Originally Posted by
s0ssos
But I guess that is true of life in general.
I made it off my flight into New York (from Europe), made it through immigration quickly due to Global Entry, and then waited for my bag.
And waited, and waited. I thought about how priority tagged bags always come last.
Then I started wondering if they had lost my bag. But finally it came.
Baggage handlers may not be hired directly by the airline, but they sure matter to the tired, grumpy passenger at the end of a daytime trans-Atlantic flight.
Same thing with plane cleaners, security agents at the airport.
I know the airlines say it is out of their control, but it really affects their product.
I occasionally have this problem with UA arriving in SFO from Asia. Never had the problem until UA dropped BKK and now it's ANA connecting in NRT. What sometimes happens is that when ANA is passing luggage to UA they are getting the priority bags into the correct containers. At SFO all the luggage handlers can do is to unload the containers in the theoretical correct order.
Bottom line, if there's a problem it wasn't the handlers at the arrival airport that caused the problem. It's the handlers at the airport that last loaded luggage onto your plane.