we got screwed by magical express...

[glendroid]

now disney wont do anything.

i am currently writing this in front of the us airways booth in mco.

our DME was supposed to pick us up for a flight at 2:50.

the bus showed up late. left late. made two stop overs. so consequently we missed our flights.

should disney do anything?

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Sounds to me that the airline dropped the ball on this one. If the airline changes the flight, they are obligated to inform all ticket holders.

Aren't you (the passenger) supposed to check with the airline prior to flying whether the flight is changed. I don't think an airline could be expected to contact up to 400 people

 

[The Mom]

I agree that WDW had absolutely nothing to do with the OP missing his flight. Had the flight left at the scheduled time, he would have been fine.

It was the airline moving the departure to an hour earlier that caused the problem.

But, I don't think it was the OP's fault, either, as I usually check my flight time the night before, and this flight was changed the next morning. As someone said, who keeps checking their flight time every hour? The OP didn't discover the change until arrival at the airport. His could have driven a rental car, taken a cab, or been dropped off by a friend. The result would have been exactly the same...the flight left an hour early. (Unless he is someone who routinely arrives a couple of hours early; I only do so for certain airports)

 

[J_Krafty24]

DME is great but not foolproof. My brother, his girlfriend and about 12 other people were out in front of the hotel waiting to be picked up, their scheduled bus never showed. Someone went into talk to someone at a desk who said take the next one. The next bus came but it woudln't let any of them on because it was already booked up.

In the end they called into the bus office and a bus was sent right out for them but they were already about an hour behind and just made their flight.

 

[tomm4004]

In November I had the opposite experience. DME got me to the airport so early - and with nothing to do I just wandered over to my gate after passing security - that I was able to get on an earlier flight and return home two hours earlier. I got my gate at 3:20pm for a 5:30pm flight. I walked up to the desk and they were happy to bump-me-in-reverse and stick me on the 3:30 flight. I only had carry-on so luggage wasn't an issue. So my airport wait time was zero. I grabbed my new boarding pass and headed down the jetway. I even got a leg room seat. Thanks DME!

 

[CleveRocks]

Magical Express is operated by Mears.......

Mears is the subcontractor supplying the buses and the drivers. But is run by Disney. Disney makes the rules, Disney sets the policies and procedures. Think of it like this: Mears is the muscle but Disney is the brains.

Almost all of the complaints about the former Mears shuttle service was about how it was run (long waits, multiple pick-ups and waits on the airport grounds, many many stops at resorts all over the place); the complaints weren't that the drivers were bad or that the buses were bad ... the complaints were about the way it was run. Disney runs DME, and thus isn't plagued by the same problems that the old Mears shuttle was.

 

[Phonedave]

I would say it's a combo blame package

As somone who has spent nights in airports, swung earlier flights, sat on the tarmac for an hour (both landing and taking off) and a whole host of other fun airline events, this is my take on it.

1) I check my flight times the night before as well. A 9:00 AM change is crazy. However I have had instances where I checked in luggage and the flight was cancelled in the time it took me to get through security. I use the Resort Airline Check-in, most of the time around 8:30 AM. So I would even have had a boarding pass with the original flight time on it. Somtimes I set up changes to go to my cell phone. So maybe I would have got info on the change.

2) Once I knew about the change I would have let DME know. Chances are, since they leave 3 hours before the flight time, they would not have made a change.

3) Once the bus was delayed, I would have made another call to DME. I would have said "look, my flight was bumped up an hour, and now the bus is late, this is cutting it close" I would have requested either Disney get me a cab or have an employee drive me. I know of an instance where people waited an hour for a bus to DTD and one never came. They went to the front desk and said they were worried they would miss Cirque de Solei, and the resort had a CM drive them to DTD.

Now if they refused to do any of this, and I missed my plane, then I would expect room & food comps

-dave

 

[seashoreCM]

When you found out your flight home was changed to leave earlier, you should have rescheduled your Magical Express bus time as soon as you could.

Rescheduling DME on the day-of cannot be guaranteed but more likely you will be able to get it done. Except that unusual bus times like 5 hours in advance might be the best that DME can do for you on such short notice.

Since the normal deadline for modifying DME is a day in advance, you should reconfirm your flight home at that time as well. There has to be some deadline that the airline has for changing flights to be earlier. Meaning that after that deadline the airline has to transport you at no extra charge when you reconfirmed and showed up for the original time but missed the flight.

 

[I_heart_Tigger]

I saw you're from Canada which means if your original flight was for 5:30 you should have been at the airport at 3:30 because it is considered an international flight. The last 2 times I took Magical Express I got to the airport 3 hours early! (I would have liked to have slept in but they chose the pickup time and who am I to argue)

I think a pickup time of 2:50 was still cutting it close to be there at the proper time especially with other pickups scheduled but a lot of people don't consider it to be an international flight.

In the future give yourself at least 3.5 hours from the time your ME pickup is scheduled to the time your flight leaves and if they are scheduling it later than that ask for an earlier time or make alternate arrangements.

 

[abug'saunt]

To OP: sorry about your troubles. Glad to hear that it all worked out in the end.

We have used DME twice. Never had any problems (knocking on wood)with them. Although, last time we did spend an extra hour at the airport. But it was weather related, thunder storms and a major downpour. The good news was that we were able to eat dinner before we flew out. And the layover we were dreading never happened.

 

[seashoreCM]

I saw you're from Canada ...

The normal 3 hours in advance of your flight home is not meant to allow for going through customs in Orlando.

You can always arrange (at least a day in advance) your DME bus back to the airport to be earlier than the normal 3 hours in advance for domestic and 4 hours in advance for international.

 

[Gucci65]

Did you happen to read that he found out about the flight change when got to the airport around 4pm?? And that the change happened at 9am - when he would still been at the resort???

 

[RobnRachal]

Happy to hear they made restitution! All the hassles aside, how was your trip?

 

[geubux]

You say you're a student? Guess you learned a lesson. It's only when it costs you that you learn.

I'd say you cut it awful close getting to the airport for your regular flight. You have to figure at LEAST an hour to get there by bus, extra 30-45 minutes because of all the idiot tourists who rented a car and then had a fender bender in front of you, another 1 to 1.5 hours to get through security.

Yeah, you goofed up. And yet, disney bought you food. Now, if only they had made you take your smart pills.......

BTW, the Title should be changed from, "We got screwed by ME" to "We're idiots and yet we got fed for FREE!":wave:

 

[Disneykidder]

I agree, Disney should reimburse you for your troubles. I'm surprised by this.

 

[EpcotGrl]

You say you're a student? Guess you learned a lesson. It's only when it costs you that you learn.

I'd say you cut it awful close getting to the airport for your regular flight. You have to figure at LEAST an hour to get there by bus, extra 30-45 minutes because of all the idiot tourists who rented a car and then had a fender bender in front of you, another 1 to 1.5 hours to get through security.

Yeah, you goofed up. And yet, disney bought you food. Now, if only they had made you take your smart pills.......

BTW, the Title should be changed from, "We got screwed by ME" to "We're idiots and yet we got fed for FREE!":wave:

Well this is needlessly harsh...the OP didn't schedule the time ME was supposed to pick him up; ME tells YOU when they'll pick you up. Yes, there was an airline mess-up, but it still wasn't his fault that ME told him they'd pick him up at X time--OR that they ended up leaving far later than that.

I don't think he got screwed by ME (rather, there was a lot of coincidental screwing :lol, but it's hardly all his fault.

 

[Gucci65]

Well this is needlessly harsh...the OP didn't schedule the time ME was supposed to pick him up; ME tells YOU when they'll pick you up. Yes, there was an airline mess-up, but it still wasn't his fault that ME told him they'd pick him up at X time--OR that they ended up leaving far later than that.

I don't think he got screwed by ME (rather, there was a lot of coincidental screwing :lol, but it's hardly all his fault.

I agree!

How many more people will skim over the posts in this thread and then write something nasty without bothering to really read ALL the details.:hammer:

 

[Master Yoda]

Well this is needlessly harsh...the OP didn't schedule the time ME was supposed to pick him up; ME tells YOU when they'll pick you up. Yes, there was an airline mess-up, but it still wasn't his fault that ME told him they'd pick him up at X time--OR that they ended up leaving far later than that.

I don't think he got screwed by ME (rather, there was a lot of coincidental screwing :lol, but it's hardly all his fault.

I agree!

How many more people will skim over the posts in this thread and then write something nasty without bothering to really read ALL the details.:hammer:

Actually if you read all the posts you will find that it was in fact his airline that made the mistake by rescheduling his flight. Had his flight left at the originally scheduled time he would have been fine. That little detail was left out of the OP and was revealed in post 10

our flight was at 5:35.

pickup was 2:50

flight at 9 am was moved to 4:40

because of special needs left at 3:25.

made two stop overs

 

[sittle]

...many more people will skim over the posts in this thread and then write something nasty without bothering to really read ALL the details.:hammer:

.... or how many people will respond to a situation which took place close to 5 MONTHS ago...

Fyi... The original post date was January.... :hammer:

 

[Wilt Dasney]

I'd say you cut it awful close getting to the airport for your regular flight. You have to figure at LEAST an hour to get there by bus, extra 30-45 minutes because of all the idiot tourists who rented a car and then had a fender bender in front of you, another 1 to 1.5 hours to get through security.

The original flight was 2 hours and 45 minutes from pickup time, right in the middle of your window (2:30-3:15).

 

[Disneylover1302]

Well just to say this since we are talking trash(kinda) of DME. Well for us we got to the Hotel at like 7pm. Instead of it coming like when it was supposed to come(our luggage)We got it at like Midnight or later! They told us oh it will be here by 10pm! Well they were wrong big time!