Luggage service saves time, not money

By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff, 09/29/02

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Richard Altomare is a dreamer.

The chief executive officer of New York-based Universal Express dreams of a day when most airline passengers will fly baggage-free, shedding the weight and worries associated with carting luggage to the airport.

Altomare thinks Virtual Bellhop can make his dream come true. Virtual Bellhop is a Chicago-based subsidiary of Universal Express that transports luggage from a traveler's home or business to his ultimate destination so the traveler doesn't have to.

"Other shipping companies move boxes, but we continue to think outside them," Altomare said.

I tried Virtual Bellhop on a recent round-trip flight to St. Louis from Boston and found it surprisingly liberating. I felt like I was as if I were traveling in the fast lane, avoiding many of the hassles associated with air travel today.

My bag was picked up at work at about 6 p.m. the day before my flight. It arrived at my parents' apartment the next morning, well before I had even taken off. With no bags to check, I was able to arrive at Logan Airport at 6 p.m. and still make my 6:25 p.m. departure. I estimate I saved at least an hour by not having to check any bags in Boston and not having to wait for them at the luggage carousel in St. Louis.

Unfortunately, the cost of the service is prohibitively expensive. I paid $196.50 for my bag's round-trip ticket, which was nearly as much as I paid for my own ticket.

I could have paid about $63 less by shipping my bag two days in advance, but it still would have been costly. Prices are based on the total number of bags being shipped, their total weight, the speed of service, and distance traveled. The typical one-way charge is $50 to $100.

Virtual Bellhop services serves about 80 to 100 customers a week, making it the market leader in the fledgling luggage-delivery business. Most of the customers are people who consider their time extremely valuable, but there are situations where the service is not only convenient but cost-effective.

Most airlines, for example, charge customers a fee if they check more than two bags. The fee ranges from $40 at Delta Airlines to $80 at American. Someone traveling to Florida with two bags and a set of golf clubs would probably be better off using a service like Virtual Bellhop to transport their clubs. The cost would be comparable, and Virtual Bellhop offers the convenience of door-to-door delivery.

The excess-baggage charge may be indicative of the future, say Virtual Bellhop executives. They say airlines are desperate to cut costs and increase their revenues, and wary of the cost and potential for delays with new baggage-screening procedures due to take effect later this year. Is it much of a stretch to think airlines may in the future charge for all checked bags?

"That concept is being discussed," insisted Bill Cippola, president of Virtual Bellhop.

A spokeswoman for Delta declined comment on possible baggage charges, but noted that the airline already contracts with an outside firm to offer door-to-door pickup and delivery for customers traveling with oversized luggage and sports equipment.

Even if airlines don't start charging for checked baggage, Virtual Bellhop is trying to bring its one-way delivery prices down to a more reasonable $20 to $40 a bag. Altomare is piecing together his own delivery system, which would reduce his reliance on other delivery companies, including Federal Express, which handled my bag.

Cippola is convinced that greater volume is the key to lower prices. Virtual Bellhop already receives discounts from most major of the big freight carriers. Those discounts would increase substantially, Cippola said, if the company could deliver more customers to those carriers.

Virtual Bellhop is negotiating with at least one major big airline to make baggage delivery an amenity offered or provided to first- and business-class customers. It has also structured marketing deals with a number of partners, offering discounts to customers staying at a Fairmont hotel or using an American Express platinum corporate card.

The business is evolving and has a long way to go before the average traveler can realistically afford it, but the concept is appealing.

Door-to-door baggage service reduces stress considerably and saves the traveler time. It also is more secure, because it doesn't make much sense for a terrorist to blow up a cargo plane.a cargo plane being an improbable terrorist target.

first part of pvs graf redundant, and latter line of thought i find odd... YOU may get blown up, but your luggage will arrive safe and sound! dr

Shipping your bags separately and in advance requires some planning.; I packed my razor and my toothbrush in my carry-on bag so I'd still have them while my main bag was in transit.

Customers also need to find a safe place where their bag can be picked up and delivered. I chose my office for pickup because I wasn't going to be at home at the pickup time. The same is true for deliveries. It's easy for Virtual Bellhop to deliver to most hotels (some hotels will even put the bags in your room), but deliveries may be more problematic at a home or some other private destination.

Virtual Bellhop goes to great lengths to make the service work efficiently. They tracked my bag carefully and made several calls to make sure the pickup on both ends would work smoothly. The employee who oversees Federal Express packages here at the Globe was convinced my bag would get lost without a Federal Express label attached to it, but it was delivered without a hitch.

Virtual Bellhop says it hasn't lost a bag yet.

"It's not for everybody," Cippola said. "But I think what we're doing is creating the 21st century way of travel."

Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.