In my recent experience as a 1P who has upgraded to business class, most of the time the priority tag has seemed to help get my bags out with the first 20-30 bags, and it seemed that most of those bags were priority marked. This was with LAX, IAD, PHL.

A recent trip ORD-SNA had all the bags delayed to 25 minutes after gate arrival and my bag came out at the end of the bunch. It was a late night flight so maybe the ground crew just wasn't as sharp as could be.

Yesterday flew LAX-IAD (which also had continuation onto AMS) on UA946. We arrived 20 minutes early at D concourse. My ride wasn't for another hour based on the original arrival time so I took my time and sat dealing with some email correspondence. By the time I arrived at the baggage carousel, it was almost 40 minutes after landing. The bags were still not there and there were at least 3 flights scheduled to unload at the carousel. Most of the 946 passengers were there. After awhile I inquired with a baggage CSA there and she indicated the bags were still coming, and mine were just scanned off the plane at literally 60 minutes after landing, 50 minutes after gate arrival.

On getting back to the carousel, a child and her mom were wondering out loud why the bags were taking so long. Imagine my surprise when my bags popped out within the first 5 bags off. As I retrieved them, I mentioned that maybe the delay was because baggage people had to sort the bags coming off by the priority tags and pull/reload bags bound to AMS.

Maybe an anomaly for sure to be this late. But stuff happens and 300+ bags probably every 10 minutes is tough to work with. I'm always glad to get my bags when I do check them, and that's what counts.

So for me, UA is 97% on target with my bags in the last 5 years, and when they did misplace the bags, they were delivered within 4-6 hours depending on next flights.

YMMV.