Luggage Direct Southwest Airlines

[liketraveling]

Is Southwest Airlines included in the luggage direct program for disembarktion?

I know it hasn't been in the past. But it could have changed.

Thanks,
Gail

[Dana'sDaughters]

On our cruise in June, we flew Southwest and did the luggage direct with no problems. It was great to not have to drag our luggage around. :)

[RuthC]

It wasn't part of the program when I disembarked in Ft. Lauderdale last November.

However, they ran a program of their own, which essentially duplicated the Luggage Direct program. The only difference was that I had to claim my luggage at the pier, go through Customs with it, then find the Southwest representative, pay him, and turn the luggage over, all outside the terminal.

I don't know if things have changed since then, or if it's run that way at other ports.

[liketraveling]

It wasn't part of the program when I disembarked in Ft. Lauderdale last November.

However, they ran a program of their own, which essentially duplicated the Luggage Direct program. The only difference was that I had to claim my luggage at the pier, go through Customs with it, then find the Southwest representative, pay him, and turn the luggage over, all outside the terminal.

I don't know if things have changed since then, or if it's run that way at other ports.

Thanks for the info

We usually drive to San Diego, but since the ship is leaving from Vancouver and returning to San Diego we need to fly.

Our flight doesn't leave til 1:35. Murphy's law it could be one of those days that the ship is all cleared by 9:00. In San Diego, even with early departure, I have never been off the ship sooner than 9:30.

Even If I had to pay the Southwest Rep outside, not to have to sit in the Airport with your luggage til 3 hours before checkin would be worth it. Even not having to deal with my luggage at the Airport would be great

Gail

[Cruise Moose]

I've never used the luggage direct program before.... Could someone explain to me? We are flying out of San Diego in the afternoon and it certainly would be great to wander around that amazing city without worrying about our luggage!:p

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Infortunately San Diego is NOT one of the cities that participates in South West Airlines program. With Southwest it is called "Bags To GO" Currently FLL (Ft. Lauderdale) is the only airport that does this from Port Everglades. The Bags To GO program is also out of Miami but SW does not fly there I believe that United and Delta us this program there.

[RuthC]

Lisa, a poster who disembarked in Seattle this year said that Southwest had the program there. I hate to doubt them, but would like to double check. Do you have any info on Southwest in Seattle? I'll be disembarking the Amsterdam in three weeks, and would love to hand over my bags at the pier.
Thanks.

[CapKAOS]

The program for Southwest in Ft. Lauderdale is Bags to Go...

http://www.bagstogo.net/southwest-airlines.html

[Copper10-8]

Yeah, I know! Not Southwest and not San Diego, but we just did "Luggage Direct" in Vancouver last weekend and can highly recommend it. For $19 pp. it makes disembarkation a whole lot easier!

Participating airlines at YVR (Vancouver Int'l Airport) are:

Air Canada/Jazz
Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air
American Airlines
Continental Airlines
Delta/Northwest Airlines
United Airlines

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Lisa, a poster who disembarked in Seattle this year said that Southwest had the program there. I hate to doubt them, but would like to double check. Do you have any info on Southwest in Seattle? I'll be disembarking the Amsterdam in three weeks, and would love to hand over my bags at the pier.
Thanks.

Ruth, per Bags To Go's web site their only current locations are FLL, MIA and Las Vegas :D I believe they have stations at some of the large hotels that people need to check out of their hotel but the flight is not till later. Many of the Las Vegas hotels have gotten away from holding luggage. I am hoping they will be there for our September 19th flight home from FLL but then we will be at pier 18 which is the new big pier that Oasis uses on Saturday and I plan to order it in advance. The only thing I can think of what the other poster mentioned was the other service that does it for the bigger airlines. I know that when we flew home on SW last year from Seattle it definitely was not available or we would have used it. I have used it in FLL and it was definitely worth the cost.


Yeah, I know! Not Southwest and not San Diego, but we just did "Luggage Direct" in Vancouver last weekend and can highly recommend it. For $19 pp. it makes disembarkation a whole lot easier!

Participating airlines at YVR (Vancouver Int'l Airport) are:

Air Canada/Jazz
Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air
American Airlines
Continental Airlines
Delta/Northwest Airlines
United Airlines
John, I used this a few years ago out of Vanvouver then it was called U.S. Direct, you set your luggage outside you cabin door and the next time you saw it was when arrived at your home airport :) Then you got your boarding pass on the ship and they took you via bus that everyone goes thru customs yet on the ship and they take you to the airport practically to your gate by passing any check in a YVR. Would have like to had it this past May when we flew home from YVR but Phillipines Airlines was not on the list ;) Yes they have a very quick non stop from YVR to LAS enroute to Manilla :D

[jdsaf]

We used HAL Luggage Direct last week for our SWA flight in Seattle while on the Rotterdam. It was so easy I feared we would never see our luggage again. :)

[Copper10-8]

............John, I used this a few years ago out of Vanvouver then it was called U.S. Direct, you set your luggage outside you cabin door and the next time you saw it was when arrived at your home airport :) Then you got your boarding pass on the ship and they took you via bus that everyone goes thru customs yet on the ship and they take you to the airport practically to your gate by passing any check in a YVR. Would have like to had it this past May when we flew home from YVR but Phillipines Airlines was not on the list ;) Yes they have a very quick non stop from YVR to LAS enroute to Manilla :D

Still the same! For $19 a pop, you'll get an envelop in your cabin on the last night before disembarking that contains your boarding passess, airline-type luggage tags to attach to your luggage (airline staff at the airport still attaches the 'regular' airline destination/flight # tags to your bags), HAL as wel as YVR instructions plus some add'l misc. paperwork. You place your bags outside your door that last night and you won't see them again until you get to your arrival (home) airport.

We received instructions to meet in the Showroom at Sea at 0730 on disembarkation day. When our number was called, we, as a group, left the ship and were escorted from the terminal building to a bus, parked on the pier (Canada Place) right slam bang next to the ship's gangway (couldn't get any closer than that). The bus took us, via the scenic route (saw the Olympic Cauldron that was lit by Wayne Gretzky for the Winter Games) to Vancouver Airport where we first stopped in a parking lot on the perimeter of the airport where a young lady from YVR boarded the bus who explained the procedures for the arrival area.

Out there we were escorted straight to the Departure area/Security check/X-Ray machines/U.S. Customs and then we were on our own to the gate. With this program, there is no more having to check in at the airline ticket counter! You're by-passing that entire process; Good stuff, highly recommend it! Not sure which other "cruise airports" are doing this, but Vancouver's got their 'you know what' pretty well together! We're sold!:)

[RuthC]

Ruth, per Bags To Go's web site their only current locations are FLL, MIA and Las Vegas :D

We used HAL Luggage Direct last week for our SWA flight in Seattle while on the Rotterdam. :)
:confused: So, I guess the answer is "I'll find out when I get there".

Thanks, anyway, to you both. I know you're trying to help with information as best you know it.

[annie2]

I would like to use luggage direct on my upcoming cruise out of Seattle. This is separate from airport transfers I would think.I would like to use luggage direct but not have to disembark before 9 am. Do you arrange the luggage direct during your the cruise and not before? Also, when transferring to Southwest would the boarding pass indicate if you board in the A, B or C lines? It sound well worth it to avoid the checking in lines and hassle.

[Typhoon1]

SWA: Bags Fly Free. :D:D

[Dana'sDaughters]

I flew Southwest in June to and from Seattle. On the last night of our Rotterdam cruise, they gave us the option of paying $19 pp to have our luggage taken to the airport. We did it, and loved it. We sat our bags outside our room and did not touch them again until we arrived home. That was just my experience two months ago. :)

[RuthC]

I flew Southwest in June to and from Seattle. On the last night of our Rotterdam cruise, they gave us the option of paying $19 pp to have our luggage taken to the airport. We did it, and loved it. We sat our bags outside our room and did not touch them again until we arrived home. That was just my experience two months ago. :)
Thank you for posting your experience! I am so happy to read that this was available to a recent Seattle cruiser.
I hope the procedure is still in place when I am disembarking from the Amsterdam there.

[durantigger]

We just came home from the Zaandam out of Seattle yesterday. We did luggage direct for our Southwest flight from Seattle to San Jose. I thought it was too easy, and it was. When we got home, our luggage did not. We went to speak to the Southwest luggage rep, who kind of hassled us because we did not have baggage claim tags. We were given sticker tags to put on our luggage by HAL, but those were HAL instruction tags, not the Southwest/airport tags, therefore they did not have the baggage claim tags attached. ANYWAY, long story short, she did find that our bags were checked, but not in time to make our flight. They came in 3 hours later. Luckily, we live near the airport. Anyway, just wanted to share that the service was available, but I was not impressed. GOOD LUCK!!!

[liketraveling]

We just came home from the Zaandam out of Seattle yesterday. We did luggage direct for our Southwest flight from Seattle to San Jose. I thought it was too easy, and it was. When we got home, our luggage did not. We went to speak to the Southwest luggage rep, who kind of hassled us because we did not have baggage claim tags. We were given sticker tags to put on our luggage by HAL, but those were HAL instruction tags, not the Southwest/airport tags, therefore they did not have the baggage claim tags attached. ANYWAY, long story short, she did find that our bags were checked, but not in time to make our flight. They came in 3 hours later. Luckily, we live near the airport. Anyway, just wanted to share that the service was available, but I was not impressed. GOOD LUCK!!!

For me going home it doesn't matter if the luggage gets there late.

I do have a question. Did Southwest deliver your luggage to your home because it didn't make the plane with you.

I did a similar thing when I was on a Disney Cruise a few years back and the luggage didn't come with us but the Airlines delivered the luggage to our home the next morning.

[durantigger]

Southwest told us the next flight was coming in 3 hours after ours & our luggage would probably be on that flight. They said they would call us when they found the luggage & they would deliver it to us, or we could pick it up & receive a $50 voucher from them for a future flight. Like I said, we live near the airport (literally 10 minutes away), so I decided to just drive back when the next flight came in. Lo & behold, the bags came out! Yay! We went in to tell Southwest to cancel our claim, and they gave us a $50 voucher. I thought that was nice, because I'm pretty sure the fault was with HAL, but you never know, it could have been Southwest's error. Anyway, DH said that was the easiest $50 we ever made. :)

[liketraveling]

Southwest told us the next flight was coming in 3 hours after ours & our luggage would probably be on that flight. They said they would call us when they found the luggage & they would deliver it to us, or we could pick it up & receive a $50 voucher from them for a future flight. Like I said, we live near the airport (literally 10 minutes away), so I decided to just drive back when the next flight came in. Lo & behold, the bags came out! Yay! We went in to tell Southwest to cancel our claim, and they gave us a $50 voucher. I thought that was nice, because I'm pretty sure the fault was with HAL, but you never know, it could have been Southwest's error. Anyway, DH said that was the easiest $50 we ever made. :)


It could have been either HAL or Southwest but the $50.00 credit is good. It is something you will probably use again

When I was on disney we used their Air because it was chepaer for a TA.
Everyone on the SFO final destination did not received some their luggage.
I found out later that other folks from other parts of the Country that were on the originating flight out of Orlando did not get their luggage at the final destination. It probably all went in one truck. It might be the same thing with HAL & Southwest.

We have a 1:30 flight out of San Diego and it might and might not be worth the luggage express.

Thanks for the info! This helps!

[KC from California]

Question to those who used the Direct Service for SW flights - when they issue the boarding pass to you, did you get Boarding group A as an added benefit for using this service?

[RuthC]

Question to those who used the Direct Service for SW flights - when they issue the boarding pass to you, did you get Boarding group A as an added benefit for using this service?
I didn't. My boarding number was B4. Either the Front Desk staff do the check-in at their convenience, or there's a computer match sent to Southwest, or something. It's not like a passenger sitting at the keyboard, waiting for the stroke of 24 hours before to hit, and jumping in as soon as possible.

For me, it wasn't a problem, as I board with the wheelchair group, but I can see where it would be concern for others.
Remember, too, that I did this in Seattle, where Southwest is part of the Luggage Direct program. In Ft. Lauderdale, the program is separate. When I used it there, I did my own check-in at the 24 hour mark, then joined the Bags-to-Go program when I left the terminal.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Question to those who used the Direct Service for SW flights - when they issue the boarding pass to you, did you get Boarding group A as an added benefit for using this service?
I have only used the service once in FLL and it was last January and in all honesty I had already paid the additional money with SW to get the pre check in thing so yes we of course got A's and good positions. The one thing I will say they have the luggage scale there but were not weighing the luggage. I knew that this time around we were definitely over :o And they did not charge us.

We are trying something different for this next flight next weekend but not on purpose only by accident. I had purchased both our tickets for this flight next week the very hour they released the date many month ago. I was so excited that the price was really good that I forgot I was going to use one of our free SW tickets we already had. So I had purchased our tickets and also purchased the extra pre-check in thing figured that way it would be done while we are on the cruise. Well, when I realized I wanted to use the free ticket I had I called SW back and they canceled one ticket and gave me credit back to my CC and reissued by free ticket. But of course they also canceled the Pre Checkin for my ticket, with a few phone calls they also credited that back but it did take a couple of phone calls. Anyway right now only Tom has it because I did not bother to repurchase it for my ticket. We figured he could board early and save me a seat :D. So I guess we will see what type of check in number I get. We did Pre Pay/reserve for the Bags to Go and they have each of our seperate booking numbers so I guess we will see what I get and I will report back after our cruise. ;)

The other thing is this was a Saturday and we had a 1 something flight along with all the people on the Oasis (we were on the Crown) When we got to the airport the line for both Inside and Curbside were longer than I have ever seen. Of course with both lines being extremely long you know that the TSA security line was also long. Southwest Airlines is great for going to FLL but one has to remember that a large percentage of cruisers use them. I believe they have set themselves up to be the Cruisers Airline ;)

[2ptu/000]

Where does your luggage get weighed and how do they go about charging you if you are over?

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Where does your luggage get weighed and how do they go about charging you if you are over?
They set up a stand outside the door after you have retrieved your luggage near the taxi area, The stand looks similiar to the Curb Side Sky Cap stand at the airport they have the SW printer and computer there, as well as a scale that looks like it does at Curb Side, behind them is a huge South West Airlines Truck that after they tag your luggage it goes on the Truck that takes your luggage to the airport.

[casavaha]

I disembarked on the Rotterdam in Seattle 2 weeks ago. I had called SW and they
said they had no service at pier 91. I called HAL, they said there was no service with
SWA in Seattle. However, when I was on the ship I received a paper that said I could
use Luggage Direct with SWA.

Obviously someone did not know what they were doing. I ended up using Kens bags
at SEATAC, I was only interested in storage for a short time.

Greg

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I disembarked on the Rotterdam in Seattle 2 weeks ago. I had called SW and they
said they had no service at pier 91. I called HAL, they said there was no service with
SWA in Seattle. However, when I was on the ship I received a paper that said I could
use Luggage Direct with SWA.

Obviously someone did not know what they were doing. I ended up using Kens bags
at SEATAC, I was only interested in storage for a short time.

Greg
Greg, it is because the Seattle Luggage Direct does not have a contract with SW Airlines nor are they affiliated with Southwest Airlines they just do it charging a fee then take your luggage to check in with the Curb Side Sky Caps at SeaTac. I am guessing SW airlines is not thrilled with this but did not stop it this year. This company doing it is NOT affiliated with SW Airlines which is why you got that answer and that HAL also stated that No SW Airlines does not particpate. I also think that is why we had a few come in and post that their luggage DID Not Arrive when they did.
I am guessing that this company saw the opportunity to make money so Why Not.

[casavaha]

Lisa: Thank you for that answer. I had a late flight, so after I disembarked from
the Rotterdam, went to the airport. Checked my bags at Ken's and then boarded the
light rail for downtown.

If you have not tried this, it is one of the smoothest rail systems anywhere. Plus the
fact that it serves downtown to the airport is a real service.

Greg

[KC from California]

Thanks for sharing the experience using the Luggage Direct/Bags to go Service with HAL.

After reading some of the posts, it appears that only Bags to go is available in FLL. Which means I still have to grab my luggages after I disembark and then check in at the Bags to Go kiosk at the port terminal. I was hoping that I can use the Luggage Direct service and just leave my luggages outside my cabin the night before and won't see them until I arrive at my home airport. Is this a correct understanding?

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thanks for sharing the experience using the Luggage Direct/Bags to go Service with HAL.

After reading some of the posts, it appears that only Bags to go is available in FLL. Which means I still have to grab my luggages after I disembark and then check in at the Bags to Go kiosk at the port terminal. I was hoping that I can use the Luggage Direct service and just leave my luggages outside my cabin the night before and won't see them until I arrive at my home airport. Is this a correct understanding?
KC that is correct you will have to retrieve your luggage but after you get you luggage the SW Reps from Bags To Go are right there and easy to check in. We found it saved a lot of time and the extra long line to check in at FLL.

[slotl]

With the airlines charging high baggage fees per bag, weight limitations and overage charges, you might want to look into other luggage shipping services:

www.firstluggage.com
www.luggagefree.com
www.luggageforward.com
www.fedex.com
www.ups.com

We took a Grand Cruise and luggage shipping (2 bags per passenger) was a perk for early booking. Federal Express picked up our luggage one week prior to the cruise. When we arrived at the ship (carrying no checked luggage) there were many FedEx containers at the pier waiting to be unloaded. Upon our return home, there was a FedEx representative on the ship to co-ordinate shipping the luggage home. You must appear with your bags going thru customs, but the FedEx truck was right outside the dock exit. Our luggage arrived home 2 days later.

These folks charge by size of bag (not weight). It is an option to be considered.