Anyone had their luggage taken to airport by cruise line?

[muffyn]

Sun Lover, I think the poster that responded to you thought you were asking if every ship sailing in the Caribbean offered the program. The Oasis does offer it, on every Oasis cruise. You need to make sure that your flight is on one of the participating airlines, and at the times allowable for the program (after 11:30 am for a flight out of FLL, or 2 pm for a flight out of Miami). If you meet those criteria, you can use the program.

 

after reading a few of these threads, I decided to call RCCL just to double check on our homecoming flight out of FLL . lucky I did call as our original flight that was at 12.30 had been cancelled & was now at 10.00. they told me that flight could change several times till we leave.

not something I wanted to chance so I changed to a later flight, especially, to take advantage of the luggage valet.

now, I talked to 3 different departments ( crown & anchor,air dept, and customer service) trying to get a definitive answer as to the certainty that you could only have a flight AFTER 10:30 am. I was told numerous times that the 10:30 time table was for those who had transfers from cruise terminal TO the airport. it had nothing to do with luggage valet. the 10:30 time was when they started taking guests to the airport ( which they said was 5 imutes away).

hmmmmmm

soooo I told them, wait a minute I got this 1st hand from previous pax who were told onboard when they tried to sign up for the luggage valet, they could NOT get it if flight was before 10:30. the rccl rep told me,, hang on a 2nd while I check as there is NOTHING here to indicate that.

few moments later he tells me that the information on CRUISECRITIC is wrong. (I almost fell off my chair........as I never mentioned CC). I said huh. you guys read the cruise critic stuff? he said yes, they always have people monitoring it.

so he goes on to explain that the luggage for the valet stuff starts shipping to the airport after immigration says ok. has nothing to do with the 10:30 timeline that is ONLY for transfers.

Huh. well that was interesting. anyone with comments that the shipboard info is different? like maybe one of the forms that state all that ? ( would love to send that to rccl if they told me wrong)

[misterbuds]

I'm so glad so many had a great experience with it. We thought so too - boarding passes printed out, not having to worry about when to get off the ship, lugging to the airport, etc. in Ft. Lauderdale off the Oasis in November. Unfortunately, we stood at the baggage claim in the Philly airport while everyone else left, waited for the next flight, still no bags. After 2 days of getting the run around on the phone between the airport, RCCL, C&A, they finally found our bags were left behind at the cruise terminal. The luggage arrived by UPS on our doorstep 5 days after we disembarked.

 

Although it took a lot of phone calls they finally refunded our $20 pp fee and airport baggage fees. It was a very frustrating end to a glorious cruise.:(

 

 

We are just going through this right now. Seemed like a great idea, first time trying it. Got off Equinox last night. When we got to Providence our bags were not there. We flew Southwest and they said they were participants which is why we tried it out. Airline said they had no record of our bags ever being checked in. Which means I believe they are still at the pier. The airline told us to call them back by noon today to see if the bags showed up, maybe wrong flight, and if not to then call the cruiseline. What is wierd was the airline rep told us the numbers on the tags they gave us weren't even their numbers they use. So that is puzzling, but they had our boarding passes printed out, so they had the correct flight info. It's reassuring to know they found your bags and eventually shipped them home to you, but to me this is a major inconvience and really gets me mad considering we paid for the service. We will be asking for a refund and we do have trip insurance should they never find the bags, but I really rather have my luggage and stuff.

[Crewzer33]

You will receive information with your Cruise Compasses (I think with departure materials) when you are on the ship that states which airlines participate and the times that your flights have to be within to qualify. There is a form they give you to fill out if you want to use it. It is $20 per person per bag checked, plus any airline checked baggage fees. Just read over the information that is left in your stateroom to decide whether you want to participate in it. They make it very easy for you to do!

[misterbuds]

We are just going through this right now. Seemed like a great idea, first time trying it. Got off Equinox last night. When we got to Providence our bags were not there. We flew Southwest and they said they were participants which is why we tried it out. Airline said they had no record of our bags ever being checked in. Which means I believe they are still at the pier. The airline told us to call them back by noon today to see if the bags showed up, maybe wrong flight, and if not to then call the cruiseline. What is wierd was the airline rep told us the numbers on the tags they gave us weren't even their numbers they use. So that is puzzling, but they had our boarding passes printed out, so they had the correct flight info. It's reassuring to know they found your bags and eventually shipped them home to you, but to me this is a major inconvience and really gets me mad considering we paid for the service. We will be asking for a refund and we do have trip insurance should they never find the bags, but I really rather have my luggage and stuff.

 

Update: The RCL Luggage lost and found called this afternoon. They had said our bags were inadvertently left at the terminal and were not forwarded to the airport by luggage valet. They appologized and said they were second day airing the bags to us, but wouldn't be able to send them until Monday. So that means we'll get the bags on Wed. Glad they found them, but didn't need the stress and aggravation.

[tx_sweetpea]

Do all ships participate in this? We will be on Oasis in May and we are flying on Delta. After we leave the ship, our flight doesn't leave for home until 4:30. Would we just use the luggage valet for the checked luggage and keep the carryons with us? Does the $20 fee apply to just one bag per person?

 

We used luggage valet on the Oasis last month. It is a $20 fee per person plus your airline baggage fee. Your flight has to be after 11:30 in flying out of FLL and 2:00 if you are flying out of MIA

[BelAirMom]

We used it from the Oasis in December out of Fort Lauderdale for Delta. It was great not having to deal with the bag check line at FLL!!!!!!! We were charged $20 per person plus the baggage fee (even though we don't pay a baggage fee because of the Delta AX we have). (RCCL should have seen this when they checked us in, since no fee will come up, but it was on our final bill).

They also print out your boarding passes. Waiting in line at Guest Services to get the baggage fee (and the towel fee that also shouldn't have been on there) taken off was alot faster than at the airport. There are time parameters for flights, which I can't remember. There is also information on the envelope that they leave with you the last evening. Be sure to read everything on it, as it states if your flight is after a certain time, you need to go through customs with it prior to it being picked up by Luggage Valet. Unfortunately, I did not read that part until we were taxiing down the runway, but our bags did get to our destination. Overall, WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND this service!

 

Our flight leaves around 6 pm from Port Canaveral (AirTran)...will we still be able to leave our bags in the hallway on the last night and only see them again at our home airport baggage carousel? I'm a little confused as some of the responses seem contradictory...

[mochi]

Hi,

 

For those of you who used it while flying Southwest, how were your boarding numbers? Did RCCL check you in right at the 24-hour mark and provide decent boarding numbers? I am debating on whether we still need to purchase the early bird check-in if we use luggage valet. As long as we can get boarding passes in the low to mid "B's", that would be great.

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

[JasYHZ]

Oh how I wish this was applicable to Canadian flights - I'd LOVE to have the option of the Luggage Valet (either free with our Owners Suite or for $20) but it's only valid to US bound flights, or so I've been told.

 

Sigh....thankfully our luggage is the spinner type which makes schlepping it through airports a bit easier!

 

JasYHZ

[CruiseBeagle]

We did this on our last two cruises and absolutely loved it. The first time we tried it we were in a family suite (so no extra charge) and are now spoiled.

 

You do have to remember to retrieve your bags at the port and drop them off in the appropriate place.

 

It really makes the travel day a little less stressful, which is a great thing and well worth the extra charge (if applicable).

 

So once you get off the ship you have to retrieve your bags and then take them elsewhere for delivery to the airport?

[wcat1319]

Hi,

 

For those of you who used it while flying Southwest, how were your boarding numbers? Did RCCL check you in right at the 24-hour mark and provide decent boarding numbers? I am debating on whether we still need to purchase the early bird check-in if we use luggage valet. As long as we can get boarding passes in the low to mid "B's", that would be great.

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

I can't answer definitively because I haven't done the luggage valet yet (our cruise is 5/28). However, here's what I THINK will happen based on my traveling experience.

 

The early-bird check-in from Southwest is a computer process where the Southwest computer system will check you in as early as possible (e.g. 24 hour mark). That locks in your Letter-Number assignment. The boarding pass can be printed out ANYTIME after that and you'll still get the original Letter-Number assignment on your printed boarding pass.

 

So, here's what I think will happen.

1) If RCCL checks you in AFTER the exact 24-hour mark, then you will still have the Letter-Number assignment made by Southwest for your early-bird option.

2) If RCCL checks you in BEFORE your early-bird 24-hour mark, then (I think) you will still get a good letter-number assignment because they will be checking you in before the regular early-bird people.

 

For me, I DID buy the early-bird option for my Southwest flight (since there's 5 of us traveling, including 2 young kids). I also plan to do the luggage valet from RCCL for the return trip.

 

Again, I can't say the above is factual. However, that's what I believe will happen. If some other poster has done this with Southwest/Early-Bird, then hopefully they will post.