Strangest experience at MCO

[Trinity88]

Maybe this is a normal occurrence, but I’d never heard of this happening.

We flew in to ATL and then on to Orlando today. We are taking DME, but didn’t want them to take our bags because we got in late and didn’t want to wait for them to be delivered.

When we arrived in Orlando we went to our baggage claim and got 2 of our 3 bags. We waited and waited and eventually the conveyer belt stopped. No bag. We checked the airline app and found that one of our bags had been sent on an earlier flight from Atlanta to Orlando and had arrived an hour earlier. So we went to the baggage help desk to see if it was there. It wasn’t.

We spent a bunch of time at the baggage desk, he couldn’t figure out where our bag had gone. He eventually asked if we were staying at a Disney resort. We confirmed that we were. He said that with a yellow tag Disney would have taken it. But we didn’t put a yellow tag on it. A bunch of confusion later, he figured out that Disney HAD actually taken it, even without the yellow tag. Best we can figure is that they saw our name on the luggage tag, checked their records, and saw we were checking in today. I confirmed with the DME desk and yep, Disney has the bag.

I’m relieved for sure, but we missed the magical express bus while looking for the bag and then had to wait quite a while for the next one.

Not a big deal of course and I’m just so glad our luggage isn’t lost!

 

[sethschroeder]

Very strange, too bad Disney couldn't deliver a notice to MDE stating they picked up X number of bags for your party.

 

[Lewisc]

DME goes through unclaimed luggage offices and checks names against resort reservations. Some guests forget to tag a bag. Occassionally tags fall off. I've read sometimes tags go missing when airlines rip a handle from the bag.

 

[a1tinkfans]

OP.. glad ur bag wasn’t lost but what a disappointment and waste of your vacation time.
Did disney offer up any Pixie Dust for your Inconveniences? They should have.
Here’s to a Magical rest of ur visit!

 

[Hopefully]

OP.. glad ur bag wasn’t lost but what a disappointment and waste of your vacation time.
Did disney offer up any Pixie Dust for your Inconveniences? They should have.
Here’s to a Magical rest of ur visit!

Really?! Why should Disney offer up Pixie Dust?
I don’t expect to be compensated for every event that occurs in life

 

[Trinity88]

We finally found the bag at the luggage desk, but it took a while and I got a lecture from the CM about properly tagging my bags for ME, even though I explained (3 times) that I didn’t tag them because I didn’t want ME to pick them up!!

I didn’t expect nor receive anything for my troubles. But if we hadn’t found the bag last night, we would have had to buy a few things (contact lenses case and solution, toothbrushes, etc) because all of our toiletries were in that bag. I would have expected Disney to cover those charges.

But all was well and I was very happy to be reunited with my bag!

 

[KrazeeK120]

We finally found the bag at the luggage desk, but it took a while and I got a lecture from the CM about properly tagging my bags for ME, even though I explained (3 times) that I didn’t tag them because I didn’t want ME to pick them up!!

I didn’t expect nor receive anything for my troubles. But if we hadn’t found the bag last night, we would have had to buy a few things (contact lenses case and solution, toothbrushes, etc) because all of our toiletries were in that bag. I would have expected Disney to cover those charges.

But all was well and I was very happy to be reunited with my bag!

Just some advice - it’s a good idea to pack anything you’ll need for the first 24 hours or so in a carry on, in case a piece of luggage really does go MIA for a bit.

 

[Lewisc]

Delta put your bags on an earlier flight. Delta released your bag to DME. Delta delayed in telling you the missing bag was given to Disney. The fault lies with Delta not Disney. One of 3 bags came in early. Delta should have held the bag and put it on the carousel when your flight landed.
Delta is the company at fault. Did you pay to check the bag? I guess you could have asked for a refund.

 

[Hopefully]

We finally found the bag at the luggage desk, but it took a while and I got a lecture from the CM about properly tagging my bags for ME, even though I explained (3 times) that I didn’t tag them because I didn’t want ME to pick them up!!

I didn’t expect nor receive anything for my troubles. But if we hadn’t found the bag last night, we would have had to buy a few things (contact lenses case and solution, toothbrushes, etc) because all of our toiletries were in that bag. I would have expected Disney to cover those charges.

But all was well and I was very happy to be reunited with my bag!

I wasn’t s speaking to you. I quoted the poster I was asking

 

[Lewisc]

This is an example of the benefits of using DME tags. Sometimes your bag arrives on an earlier flight. Your bag might be in your room before you. Sometimes your bag arrives on a later flight. You're not wasting time at baggage claim waiting for a bag that never makes it to the carousel. You're not wasting time waiting on a line to report missing luggage. You'll get you luggage hours later, maybe even the next morning. blaming DME instead of the airline.

 

[Woodview]

To Trinity 88 ...... How come that one of your bags went on an earlier flight ?

Did you miss that flight or did you feel that your transfer time was short & took the next flight

the one that you & the other bags travelled on ?

 

[Summer2018]

Maybe this is a normal occurrence, but I’d never heard of this happening.

We flew in to ATL and then on to Orlando today. We are taking DME, but didn’t want them to take our bags because we got in late and didn’t want to wait for them to be delivered.

When we arrived in Orlando we went to our baggage claim and got 2 of our 3 bags. We waited and waited and eventually the conveyer belt stopped. No bag. We checked the airline app and found that one of our bags had been sent on an earlier flight from Atlanta to Orlando and had arrived an hour earlier. So we went to the baggage help desk to see if it was there. It wasn’t.

We spent a bunch of time at the baggage desk, he couldn’t figure out where our bag had gone. He eventually asked if we were staying at a Disney resort. We confirmed that we were. He said that with a yellow tag Disney would have taken it. But we didn’t put a yellow tag on it. A bunch of confusion later, he figured out that Disney HAD actually taken it, even without the yellow tag. Best we can figure is that they saw our name on the luggage tag, checked their records, and saw we were checking in today. I confirmed with the DME desk and yep, Disney has the bag.

I’m relieved for sure, but we missed the magical express bus while looking for the bag and then had to wait quite a while for the next one.

Not a big deal of course and I’m just so glad our luggage isn’t lost!

... and that’s why we don’t check our luggage. If I can’t carry it on the plane with me, I’m not taking it with me. We didn’t check any luggage on an 11 day trip to Arizona and California, so I know that we can do the same on a 7 day trip to Florida.

 

[writerguyfl]

Woodview: It's not unusual for passengers and baggage to get separated when connecting through a major hub. Domestic flights are not subject to Positive Passenger Bag Match. (That's the rule that says checked baggage can only be transported on the same flight as the ticketed passenger.)

If you are not connecting on the next flight to your destination (by choice, because it was cheaper, or due to flights being sold out), your bags might get sent on the next flight and arrive be you.

 

[Lewisc]

Connecting flights are subject to MCT, minimum connection time, which vary by airport and even airline. Your luggage could wind up on a flight you weren't allowed to book.

 

[nkereina]

Did disney offer up any Pixie Dust for your Inconveniences?

Disney picked up their bag for the OP to deliver to their resort. What inconvenience?

Delta is really the culpable one for being clueless that Disney picked up their bag. The office should know which bags Disney picks up for when this type of instance occurs. From Disney's perspective, if OP was arriving before the luggage cut-off time, its safer for them to grab the unclaimed luggage going to WDW than to leave it there in case the yellow tags had fallen off or something like that.

I've had bizarre luggage situations with Delta too. I once flew direct from Buffalo to Atlanta and they lost my checked bag... on a nonstop flight. The luggage office pointed fingers at Buffalo, Delta customer service was of no help. I sat in the airport for 3 hours making phone calls, circling the different desks. I finally went to my hotel. About 3 hours after that, they finally located the bag but wouldn't accept responsibility, so they wouldn't deliver it. I had to pay a taxi $50 to deliver it to me. When I got home, I called to complain and try to get reimbursed, and the Delta customer service rep told me they had no record of me on the passenger manifest for the flight I came in on. LOL! Horrible experience and I never did get that $50 back, or even a refund for the checked bag fee!

 

[sam_gordon]

Disney picked up their bag for the OP to deliver to their resort. What inconvenience?

Delta is really the culpable one for being clueless that Disney picked up their bag. The office should know which bags Disney picks up for when this type of instance occurs. From Disney's perspective, if OP was arriving before the luggage cut-off time, its safer for them to grab the unclaimed luggage going to WDW than to leave it there in case the yellow tags had fallen off or something like that.

Regarding the bolded, I'm not sure it's safer for them to grab unclaimed luggage. What if someone shares the same name as a guest checking in at Disney, but they're not going to Disney? How does Disney know the unclaimed bag should go to WDW?

 

[nkereina]

Regarding the bolded, I'm not sure it's safer for them to grab unclaimed luggage. What if someone shares the same name as a guest checking in at Disney, but they're not going to Disney? How does Disney know the unclaimed bag should go to WDW?

Disney would have the flight information for the guest, in addition to their name. They would know which flight the unclaimed luggage came off of. My guess is that if they take the flight info, the guest name, and the fact that one piece of luggage is unclaimed out of however many in their travel party, they could deduce that perhaps the yellow tag fell off, so they took the luggage. It does carry some risk, but seems like they were going with what was most probable.

As a side note, I don't know if Disney checking and taking unclaimed luggage is standard practice for DME. I'm just looking at the OP's scenario from the DME perspective. But I have to think that its very common for the yellow tags to get ripped off, or fall off, or for first timers to not even use them. So it makes sense for them to do a sweep of the unclaimed luggage. Otherwise people would have to inquire and there'd be a big delay in the delivery of it.

 

[indoshakespeare]

Maybe you can tag all your luggage except the one with all your essentials so you can grab that one bag from the baggage carousel and leave the rest to DME

 

[Trinity88]

I’m not sure why the bag ended up on a flight we weren’t on. We didn’t do anything differently with this bag than with our others.

While I don’t expect anything from Disney, I do still think it was an inconvenience. Between the time spent searching for the bag, the stress of figuring out who had it, and the talking to I got at the luggage desk at pop (when I had done nothing wrong) was an inconvenience. But in the grand scheme of things obviously this wasn’t a big deal.

 

[nkereina]

While I don’t expect anything from Disney, I do still think it was an inconvenience. Between the time spent searching for the bag, the stress of figuring out who had it, and the talking to I got at the luggage desk at pop (when I had done nothing wrong) was an inconvenience. But in the grand scheme of things obviously this wasn’t a big deal.

My opinion is still that Delta is responsible for the inconvenience. They take some responsibility in making sure your bags are handled appropriately. When its not claimed from their baggage carousel, they should have it logged at their office. And if Disney comes around to do a sweep for their guests' luggage, they should be tracking which ones they are taking so that they have that answer if someone else comes looking for it. It sucks you were given the run around and that they couldn't tell you for certain whether Disney took it, or how to determine that. And I agree that the lecture at the Pop desk was unwarranted, seems like they weren't catching what you were throwing.