or baggage handlers. But no guessing about it. No yellow tag, no way for ME to get the bag. So yeah, that IS the problem.
And bigger lesson learned, never, ever, ever get rid of claim checks till you have your bags in your possession
This is the only way you can prove to anyone, airline, Disney, TSA, whoever, that you checked that bag. I mean, how else are they supposed to know? You have to realize that yes, you know your son, you realize he wouldn't lie but no one else does. And people DO lie all the time. Has nothing to do with his age either. Be they 22 or 62, they lie about missing bags.

So even you don't let Disney get your bags, if you don't keep the claim check, the airline is going to be difficult to work with too.

 

[sndral]

...Yes, he is 22, so he hasn’t had much experience handling issues like this by himself. He was very frustrated with the staff at jambo house. They kept asking him for proof that he checked his bag at the airport. Of course, he no longer had the baggage claim ticket. He felt like they thought he was lying about missing his bag.

It all worked out in the end. This whole situation has made me question letting Disney handle my luggage with the magical express because there is no way to verify that Disney actually has your bag. I think we will pull them ourselves from now on.

Why would he toss his claim ticket???? I mean it's pretty basic to hold on to that thing until you and your luggage are reunited. Some airports won't even let you exit the baggage claims area unless you can show a claim ticket for every piece of luggage you are trying to exit with. In fact, DME will collect and deliver your luggage if you present your bag claim ticket to them, no need for yellow tags at all.
His suitcase looked just like the million other suitcases descending on MCO every day - the way the airlines track his luggage is through the bar code on the tag the airline puts on the suitcase, when they hand you your claim check you have a duplicate of the bar code that is used to keep track of your luggage, if it goes astray (eg: ends up on a different plane or in a different place than you) - you hand them your claim ticket and they look it up in the computer and it tells them whether the luggage was scanned as leaving the departure airport & whether it was scanned as arriving at MCO or has been scanned at some other destination.
The CM's at Jambo needed the claim tag which has the bar code so they could communicate with the airport luggage people to determine whether your son's luggage had even arrived at MCO - it might have accidentally been flown somewhere else, for example. So the AKL CM's were not disbelieving your son, they were trying to get the one vital piece of information which they, and airport personnel, needed to actually find his suitcase. Your son failed to keep the one thing he needed in order to be reunited w/ his suitcase w/out a great deal of inconvenience to himself. If he'd held on to the bag claim ticket, AKL would have been able to find his luggage and get it to him. W/out that claim ticket there was nothing they could do from the lobby at AKL.
I don't know who he flew, but several airlines have an app so you can track your own luggage https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/technology/personaltech/luggage-tracking.html.
BTW, I always place my name, destination hotel and cell phone number on top of my clothing in my suitcase, so if the airline tag get's torn off when they open the bag they'll know how to reach me.

 

[AngiTN]

Why would he toss his claim ticket???? I mean it's pretty basic to hold on to that thing until you and your luggage are reunited. Some airports won't even let you exit the baggage claims area unless you can show a claim ticket for every piece of luggage you are trying to exit with. In fact, DME will collect and deliver your luggage if you present your bag claim ticket to them, no need for yellow tags at all.
His suitcase looked just like the million other suitcases descending on MCO every day - the way the airlines track his luggage is through the bar code on the tag the airline puts on the suitcase, when they hand you your claim check you have a duplicate of the bar code that is used to keep track of your luggage, if it goes astray (eg: ends up on a different plane or in a different place than you) - you hand them your claim ticket and they look it up in the computer and it tells them whether the luggage was scanned as leaving the departure airport & whether it was scanned as arriving at MCO or has been scanned at some other destination.
The CM's at Jambo needed the claim tag which has the bar code so they could communicate with the airport luggage people to determine whether your son's luggage had even arrived at MCO - it might have accidentally been flown somewhere else, for example. So the AKL CM's were not disbelieving your son, they were trying to get the one vital piece of information which they, and airport personnel, needed to actually find his suitcase. Your son failed to keep the one thing he needed in order to be reunited w/ his suitcase w/out a great deal of inconvenience to himself. If he'd held on to the bag claim ticket, AKL would have been able to find his luggage and get it to him. W/out that claim ticket there was nothing they could do from the lobby at AKL.
I don't know who he flew, but several airlines have an app so you can track your own luggage https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/technology/personaltech/luggage-tracking.html.
BTW, I always place my name, destination hotel and cell phone number on top of my clothing in my suitcase, so if the airline tag get's torn off when they open the bag they'll know how to reach me.

I love this feature by the way. Of the airlines I fly, only American and Delta offer it. I love that I get an alert right on my watch as the bags are loaded to the plane and then again when they are off loaded, and put in baggage claim, when they go there. I find it such a relief too, to check the status when I change planes and see they made it from flight 1 to flight 2.

I like a lot of things about Southwest, don't even mind the cattle call boarding but I despise their luggage handling. Half the time I fly with them I have bags come in on the next flight. It's become a guessing game about which bag will be missing and show up on the next flight now. They've told me when I've bemoaned their lack of electronic bag tracking, that it's in the works. I doubt it due to the costs involved but they claim it is.

 

[sndral]

...I like a lot of things about Southwest, don't even mind the cattle call boarding but I despise their luggage handling. Half the time I fly with them I have bags come in on the next flight. It's become a guessing game about which bag will be missing and show up on the next flight now. They've told me when I've bemoaned their lack of electronic bag tracking, that it's in the works. I doubt it due to the costs involved but they claim it is.

IME, SW is agonizingly slow in off loading their luggage as well, so you can have very long waits watching that empty carousel go around.
If I get to the airport early, quite often my bag will take an earlier plane, nothing worse than watching that carousel 'till the last bag comes out and then having to go to the lost luggage counter & learning the bags have been there all along.
Wait, your situation would be worse - having to wait around for the next plane to collect your luggage would definitely irritate me!