Originally Posted by
GVcruiser
I have two separate PNRs for AA flight from MSP to ORD (economy) and then ORD to Prague on British Air (first class). Rather than taking BA airside bus between terminals 3 and 5, it worth going landside and claiming bags at ORD and then checking in at BA counter to get first class luggage tags? I don't know what benefits they bring?
They should get out of the plane and onto the carousel first. If you, however, have a connecting itinerary (you will have another connection at LHR), they're mostly worthless. In fact, I just did DCA-ORD-LHR-BUD two days ago. My two bags were tagged all the way at DCA and had proper priority tags. One of them arrived among the second half of bags in BUD, along with some other bags with priority tags. My second bag is still somewhere between ORD and BUD, probably proudly sporting its priority tag...
The airside bus is really convenient at ORD, I would never go landside to get priority tags. OTOH, if you want to be more confident in that your checked bag indeed follows you, short-checking is always an option to increase your chances.
(BTW, as Royce has already pointed out, you'll most probably get your priority tags from AA if your show them your connecting itin.)