After many months without checking bags, I finally had occasion to do so on a recent flight. As I approached the claim area at PIT, I realized that I had made a mistake. There were well over 200 people surrounding the single UA carousel, which was not moving. By the time I got out of there I had seen the UA bag office ladies get cussed out at least half dozen times, police called, and pax in tears. Pax on ex-SFO, -IAD, and -DEN flights at the end of the day all waited in excess of one hour for bags to start appearing down the chute. I was lucky: My bag showed up exactly 65 minutes after arrival. I saw some ex-IAD folks who had waited 80+ minutes.

So were we collectively overreacting, or is it reasonable to wait over an hour for bags at an airport like PIT?