Magical Express

[DNS]

I just found out from info central that Southwest is not included in the airlines offering magical express. Anyone know if any more airlines will be a part of this program in the next few months?
Thanks

[JMTStone]

WDW Website: "Resort Airline Check-In Service is a benefit offered to you if you are staying at a select Walt Disney World® Resort hotel and departing on participating airlines from Orlando International Airport. You can check your luggage and receive your airline boarding pass right at your Resort hotel and you will not need to check in at Orlando International Airport. At this time, the service is only available if you are flying domestically on the following airlines: Alaska Airlines American Airlines
Continental Delta Air Lines
JetBlue Northwest
United/Ted AirTran"

[swampfox28]

Southwest doesn't officially participate, but you can (and I have) fly Southwest AND use DME.

In fact, I'll be doing it tomorrow night (Southwest + DME = HAPPY TRIP!)

There have been more threads discussing this and I'll likely not explain it as well as others can, but the only problem (as I understand it) of using SWA and DME is that you can't have the resort check in your bags for your return flight - you have to do that yourself at the airport.

ANY bags that come into Orlando (from SWA or any airline) that have DME tags on them WILL be picked up by DME and brought to your resort. Period!)

Any others want to chime in?

-Sarah

[dml]

I only fly SWA to WDW and use the magical everytime.

I do beleive the previous post is correct that the only difference with SWA is that you do have to check your luggage in yourself on your return flight.

[faline]

You can absolutely use Magical Express as well as luggage delivery to your Disney World resort on your arrival in Orlando. The discussion about "participating airline" only comes into play when you return to Orlando airport at the end of your vacation. At that time, you will still take the Magical Express bus back to the airport. The only difference is that your luggage will need to go with you on the bus and you will need to check it yourself at the airport when you arrive there. Those who fly "participating airlines" have the option of checking their luggage while still at their resort and don't need to have it transported on the bus with them to the airport.

[DNS]

Great! Thanks to all of you!

[JMTStone]

Every flight INTO MCO participates in ME when you arrive but only the airlines I posted above participate in Airline Check In when returning from your resort to the airport.

Sorry for the confusion.

[Lizzie]

I loved the ability to check my bags in at my hotel. On our last trip it was just me and my husband and twin girls under the age of two. We had at least 6 pieces of luggage and two car seats and the stroller. So trying to get all of that into the airport is tough.

[Piglet822]

Here is the current list of airlines offering Resort Check in:

American
Continental
JetBlue
Air Tran
Delta
United/Ted
Northwest
Us Airways
Alaska

I *think* that's all of them.

[CleveRocks]

Disney does a poor job of explaining this ...

There are 2 separate services, Disney's Magical Express and Resort Airline Check-in. They aren't the same. They are totally separate.

Disney's Magical Express:

available to everyone on every airline, as long as you're named on a WDW resort reservation
round-trip motorcoach transportation between Orlando Int'l Airport and your WDW resort
ONE-WAY automatic luggage transfer from the airport to your resort room

So just to make it clear, DME is for everyone. Even if you fly in on Fred's Airline and Crab Shack, you can still use DME to the fullest extent.


Resort Airline Check-in:

available only to people flying on "participating airlines"
think of it as curbside check-in for your FLIGHT HOME, only it's in your resort lobby rather than at the airport
you check-in for your flight, get your boarding passes, and check your luggage through to your final destination
has nothing to do with DME. Even people who don't ride DME can use RAC.

If you are getting a ride to the airport with DME and you aren't flying a "participating airline," you simply bring your luggage to the bus. The driver loads it under the bus, you get it right back after the bus parks, and you check-in with your airline like usual.

So to repeat one last time ... for your trip from home to WDW, airline doesn't matter -- EVERYONE gets the same DME treatment. On the trip from resort to the airport, some people can do curbside check-in at the resort and some can't ... this is the only place where airline matters.