Signature Baggage Service

Has anyone used the new Signature Baggage Service that is being offered on some ships?

It sounds like a good option and I wanted to know how it worked and how much is the "reasonable charge."

Getting off the ship on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving - any option available to make the whole airport experience better is certainly welcomed.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Steven

We have used it and were very pleased. Your flight has to leave after 1pm and it has to be with certain airlines. You will receive info on this in your cabin the first couple of days of the cruise. The charge is $15 per person, well worth it if you qualify. There is another thread on this, do a search to see if you can find it.

Have not used it before but intend to use it whenever we fly. Ruth is in a wheelchair and it will be agodsend for us...

Ruth & Jim

I haven't used it on HAL but I did on our hawaiian cruise on NCL. I believe it was $20 pp and worth every penny. I will sign up for it as soon as I get on board for any cruise that offers it. The only drawbacks were these, it was good for only two pieces of luggage per person and that there is a chance of not getting accepted or only 1 in your party being chosen. We both made it and it was awesome. Put your bags outside your door and never see them again till you get home. Made disembarking a breeze. Deb

Let me understand how this works.

We have a party of 3 -- we will no doubt have two bags each.

We sign up for this service ahead of time and we put our bags out like everyone else and we just show up at the airport and check in without our luggage?

We will not be leaving until 5 pm the day of disembarkation.

So we get off the ship and go have fun in FLL and then show up at the airport and go to the ticket counter to get our boarding passes?

We fly out on Delta Airlines.

So, do we get baggage claim tickets for our luggage?

Sorry if these are dumb questions.

Signature Express Baggage Service offers you the opportunity to receive your airline boarding passes, and check your luggage in to your flight while still onboard your Holland America Line ship. Our TSA certified partners will take your luggage directly from the ship and deliver it to your outbound aircraft. You will then claim your luggage when you arrive at your final airport destination.

It sounds like they check you in and give you your boarding passes and baggage claim tags on ship

Signature Express Baggage Service offers you the opportunity to receive your airline boarding passes, and check your luggage in to your flight while still onboard your Holland America Line ship. Our TSA certified partners will take your luggage directly from the ship and deliver it to your outbound aircraft. You will then claim your luggage when you arrive at your final airport destination.

 

It sounds like they check you in and give you your boarding passes and baggage claim tags on ship

Wow, I hope Delta is a particpant in this service!

If Delta is -- and we fit the time profile of after 1 pm, do we automatically get to do this?

This would work out so great for us -- then we could go shopping in FLL before heading to the airport!:)

Two weeks ago we signed up for signature express - Vancouver disembarkation from Ryndam. A couple with us also signed up. The other couple had no problems and were delighted with the arrangements. They were given boarding passes and baggage tags and baggage claims the night before disembarkation. The cost is $15 pp.

My husband and I decided to opt out of SE because I was accepted, but my husband was not. We would have had to disembarked separately and meet at the gate.They said that the airline disallowed my husband for security reasons. Weird. We ended up picking our bags up at the airport, checking them in, going through customs and security, then dropping the bags off before final security check of boarding passes and carryons. Not once was my husband given a second look or were his bags checked. Guess they must randomly disallow so many people to keep us all guessing - and safe. The process was easy.

Does anyone have a list of the airlines that will use this service. We are flying Southwest and leaving Tampa at 3:ooPM. We would like very much to use this service and need to know the airlines participating. Any info is greatly appreciated.:rolleyes:

Has anyone used the new Signature Baggage Service that is being offered on some ships?

 

It sounds like a good option and I wanted to know how it worked and how much is the "reasonable charge."

 

Getting off the ship on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving - any option available to make the whole airport experience better is certainly welcomed.

 

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

Steven

There have been several recent threads about the service, here's one:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=613980&highlight=Signature

I used the service in April at Ft. Lauderdale on Delta Airlines. Worked perfectly for me - I'll use it whenever it is available.

We tried to sign up for this service on Volendam to come home from Vanc to Sacramento. But if anyone in your party ever has a problem with getting a boarding pass online for your flts, this will not work as you will be denied. This happened to us the night before as we were packing. So make sure you are not in that catagory.

My husband and I decided to opt out of SE because I was accepted, but my husband was not. We would have had to disembarked separately and meet at the gate.They said that the airline disallowed my husband for security reasons. Weird. Not once was my husband given a second look or were his bags checked. Guess they must randomly disallow so many people to keep us all guessing - and safe. The process was easy.

Same thing happened to us in Seattle, in May. My husband's luggage was refused, at the 11th hour, for unknown reasons. HAL has no idea the criteria being used nor the reason for rejection. I think it's TSA. And either this was random or that my DH was born in Germany almost 60 years ago. If the latter, too bad they did not dig a little deeper and learn he is a citizen and served in Viet Nam.

While I am in favor of the convenience factor, I am uncomfortable with the concept for security reasons, given luggage and owner are separated.

We used the SEBS on disembarking from Volendam in Seward a couple of weeks ago. The charge was $15 per bag. They send the bag checks and boarding passes to your cabin. You tag the bags, set them outside the door, and pick them up at the baggage carousel at your destination. You never see the bags in between. At the airport you go directly to the gate because you have your boarding pass.

It worked great for us.

Sorry, I don't remember if Southwest was one of the airlines, don't think it was. It really is convenient, you get your boarding passes, luggage tags, everything is done for you and you don't have to worry. (except if your bags don't show up at your final destination!) The TSA has the final say about who qualifies and who doesn't, not HAL, so don't blame HAL if they come back and say you are not accepted. We thought $15 a person was very cheap not to have to haul bags to the airport.

Is this service available to everyone, or only US internal flights? Sounds excellent but we're from the UK. Also is it only available for flights from the disembarkation city?

I wonder if this service is offered in Rome. Boy,,,it would be great if we could get this not have to worry about my parents bags!

So far I think it is just in the US.

So far the service is somewhat limited in ports and airlines. Here's the link to the HAL site information:

http://www.hollandamerica.com/guests/category.do?category=packing&topic=signatureExpress

Have not used it before but intend to use it whenever we fly. Ruth is in a wheelchair and it will be agodsend for us...

Ruth & Jim

Hahahahahahaha - you're going to have to take out a second mortgage with all the luggage you two have!

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

Gerry

Hahahahahahaha - you're going to have to take out a second mortgage with all the luggage you two have!

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

Gerry

Good one!

My brother and his family used this service when disembarking the Zaandam in Vancouver this summer. The five of them had six bags to check for the family, so he signed up three of them for this service -- no point in paying for all five. They still had to wait in the check-in line in Vancouver but since his goal was to avoid having to handle the luggage it worked out fine. We did discover though that the two family members who weren't signed up for this were coded differently on the departure manifest; this was fixed at the front desk the afternoon before.

Is this 2 bags per person or 2 bags total? We will have 4 bags between the two of us.

Robb

Is this 2 bags per person or 2 bags total? We will have 4 bags between the two of us.

 

Robb

It's $15 per person and a person can have 2 bags checked. So it would be $30 total for two people with 2 bags apiece.

Anyone happen to use this out of FLL who was flying Airtran???

If so could you tell me your experience?

Thanks

I just sent HAL an email asking about Airtran and also if there is a list of airlines using this service. I'll report back once I hear something.