My thoughts on Luggage Express

[sjn911]

No. 1..I am assuming luggage express covers the airline luggage fee??

 

No. 2..I am assuming it has a varried cost per cruise.

 

No. 3...I am assuming I can not use it on exit from home??

 

Yes on all three and appx. cost please?

 

I hope no.3 is a no..how great would that be???

[lindnet]

It sounds like a great program. Do they have a limit on what time your flight is? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

[scooterdoxie]

We have used Luggage Express 2 times now. Last year on Valor. One problem that time was that we had an early flight and thought we would be one of the first to get off, but it was more like 9:30 am by the time we were cleared to get off. We made the flight fine though. Also, Delta charged too much for the baggage fee, but I got refunded after a few emails. We felt it was well worth the $20 fee to not have to deal with the luggage on debark. This time we had to meet in the lounge and they waited until everyone that was doing the program showed up before we could get off. We did not get any stickers of any sort.

 

Used it again a few weeks ago on Freedom with several problems. 1. DH got turned down and I got accepted for no reason given, so we sent the garment bag on and just kept the other suitcase and took it off with us. We had to go through the line at the airport to check him in. No biggie really. 2. We had booked the Everglades tour and apparently that does not work well with luggage express. Luggage express was tag #5 I think and you did not have to meet anywhere specific, just debark on that number. However, for the tour we had to meet in the lounge and the tour tag was 3 or 4 I think, so when we tried to get off the ship with the rest of the tour people, we were not allowed too. Alarms went off and it was a crazy scene. We were told the luggage had not cleared so we could not get off. We were almost an hour later getting off (luggage still was not cleared) to get to the bus for the tour. We were only let off because they (security and Carnival personnel) manually cleared us. There were several people that had early flights that were raising hell to get off and they finally let them off manually as well. So I am not sure it is a good idea to do luggage express if you are doing a debark tour. Too much confusion and chaos on that one.

 

Otherwise, we love luggage express and will do it every time if we can. I would gladly pay for it on embark too.

[scooterdoxie]

It sounds like a great program. Do they have a limit on what time your flight is? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

 

I think the papers said 1 pm, but we were approved for a 12:20 pm flight last year. If you have an early flight, just submit the papers and see what happens.

[scooterdoxie]

No. 1..I am assuming luggage express covers the airline luggage fee??

 

No. 2..I am assuming it has a varried cost per cruise.

 

No. 3...I am assuming I can not use it on exit from home??

 

Yes on all three and appx. cost please?

 

I hope no.3 is a no..how great would that be???

 

No, you are charged any baggage fees by the airline. It is charged to your sail and sign.

 

The cost is $20 for luggage express -that is Carnivals fee.

 

I wish it applied from home too, but no it does not.

[scooterdoxie]

I thought bags were set out night before and that was that, I guess not. We are sailing out of San Juan so maybe we should just hang on to them or is that not even an option?

 

Bags are set out the night before with or without luggage express. With luggage express you do not see them again until your final destination. Without luggage express, you have to claim your bags and take them through customs, get them to the airport and check in at the airport and then you don't see them until your final destination.

[smm2009]

Is there details on this program on the Carnvial web site? I was not able to find anything. How do you set this up? Is it $20 per person? How many bags can you have? Sorry for all of the questions but this is the first I have heard about this program and I am interested in it since our flight is not until later in the day.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Linsuesue]

We decided to not do the luggage express, because we were hoping to pay for an upgrade to 1st class and have the bags go on for free. When we left Phoenix for our cruise, the Alaskan Airline agent told us that there were seats available in 1st class for an additional $50 pp. If we kept our seats in coach, our 2 suitcases would cost us $30 to go on the plane(that was the old price because we booked before May 2010.) If we upgraded to 1st class it would cost us $100 for both of us, but our luggage was free. We couldn't resist paying the extra $70 and riding in 1st class! I asked the Alaska Airlines agent about the payment for the luggage express if there was space available to upgrade to 1st class on our return trip for Seattle. She told us that the baggage fee wouldn't be refunded to us if we used the luggage express. She also said to watch the bill if we did, to make sure we were charged the old $15 per suitcase instead of the new higher price of $25 along with the Carnival charge of $20pp.

[sjn911]

No, you are charged any baggage fees by the airline. It is charged to your sail and sign.

 

The cost is $20 for luggage express -that is Carnivals fee.

 

I wish it applied from home too, but no it does not.

 

Thank you very much...Sarah

[scooterdoxie]

Is there details on this program on the Carnvial web site? I was not able to find anything. How do you set this up? Is it $20 per person? How many bags can you have? Sorry for all of the questions but this is the first I have heard about this program and I am interested in it since our flight is not until later in the day.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

They give you a handout one day in your cabin that explains it all. You fill out the paper and turn it in to the guest services desk. It is $20 per person and I am not positive on the number of bags as we always just have one apiece-especially in this day and age of all the airline luggage fees. If I remember correctly there is a blank space for the number of bags so I assume you could have more than one per person. Carnival does not encourage each person to have many bags though.

[Buffettfan 225]

Here are scans of Luggage Express paperwork from Destiny -Miami Nov 1, 2009.

Note-we had to fill out papers (one per person) and at guest relations present the copy of airline reservation-with confirmation number so they could copy and verify it, anyone traveling on same reservation had to turn in papers at same time, must be present and show ID (passport.)

We have done Express many times, and it used to be disembark once called and then leave ship on own. Last two times we had to meet in a lounge at early time like 8:15 and were escorted off as a group and went to a special faster customs line.

The Sign n' sail card had fees for program posted on it, and our original credit card we charged airline tickets to had applicapble baggage fees.

[coachj]

I think the procedure for Luggage Express depends on the port or maybe even the ship cruise director. I haved used it 4 times and twice had to meet in the lounge and twice simply waited for my number (4 or 5) to be called. It is a bit of a hassle to go to the lounge because other passengers dont always follow directions and it slows the process.

[mgm3430]

We Used Luggage Express on the Spirit and it was fantastic! We will definitely be using it again in Sept. on our Dream cruise.

 

 

Did you use it on the Spirit from San Diego? If so, did Southwest Airlines participate?