Priority bagagge handling is a good indicator if all is well with the labour relations at a particular airport. Unfortunately it rely's upon every airport along your itinerary to be working well in order to get the P bags out first.

At the acceptance point the system needs that station to segregate the luggage properly and notify the downline station exactly where it has been loaded [in the doorway or first container]. At the retrieval station you need the dedication of the ramp crew to dispatch that load of P bags from the aircraft immeadiately without waitinf for any other bags. The connecting station must do both parts properly.

As soon as the employees start to become disenchanted with either local management or the guy at the top ofthe airline, this process is lost. My experience allows me to watch the baggage retrieval and determine how labour relations are going.

In some cases the system breaks down because of resource limitations, such as not enough manpower to retrieve the P bags seperately or as in YYZ the baggage make-up space is limited and dedicating a seperate container for P becomes difficult.

It is impossible to miss the star Priority tag as the baggage tag must be read by the individual in order to sort the luggage and the P tag is stuck right in with the destination code.

If your priority bag is mishandled generally look way up the food chain to the top of the airline to find the problem. It is one of the first things to go when trouble is brewing.