Priority baggage tags, do the handlers deliberately ignore them?

This is going to come out all DYKWIA but....I got back from NRT yesterday afternoon, landed 10 minutes early, got to the gate quickly, straight onto the train to T5A, sailed through passport control, then waited for my luggage for 40 minutes.

Now I know that LHR is pretty terrible at luggage delivery at the best of times but on this occasion it was particularly ludicrous. While everyone else's luggage had been delivered there was a hardy bunch of us left waiting at the end for an extra 10 minutes.

Who was this hardy band? Well it was the entire club cabin.

So my questions are:
1. Is there actually any point in priority baggage flying into BA's home base?
2. Are the baggage handlers intentionally or accidentally useless at LHR?

There are no known previous instances of the British working class deliberately using passive aggressive tactics to take out their frustrations on those they see as snobs, so I would say, no, they are likely not doing his.

Cheers.

Coming into LHR I always ask for no priority tags to be attached to my bag - its my own pet theory!

I can imagine that the baggage systems at LHR are automated enough that human involvement (at this end) doesn't have much to do with it, unless those actually unloading the containers want to make their life more difficult by deliberately holding back bags from entering the baggage system.

It seems most likely that the bags were loaded at NRT in a way that the container containing the priority baggage from the club cabin was put in first and therefore was the last one to come out.

I have had a similar experience on a number of occasions. Traveling CW but tagged as F. Very annoying. Took 7 flights last week on CX and Virgin Australia, bag was first off every time so it is possible...

I don't personally believe it is any wilful act by staff, rather the situation that some priority passengers get to the airport early and use a lounge / shower / shop and so your bag gets checked in earlier than the minimum time which unfortunately has knock on consequences. Ergo some priority baggage gets loaded first on the plane deep in the hold (on BA) and is therefore last out when it arrives at LHR.

Ideally the baggage would separated such that Club and First are in one area and the rest in another so that this jigsaw puzzle of containers wouldn't happen.

I believe this is what people say happens with other airlines but doesn't with BA so that is why it can happen that First/Club passengers are last to get their bags (if they indeed do get separated and are not just thrown together in any old container based on when you checked in.

Due to the tardy delivery of checked bags at LHR (or indeed some outstations) I personally only take carry on and exploit the 2 bag rule on BA. (one for my electronic bits and laptop/book and the other for clothes.)

If BA could get the checked baggage right I think it would truly get rid of the knock on issues many people complain about on here (late departure due to overhead bins full due to too many carry on bags).

I don't enjoy carrying around my two bags in the airport but I do enjoy walking straight out the airport at the other end while the other poor sods wait 40 minutes to an hour for their bags.

I'm sure it's not malicious and just genenral incompetence, by the sounds of it BA probably don't do anything special to the bags and just hope they turn up first by blind luck. I usually avoid checking bags but this trip was a bit longer and I had to take a suit. I would complain to BA but I know I would just get a marketing boilerplate in reply so it's not worth my effort.

Plenty of airlines can manage it at Heathrow - VS, UA, AA and CX amongst others.

I personally think the issue is a lack of focus from BA. There probably isn't a priority baggage delivery metric so no-one is really that bothered.

They changed the tag color to yellow, didn't they?

Mine started coming quickly, before it used to be last if not next to last. And at times they didn't show up. So, now first thing that I do is go and ask if they made it on my flight..

I thought the yellow ones were for first only?

In all my years of travelling both s/h and l/h I have always had to wait for my bags, irrespective of airline, airport, status, which cabin, number of brightly coloured tags, etc.

Only good news is that (touch wood) I have never had a bag go completely AWOL and never got it back.

Oh, and what are the other colors? And when did they change them? But then I rarely notice the tags.

They are kinda luminous orange for everyone not flying first (Club, gch sch) at least I think that's the case, certainly those are the only ones I have seen. The yellow ones are pretty new I think as I flew F earlier in the year and still got the orange tags.

I flew last month, and noticed the yellow tag when I got home but didn't notice the class.

Wonder if the bright color is for the handlers to notice the bags.

The yellow First tags started to appear a few months or so ago.