Luggage Service Delivers Bags to Your Door
Tired of schlepping your luggage to your business meeting? Wish you could bypass the huddle around the luggage carousel, head straight to your hotel and find your luggage waiting for you?
Now if you're flying on United Airlines, you can.
United has joined American Airlines in utilizing the services of BagsVIP, a luggage delivery service that launched last August. The company will pick up your bags for you starting at $30 for a single bag, $40 for a pair and up to $50 for three to eight bags and deliver them to your destination.
"I think the service is unique in that this particular service allows passengers to buy their tickets, check in like you normally would and go to the hotel room," said Dennis Garrow, senior vice president of BagsVIP. "We'll recover your luggage and deliver it."
United's partnership with BagsVIP spans six airports: Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles and Orlando. For those flying American, BagsVIP services all of the airlines' domestic cities-between 250-270 destinations.
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Passengers must pay attention of the fine print. BagsVIP says its "delivery goal is within four hours of arrival time" for destinations 40 miles or less from the airport. For travelers holed up between 40 and 100 miles outside their arrival airport, BagsVIP will ask they wait up to six hours for their belongings.
To use BagsVIP, passengers will have to make an additional reservation through the service providing all the necessary information. Once the reservation is confirmed, the process of checking in bags at your departing airport remains the same.
The only difference is when passengers land, instead of waiting for their luggage at baggage claim, they can head straight to their hotel, home or wherever their final destination may be.
"I've been trying to sell this idea to the airlines for the last five years," said Garrow. "We're very excited."