Free Airport Luggage Transfer from Disney World Resort Hotels Expands!
After launching the pilot program earlier this week, Walt Disney World has expanded Airport Luggage Transfer (previously known as Resort Airline Check-In) as of Spring 2025. This covers the latest official details of the test, questions & answers via WDW, and our commentary about the free guest perk for on-site resorts.
As we previously reported, the Return of Resort Airline Check-In Service at Walt Disney World as a Pilot Program was a test and would be expanded based in part on positive guest feedback, utilization rates, satisfaction, and other metrics. While I can’t say what those numbers looked like for actual guests using the service, our reader responses were resoundingly positive. The story garnered 85 comments almost all of which were incredibly enthusiastic.
It’s thus unsurprising that the Airport Luggage Transfer pilot program is expanding. That it’s happening only a few days later, on the other hand, is surprising. Walt Disney World seldom does anything this quickly, even with the assistance of third party participants. This nevertheless has us more optimistic that Airport Luggage Transfer will only continue to grow over the coming months. For now, here are the official details followed by our thoughts.
Guests now staying at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels, can drop checked baggage off with Luggage Assistance to be delivered directly to your flight. A new third-party service, known as BagCheck, will take your luggage directly to the airport for your Southwest Airlines flight.
Currently, this pilot service is available at Value Resort hotels for Guests with Southwest Airlines flights departing from Orlando International Airport (MCO). But again, this is a pilot program, and it’s already expanded from just Disney’s Pop Century to include several other hotels.
Along with this, Walt Disney World released an official statement about Airport Luggage Transfer: “We continue to work with Orlando International Airport on ways we can help manage the high demand for travel to Central Florida and improve the experience for our guests and other airport passengers. As part of these efforts, we are working with a vendor to pilot a new one-way service for guests at Disney Value Resorts to conveniently check their luggage prior to departure when flying out of the airport on Southwest Airlines. We look forward to sharing more information with guests soon.”
How Airport Luggage Transfer Works
Save time at the airport by sending your bags ahead to the airline. Simply follow these steps:
- At the beginning of your stay, check in at your Value Resort hotel and call or visit Luggage Assistance to take advantage of this service. For a smoother experience, leave your inbound Southwest Airlines tags on your bags.
- The day before your departure, check in for your Southwest Airlines flight online.
- Drop off your bags at Luggage Assistance in the Resort hotel lobby area by the required drop off time (see below). Please be aware that you will need to provide a valid form of photo identification in order to drop off your bags. You can also call Luggage Assistance from your in-room telephone to ask for help with your bags.
- Head to the airport, skip the check-in line, enjoy your flight and pick up your bags at baggage claim when you arrive at your destination.
When to Drop Off Your Bags
It is strongly encouraged that you drop off your checked bags the night before your scheduled departure. However, if you need some extra time, you can do the following:
- When Flying Before 1:00 PM: Drop your bags off by 1:00 AM the night before your flight.
- When Flying After 1:00 PM: Drop your bags off at least 4 hours before departure or no later than 1:00 PM—whichever comes first.
Luggage Assistance is available to receive luggage any time from 5:00 AM to 1:00 AM.
Participating WDW Resort Hotels
The Airport Luggage Transfer service is only available at the following locations:
- Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
- Disney’s All-Star Music Resort
- Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort
- Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
- Disney’s Pop Century Resort
Please be aware that this service is only available if you are checking out from one of the Disney Value Resort hotels listed above and your return flight is with Southwest Airlines.
This means that guests with split stays are eligible, so long as the trip concludes at one of the above-listed Value Resorts. It can start anywhere, from the Grand Floridian to Helios Grand overlooking Epic Universe.
Airport Luggage Transfer FAQ
Can I print my boarding passes when I drop off my bags?
No. Walt Disney World does not provide boarding pass printing as part of the Airport Luggage Transfer service. You should have your boarding passes ready before dropping off your bags.
Am I still eligible for the service if I removed the inbound tags from my bag?
Yes, you are still eligible for the service. While we recommend keeping your inbound Southwest Airlines tags on your bag for a smoother experience, it is not a requirement.
Can I see the location of my bags or get assistance?
You can track your bags using the Southwest Airlines app. For additional support with your bags, please contact Southwest Airlines customer service.
What happens to the bag if a flight is cancelled?
If your Southwest Airlines flight is cancelled, your bag will be automatically redirected to your new flight. For assistance, please contact Southwest Airlines customer service.
Where do I pick up my luggage after my flight?
You can pick up your luggage in baggage claim at your flight’s final destination.
Who should I contact if I have issues or questions about my luggage after drop-off?
You can contact or visit Luggage Assistance for any questions about your luggage after drop-off. Once the bag departs the Resort hotel, you can get information via the Baggage webpage for Southwest Airlines. You can also see a Southwest Agent at the airport for assistance.
Is this service available for all airlines?
This pilot program is only available for flights on Southwest Airlines.
Will this pilot program expand to other resorts or airlines?
At this time (operative words), Walt Disney World has only committed to this being a free perk for guests staying at the Value Resorts and flying Southwest Airlines.
Are there any size or weight restrictions for baggage?
Yes. Standard size and weight restrictions apply. Check with Southwest Airlines for details on specific checked baggage policies.
What about checked baggage fees?
Southwest Airline currently offers two free checked bags. As you’re likely aware, that will soon change. Southwest customers who do not qualify for free bag options will be charged for their first and second checked bags, with weight and size limitations applying. Changes will apply to flights booked on or after May 28, 2025. All relevant baggage fees, if any, will need to be paid before taking advantage of Airport Luggage Transfer at Walt Disney World.
What happens if my luggage is missing, delayed or damaged?
If your luggage is missing, delayed or damaged, you can submit a report to Southwest Airlines.
Our Commentary
I don’t want to rehash too much from this week’s earlier reporting, as what this mostly does is make all of that official, add some info directly from Walt Disney World, and expand the pilot program from Pop Century to all Value Resorts. In so doing, it goes from the largest hotel at Walt Disney World by room count (almost 3,000 rooms) and now encompasses that entire tier, adding another 7,500+ rooms to the mix.
The company operating this service, BagCheck, is a new entity created by a serial entrepreneur who previously founded Bags, Inc. (the third party responsible for the predecessor to this, Resort Airline Check-In) before selling it for $275 million. He’s been developing this service for over a year, and resigned a couple of conflicts in order to pursue this. There is no way his ambitions end here, with Airport Luggage Transfer being available only at Value Resorts and only for Southwest Airlines.
The bottom line is that Airport Luggage Transfer will expand further, it’ll just take time. This is a complicated service and the infrastructure for it has been dormant (at best) for over 5 years. It involves not just Walt Disney World Cast Members, but also BagCheck employees and vendors at MCO. There are a lot of moving parts, and it cannot go from zero to 100 overnight. If anything, I’m impressed and elated that it’s already expanded from just Pop Century to all Value Resorts so fast–that bodes well!
As for why it’s starting at the Value Resorts, the best explanation is that it’s easiest (don’t overthink it). These five resorts are located in two distinct areas, and offer over 10,000 rooms in a relatively condensed location (over one-third of all Disney-owned hotel inventory). There’s nowhere else at Walt Disney World that offers this many rooms in this close of proximity–especially if Walt Disney World wants to start the service at an entire tier of resorts, as opposed to a hodgepodge of them in a resort district.
As for why it’s starting with Southwest Airlines, the answer is presumably the same. It’s the largest airline flying out of MCO and it’s safe to say that it has the highest percentage of checked bags by volume thanks to its (outgoing) “bags fly free” policy. The timing may seem inopportune, but keep in mind that policy applies to flights booked through the next 2 months, not just travel dates. By the time it really winds down, we’d expect Airport Luggage Transfer to have expanded to additional airlines.
These are just guesses on our part, but those are the likely explanations for why BagCheck chose those Walt Disney World Resort hotels and Southwest Airlines. It’s the easiest starting point for the service while testing logistics and iterating before scaling up. It allows Airport Luggage Transfer to make a relatively big impact with fewer resources as it onboards new employees and refines the service.
All of this is to address the inevitable reader concerns that Airport Luggage Transfer is “unfair.” That it doesn’t make sense for an excellent on-site guest perk to be offered at the cheapest hotels or for Southwest Airlines. It’s understandable that guests staying at the Grand Floridian and flying a premium cabin in United would feel like they’re getting a raw deal. But from our perspective, it’s fairly obvious that this is only a test and will encompass more resorts and airlines in due time.
Much more interesting from our perspective are the motivations and where else this leads. Walt Disney World’s statement indicates that they “continue to work with Orlando International Airport on ways we can help manage the high demand for travel to Central Florida and improve the experience for our guests and other airport passengers.”
It’s interesting that this is a collaborative effort with the airport. It’s also unsurprising. As we’ve reported elsewhere, MCO has broken passenger volume records over the course of the last couple of years and almost all of its busiest days, weeks, and months ever have occurred since 2022. The airport is only just starting to slow down and not see year-over-year growth, but even so, it still remains well above the 2019 baseline.
Anyone who has traveled through MCO in the last few years has probably seen this, and it doesn’t really matter what time of year, what time of day, etc. The airport is always busy. Seating areas at the gates are so full that they’ve added overflow seating to walkways, and those are now full. The parking lots routinely are full, there’s traffic congestion just dropping people off or making pickups, lines to get through TSA are often 45+ minutes–you get the idea.
The return of Airport Luggage Transfer and this statement from Walt Disney World gave me a flashback to Our Awful Airport Experiences at Walt Disney World from last Christmas. Those were major problems getting from Walt Disney World to MCO, and then at the Delta counter for bag drop. That line ended up taking me over an hour. Just to drop off a bag and verify my ID. No special assistance–I had already done the self-service printing of tags and everything.
That was a “new to me” experience, as I exclusively travel with only a carry-on when flying solo. The same was true when it was just the two of us. However, with a baby that just isn’t possible (at least, not for us). As it turns out, many other readers reported having exactly the same–or substantially similar–experiences at bag drop, and not just for Delta. That’s yet another MCO problem.
Ultimately, Orlando International Airport clearly has infrastructure and staffing issues. The airport was built decades ago when passenger volume was far lower and different. It’s now one of the busiest airports in the United States, and reminds me of Los Angeles International Airport in terms of chaos and crowds. The only difference is that LAX is controlled chaos, as that uber-busy airport can process high numbers of people surprisingly well. MCO can’t.
If Walt Disney World really is working with MCO on helping ease high demand and the burden on infrastructure, it stands to reason that Airport Luggage Transfer will expand. Beyond that, we’ll double-down on our perspective that this makes Disney’s Magical Express more likely to return. Orlando International Airport needs to improve its efficiency in multiple regards, and having passengers arrive and depart via higher-capacity buses is one such way. This feels like the stars aligning, as there’s a mutually-beneficial solution for both Disney’s and MCO’s woes.
The return of Airport Luggage Transfer/Resort Airline Check-In strikes me as Walt Disney World laying the groundwork for bringing back Disney’s Magical Express. The luggage handling is the more complicated piece of the puzzle that would need to roll out first. The airport shuttle infrastructure already exists, just with different stickers on the buses. Unlike this, that changeover could be like flipping a switch. This is all great news, and seems like a perfect confluence of circumstances: Disney finally realizing the error of their ways in deflating the Disney Bubble and MCO needing relief from its high passenger volume.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think about the return of Airport Luggage Transfer/Resort Airline Check-In? Think we’re making too big of a deal about a limited pilot program, or do you agree with our assessment that this wouldn’t be happening at all unless the end game were much more ambitious? Think this paves the way for a comeback of Disney’s Magical Express, or is that getting really ahead of ourselves? Heartened to see Walt Disney World suddenly starting to take notice of the middle class families that are the parks & resorts’ bread & butter? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
If this is the best they will do to compete with EPIC, I have a feeling this will be an epic fail for them. 🙁
They have not expanded it beyond the values. I am wondering if this is as good as it gets.
We used to love ME and the “yellow” tag service. It was like our trip was already beginning when we received those tags in the mail. Not anymore. We strictly fly with carry on bags (did 5 weeks in Europe last year and my carry on weighed 18.5 lbs, so a week in WDW is nothing). Upon arrival at MCO, we schedule an Uber/Lyft and away we go directly to our hotel! No more checking in at the ME desk for a lane assignment, waiting in the lane until a bus came, waiting on the bus until it was full, and once it was on its way, hoping your hotel was the first for drop off. There is no going backwards for this family.
Tom,
I think the “1:00 AM” at the end of this section is a typo.
When to Drop Off Your Bags
It is strongly encouraged that you drop off your checked bags the night before your scheduled departure. However, if you need some extra time, you can do the following:
When Flying Before 1:00 PM: Drop your bags off by 1:00 AM the night before your flight.
When Flying After 1:00 PM: Drop your bags off at least 4 hours before departure or no later than 1:00 PM—whichever comes first.
Luggage Assistance is available to receive luggage any time from 5:00 AM to 1:00 AM.
The reason why it’s only at the Values currently is because of the fact that their luggage services are run by the 3rd party company responsible for the program. Also, disclaimer: though BagCheck will not print off boarding passes, you can still visit the resort front desk to do so if you’re old school (like my mom) and need a physical copy. The Cast Members will be happy to assist.
This is HUGE news! I’ve been coming to WDW for over 50 years and we’ve been DVC members for more than 30. Not as young as we used to be, I often use a wheelchair at MCO leaving my husband to deal with luggage. If there is not an attendant around, he has to deal with me AND luggage. Though we were never big ME riders, we were always blown away to drop our luggage and magically find it in our villa. As we’ve aged, we have actually sold many DVC contracts in large part, due to the MCO issue. This opens up a new opportunity for us as Disney seniors, and there are many of us who need a bit of assistance in order to visit WDW. We have been loyal visitors and are hoping this service will expand to DVC resorts!
This is a plus and glad to see Disney is considering the customer. I was wondering why it was at the Value Resorts vs the Deluxe Resorts, until I read your article. Hopefully this will lead to Magical Express. The buses were a great help & great way to start the vacation. I usually drive, but have flown a few times and it was nice to not have to worry how to get from airport to hotel. It was a major error to take it away.
Great news and fingers crossed it’s available at Grand Floridian in a month. That would make up for extended evening hours at AK on 5/5 rather than Epcot. Tom, I don’t recall ever seeing AK hours on Mondays. Any idea why? That was my plan to ride Guardians.
Probably a park buyout at Epcot that night.
I hope me hoping on the Disney Chat to ask what it would take to switch my upcoming reservation to Pop Century just to use this service helped thumb the scale in this direction – magic made – I’ll take it, especially since we’re doing the parks for the morning before flying out this trip.
A true unsung parenting milestone: kids capable of handling a carryon bag! Right up there with being able to tell you they’re about to throw up 🙂
if they hope to not get completely destroyed by epic universe they will relaunch the full ME. Stop being cheap for once and make a good decision.
Despite this being a small step in the right direction, it is nowhere near replacing the original Magical Express service. With that, Disney sent you luggage tags and your luggage was picked up on arrival in Orlando and taken directly to your room. All you had to do was go directly to the Magical Express. Upon departure, you not only got you luggage taken to the airport, you could check in at the hotel.
Like many other things taken away, this simply puts back a small part of what was a great service.
If they bring back the full Magical Express experience, many previous repeat guests will return.
I am crossing my fingers. This is the first step in bring back the joy we felt when we landed in Orlando to start our vacation. Let us hope that our “yellow tags” come back too. That was the best part of the vacation knowing that you have those “golden tickets” to put on your luggage. I miss them and hope that they will be back by the time we go next year.
The possibility of a return of Magical Express is beyond exciting! Could Disney rolling this out be in reaction to Universal planning something similar, thereby forcing Disney’s hand?
If this is being partially subsidized by MCO and operated by a third party (not an “if”), I could totally see Universal Orlando/Loews do something similar.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens next, that’s for sure!
I’m a patient girl! I’ve waited five years, I’ll wait a little more. I LOVED airport check-in, and am so glad to see it come back!
Of course, this is great news and a good start.
Now I can’t wait for the luggage to reach our room for check-in. I miss the yellow luggage tags.
Exciting development! Really hope this expands to luggage delivery to our rooms. For the past year plus, every time I land at MCO it takes an hour to get my luggage at the carousel.
Smart move by Disney.
Very helpful for many of us.
With EPIC opening, ME returning would be another way to make it harder to escape the Mickey bubble for a day or more at the competition’s parks. Also agree with rationale for starting with Value Resorts. I’ll add that they may have data that shows guests staying at higher $$$ resorts are more apt to rent cars, ride share, etc. and would utilize the service less than more value oriented guests. We used the prior iteration of both services and loved it when staying at value resorts. The luggage component was great for deluxe resorts but we did find the multiple resort stops for the guest transport piece made us question our decision on some trips.
I don’t think this, specifically, is in response to Epic Universe. If it were, they would’ve rolled it out at the start of 2025 and announced it in advance to help capture on-site bookings. Instead, it benefits guests who have already booked, but only at the cheapest resorts. It just doesn’t have the vibe of something that would be a strategic response to EU.
I do agree with the general, overarching point that Walt Disney World will need to do more to keep guests on-site. Increased competition benefits us all!
MCO is going to have to spend money to alleviate the crowding and chaos. More space, more workers, longer hours. It’s all just money. Given that, is there any chance the Aviation Authority really pushes Disney to return Magical Express by helping subsidize the cost? Or even co-branding the experience? “A Service of Disney and MCO.” etc.
“Given that, is there any chance the Aviation Authority really pushes Disney to return Magical Express by helping subsidize the cost?”
Currently working on exactly this question. The language used by Disney here suggests to me that MCO is already subsidizing the cost of this, so I’m trying to get confirmation of that. More on this soon (hopefully).
Agree with what you’re saying, though. The problem is that there are no quick fixes for infrastructure, and MCO has these problems right now. So I assume a band-aid approach is what they’ll do until building more new terminals or whatever the long-term plan is.
I hope it gets added to Spirit airlines soon!
Well this certainly is hopeful. Keeping my fingers crossed that Caribbean Beach is added before my trip at the end of the month. Baby steps forward!
That seems really soon, so I would caution against getting too optimistic.
Then again, I wouldn’t have guessed that it’d expand from Pop Century to all Value Resorts this fast. I would’ve expected a goal of having all resorts on-board by October or early November. Maybe the timeline is more aggressive than normal!