Luggage Valet/Beyond

[beachhouse]

Does Beyond offer Luggage Valet?

[sptrout]

Sure does! We used it at the end of our 11 day cruise a few days ago.

[chocolabmom]

How does this work?  Do you leave the luggage out the night before as you typically would?  Is there a fee?

We have a long wait until our flight home and this might be a nice option so we can do something else before we head to the airport.

[sptrout]

Yes, very much like in past years. Anyone wanting the service must fill out a special form that is delivered to your cabin a few days before departure. There is a $29p/p fee (not related to the # of bags checked) and the same charge for all cabin categories. Your airline must participate and when I checked the form it look like most if not all domestic airlines are all in.

 

Any luggage fees that your airline may charge (excess number, weight, etc.) must be paid upfront. Hint: take a separate copy of your airline itinerary. It is required, or at minimum very helpful. Since all my flight details were on my United App I did not have a paper copy. So, I had to go to Retreat Services so they could properly fill out the form. Seemed more complicated than what I can remember from years ago. There is a flight "window" that your flight must fit into. No sooner than noon departure, I do not remember the evening cutoff, but it was late.

 

If approved by the airline, you will receive boarding passes and luggage tags the day before departure. The boarding passed are not needed if using your airline's App like we did. The luggage taps are temporary and replaced with standard tags somewhere in the process. You will NOT have a paper receipt of your luggage tags, but will instead received a text message with all the tag numbers. As with boarding passes, these numbers also are stored in your airline's app. Very nice; no paper. 

 

Yes, you must leave your luggage outside your cabin door by 10 PM, maybe a little later if okay with your cabin attendant.

 

One thing that I found odd not directly related to Luggage Valet. We also used more of our OBC to but Celebrity's bus transfer to FLL. Totally messed-up; the taxis sitting a few feet away sure looked temping. Anyway, this cruise was for 11 days and as one would expect that average age was high (we did not help lower that average), but as we were waiting inline there were many folks that were pushing luggage that had no business doing so. Could not understand way so many did not use LV. So, my DW asked the couple in front of us and they said that they don't travel much and did not understand how to do so anymore. I sure would have figured it out!

[chocolabmom]

Thanks so much for the very thorough explanation. Very helpful!

[NutsAboutGolf]

13 hours ago, beachhouse said:

Does Beyond offer Luggage Valet?

 

2 hours ago, chocolabmom said:

How does this work?  Do you leave the luggage out the night before as you typically would?  Is there a fee?

We have a long wait until our flight home and this might be a nice option so we can do something else before we head to the airport.

 

1)  If you have or plan on getting travel insurance, contact them to let them know you're utilizing a luggage handling service that is not run by the cruise line or airline but is run by a THIRD PARTY to see if you have the option to buy coverage for it

2)  Buy tracker devices like AirTags

3)  Ensure you do not put anything irreplaceable in the luggage that's sent to the valet service, my mistake was keeping the souvenirs in there

 

Several threads on here that their luggage didn't appear at their home airport's luggage carousel after using valet.  I used luggage valet in Seattle in 2019 and it was initially lost but found a week later after I contacted the Exec Office (they refused to share why it was lost).  X's lost luggage process leaves a lot to be desired as you essentially file a claim with them and won't hear a peep again unless they find it.  When I contacted the valet service, bags Inc., they told me to call X and ask them if they scanned the luggage tag so when I called X, they wouldn't answer any questions

 

My travel insurance wouldn't cover anything as it was handled by a 3rd party and had I had a tracking device, everything could have been resolved.  Air tags recently helped us on another flight (didn't have the option to use valet) where our luggage didn't appear at the home airport

[CHEZMARYLOU]

The LV fee for suites, at least upper level suites, is waived.  I have seen that there are no overweight fees because they are not weighing your luggage. They are very strict about flight times. We did receive a paper luggage tracking #, it was part of the bag tag that you tear off.  Flying United we were able to use their app to track our luggage. We've used it often and only once was a bag delayed. The airline was able to track it. Their explanation was it was flagged by TSA for secondary screening and did not make the flight.

 

One thing to be cautious of and will probably not happen again (knock on wood). If there are predictions of bad weather and a very real possibility that your flight will be cancelled think twice about using LV.  Happened to us on our last cruise.  I got a text at dinner that our flight was cancelled and nothing was available the day we were to fly. We didn't know when we would get a flight out.  Had we put our luggage out before dinner we would not have had it at the hotel in Ft. Lauderdale.  Luckily I was able to exchange the luggage tags for standard suite tags so we had it at the hotel.