Originally posted by essxjay:
You are certainly entitled to your feelings, but I don't see any mishandling on UA's part here. Perhaps it's a half-full/half-empty glass viewpoint.
Having your baggage put on an earlier flight - regardless of when your original flight was - is common practice with US carriers, for precisely the reason that you were happy it arrived before you did.
Secondarily, there's no difference in terms of security when you bag arrives ... once you've checked it, you've checked it. There's very little risk in putting it on an earlier flight at this point.
But if your concern is about your baggage circling the claim area 40 minutes ahead of you, I suppose I can see your point. Still, I think the risk is small.
If I were you, I'd be plum tickled at not having to wait around to fetch my luggage.
Do you really want bags that were not scheduled to be on your flight to be on your plane? This is some of the premise of the PPBM, in the US it is common practice to put bags on any flight. Maybe one of the European members can comment on how the European airlines handle the EC flights. I know that when I was on a delayed LH flight from Duesseldorf to Milano Malpensa, we had to wait 10 minutes so that they could find a bag since the passagener had not boarded. Once they found the bag, they did decide to join us.
However, does the earlier flight always get to the destination before you? The answer to that is NO.