SWA and ME

[FreeTime]

Just got my bus tickets and tags and noticed in the booklet that it says your boarding pass will be printed and brought to your room if using one of the listed airline, SWA being one of them. Does this mean that they will check me in 24 hours in advance? Thanks

 

[Lewisc]

Do a search, I think the system actually has them checking you in a minute or two before the 24 hour window opens up.

 

[seashoreCM]

If getting the best boarding pass is somewhat important I would endeavor to commence the check in by phone myself. Or purchase Southwest's own earlybird check in option.

Southwest frowns on those ebaysnipe programs like Boardfast or Boardfirst or whatever it used to be called, used to check you in precisely 24.00 hours in advance. So I am unsure whether Disney CM's still have access to something like that (similar to the Mickey Goofy wake up call generating machine) to check you in automagically with.

The alternative is a phone bank of CM's frantically checking guests in for their homebound flights with a hit or miss of getting checked in precisely at 24.00 hours in advance.

 

[Lewisc]

Disney, or the vendor being used, doesn't use a snipe service. Whatever they use is approved by Southwest. Probably done by Southwest. Originally RAC wasn't going to be able to check bags for Southwest passengers if the passenger had obtained a BP at T-24. This may be the method used to solve the issue.

Southwest has a system for automatically checking in "A Listers" and passengers who purchase EBCI. They evidently have a similar system for passengers using a remote check in service. I don't know if they check in at 24 hours minus a minute or 24 hours plus a minute.

 

[DebbieB]

I didn't know that. We checked it at 24 hours with our smartphones and got B1 & B2 about 10 days ago. On our departure morning, we got an envelope under the door with printed boarding passes and luggage tages. When we went to the RAC desk, they gave us new boarding passes & luggage tags and threw out the ones delivered. Not sure why they printed them.

 

[Lewisc]

The luggage tags left by your room were "bag drop" tags. RAC/airlines need to know that a real tag was attached to a bag which was then placed in the luggage system.

 

[jcarwash]

Just got my bus tickets and tags and noticed in the booklet that it says your boarding pass will be printed and brought to your room if using one of the listed airline, SWA being one of them. Does this mean that they will check me in 24 hours in advance? Thanks

Interesting question.

I have always checked in to SWA myself at the 24 hour mark. I have had good luck receiving the printed boarding passes with my RAC material. Very nice to skip the SWA counter at MCO.

 

[dancin Disney style]

So far the times that I have flown home on SW my boarding passes were not left at my door with the DME envelope. I have checked my self in at T24 and I have also had EBCI. Yet, I have heard many stories of the BP's being included in the DME package. I don't count on them being left at my door....I get the folks at the RAC counter to print them for me. In fact, last time they asked me if I had already printed my BP's before I even got the chance to ask them to do it.

I have had the BP's left when I have used other airlines.

 

[mb187143]

So far the times that I have flown home on SW my boarding passes were not left at my door with the DME envelope. I have checked my self in at T24 and I have also had EBCI. Yet, I have heard many stories of the BP's being included in the DME package. I don't count on them being left at my door....I get the folks at the RAC counter to print them for me. In fact, last time they asked me if I had already printed my BP's before I even got the chance to ask them to do it.

I have had the BP's left when I have used other airlines.

for the first time in about 4 trips i actually read the DME packet when it arrived while i was waiting for DF to get ready for work, and now toward the back of the booklet, it says that for eligibile flights on 8 specific airlines (i can't remember all 8, i'd have to look at it, but i know SW, Airtran, United, US Air were included), your boarding pass would be printed and dropped off to your room on the morning you check out.

I need to go home and check the exact verbiage, but this was the first time I read that, which answers why some people have their boarding passes on their door in the AM on the day they check out and others have never had that happen. There was no explanation as to what constitutes an "eligible flight", nor was there any instructions as to whether you could find that out ahead of time.

So really, as i'm typing this, i realize it doesn't really necessarily answer anything, since there's no way to know if your flight is "eligible" for you to have your boarding passes printed and delivered to you, until you open the door and they're either there or not. It may make those who were wondering or feeling uncomfortable about the idea of receiving their boarding passes this way more comfortable since it's in the DME booklet that they may be providing this for you.

ETA: I found the booklet, and it says on the Resort Airline Check-In page:

"if you are flying domestically on one of the participating airlines below you are automatically enrolled in this service when you arrive through Disney's Magical Express.

Airtran, American, JetBlue, United, Alaska, Delta, Southwest, US Airways

If your flight is eligible, your boarding pass will be delivered to your room on the morning of your departure. Otherwise, you may pick-up your boarding pass at the Resort Airline Check-In Desk no less than 3 hours prior to your flight.

Guests with a departure time before 8:00AM must check in at the airport.

Some guests may be required to check in at the airport and will be unable to use this service"

 

[iluveeyore]

Okay, so are you telling me that since I am flying on SWA and using ME to go home, I don't have to go online 24 hours in advance and check in for my flight on my own, my resort will do it for me and then drop off my boarding passes to my room????? We always use RAC for our luggage the day we are leaving, but I have always checked in online or gone to the front desk to do it 24 hours in advance. It would be amazing to not have to worry about doing that myself!

 

[goofy4tink]

for the first time in about 4 trips i actually read the DME packet when it arrived while i was waiting for DF to get ready for work, and now toward the back of the booklet, it says that for eligibile flights on 8 specific airlines (i can't remember all 8, i'd have to look at it, but i know SW, Airtran, United, US Air were included), your boarding pass would be printed and dropped off to your room on the morning you check out.

I need to go home and check the exact verbiage, but this was the first time I read that, which answers why some people have their boarding passes on their door in the AM on the day they check out and others have never had that happen. There was no explanation as to what constitutes an "eligible flight", nor was there any instructions as to whether you could find that out ahead of time.

So really, as i'm typing this, i realize it doesn't really necessarily answer anything, since there's no way to know if your flight is "eligible" for you to have your boarding passes printed and delivered to you, until you open the door and they're either there or not. It may make those who were wondering or feeling uncomfortable about the idea of receiving their boarding passes this way more comfortable since it's in the DME booklet that they may be providing this for you.

ETA: I found the booklet, and it says on the Resort Airline Check-In page:

"if you are flying domestically on one of the participating airlines below you are automatically enrolled in this service when you arrive through Disney's Magical Express.

Airtran, American, JetBlue, United, Alaska, Delta, Southwest, US Airways

If your flight is eligible, your boarding pass will be delivered to your room on the morning of your departure. Otherwise, you may pick-up your boarding pass at the Resort Airline Check-In Desk no less than 3 hours prior to your flight.

Guests with a departure time before 8:00AM must check in at the airport.

Some guests may be required to check in at the airport and will be unable to use this service"

My dd is using DME in June, and just got her packet two days ago. Her's also has that info on the back.
BUT.....for the life of me, I can't see where it is any advantage. You still have to go down to the RAC counter, give them your bags, and get real boarding passes issued. I have to assume that it is against TSA rules to just willy nilly print up boarding passes, for people that aren't in front of you, and then leave them hanging on a doorknob. So for us, we don't much care. We tend to do EBCI for SW for our departure from MCO. Then, we either get the bp's printed at RAC or at the airport.

Okay, so are you telling me that since I am flying on SWA and using ME to go home, I don't have to go online 24 hours in advance and check in for my flight on my own, my resort will do it for me and then drop off my boarding passes to my room????? We always use RAC for our luggage the day we are leaving, but I have always checked in online or gone to the front desk to do it 24 hours in advance. It would be amazing to not have to worry about doing that myself!

I wouldn't depend on it. I would still do my own checkin. Way too many chances for something to get messed up. We have flown SW home many times and not once have they printed out anything and left it for us. And that has been in recent memory, while others were reporting getting that service.

 

[Soben]

We have always flown SW (3 times) and gotten boarding passes printed out and included in our return info on our last day.

We haven't done anything special to request that, it just appears.

However, we have gotten late seatings from this. I don't think that they check in at the 24 hour mark. More like whenever they get around to it. If that is important to you, then you can check in on your smartphone (if you have one) or laptop and they will print out whatever your passes are. At least you don't have to worry about printing.

 

[Lewisc]

BUT.....for the life of me, I can't see where it is any advantage. You still have to go down to the RAC counter, give them your bags, and get real boarding passes issued. I have to assume that it is against TSA rules to just willy nilly print up boarding passes, for people that aren't in front of you, and then leave them hanging on a doorknob. So for us, we don't much care. We tend to do EBCI for SW for our departure from MCO. Then, we either get the bp's printed at RAC or at the airport.

The bag drop tag is suppose to make it easier (faster) for the agent to print real baggage tags.

 

[goofy4tink]

The bag drop tag is suppose to make it easier (faster) for the agent to print real baggage tags.

I can see that, but it's never taken us very long to have our tags and boarding passes printed up. The longest it has taken us is about 8 mins, once we got to the counter. But, I may have had overly good experiences.

 

[mb187143]

My dd is using DME in June, and just got her packet two days ago. Her's also has that info on the back.
BUT.....for the life of me, I can't see where it is any advantage. You still have to go down to the RAC counter, give them your bags, and get real boarding passes issued. I have to assume that it is against TSA rules to just willy nilly print up boarding passes, for people that aren't in front of you, and then leave them hanging on a doorknob. So for us, we don't much care. We tend to do EBCI for SW for our departure from MCO. Then, we either get the bp's printed at RAC or at the airport.

I have never had them re-print the boarding passes after they left ours on our door. these are real boarding passes, we've used them each time and had no issues getting through security with them or boarding the plane.

Since we frequently only have carry on bags, this actually does save us time, as we don't have to go to RAC at all. If you have bags, then yes, you still need to go to RAC, so no, this does not save much time.

 

[jcarwash]

I have never had them re-print the boarding passes after they left ours on our door. these are real boarding passes, we've used them each time and had no issues getting through security with them or boarding the plane.

Since we frequently only have carry on bags, this actually does save us time, as we don't have to go to RAC at all. If you have bags, then yes, you still need to go to RAC, so no, this does not save much time.

Confirming that the Disney-printed boarding passes left at your room are not reprinted by the RAC desk. You can take these Disney-printed boarding passes and use them at security at MCO and to board SWA flights. Awesome to skip the SWA counter at MCO.

I think what is being discarded and reprinted are the bag tags -- I also have seen the RAC staff take off the bag tag stickers and replace them when I check bags at the resort.

 

[Lewisc]

I can see that, but it's never taken us very long to have our tags and boarding passes printed up. The longest it has taken us is about 8 mins, once we got to the counter. But, I may have had overly good experiences.

or the number of passengers with "bag tags" is what allows RAC to offer acceptable levels of service with staffing levels consistent with what Disney is willing to pay.

RAC can't leave real bag tags in the room. They need to make sure every "real" tag printed is attached to a bag which is placed in the luggage system.

Use a Southwest airport kiosk and a SW employee gets the bag tag and attaches it to your bag. Some airlines let the passenger pick up a tag (print it online?) Those are bag drop tags which need to be replaced with a "real" tag before the suitcase is placed in the luggage system.

 

[mjplantz]

I wouldn't depend on it. I would still do my own checkin. Way too many chances for something to get messed up. We have flown SW home many times and not once have they printed out anything and left it for us. And that has been in recent memory, while others were reporting getting that service.

Agreed, I always do ours at the 24 hour mark whether I have early bird or not. I believe that Southwest reserves your spot if you are A-List or Early Bird but your placement in your 'reserved' group is dictated by when you check in and print your pass, much like the do with the general boarding group.

 

[Lewisc]

Agreed, I always do ours at the 24 hour mark whether I have early bird or not. I believe that Southwest reserves your spot if you are A-List or Early Bird but your placement in your 'reserved' group is dictated by when you check in and print your pass, much like the do with the general boarding group.

An automated check in process is done for DME guests with Southwest, at least for at least some flights. The question is if the automatic check in is done at exactly T-24 a minute (or so) before or a minute or so after.

 

[jcarwash]

An automated check in process is done for DME guests with Southwest, at least for at least some flights. The question is if the automatic check in is done at exactly T-24 a minute (or so) before or a minute or so after.

Have you experienced the automated check-in?