Originally Posted by
nikleb
Most of the time when I travel (for business) I have no luggage checked. However, every so often I have do so for vacation or longer international trips. What is striking to me is how the wait at ORD's baggage claim is consistently longer than at any other airport (domestic or international).
I have to assume that United negotiated some kind of service level agreement with the airport. Does anyone know what this is and what United finds acceptable?
In most cases in the US* where UA staff is handling flights (and especially in hubs like ORD) UA leases facilities -- including baggage claim areas/make up areas/etc -- from the airport on an "exclusive" or "preferential" basis. (I believe all of UA's ORD facilities are "exclusive" but I haven't found the lease yet...) -- so since it's United employees using United facilities there's no external SLA, but I'd hope there's an internal metric but of course meeting that metric is dependent on staffing levels, etc. (at, I think, EWR I noticed the rampside gate displays "encouraging" all bags to be off within 20 minutes of arrival).
*Edited/added because this is certainly not the case in many international destinations...
If you're terminating at a hub, in general, it seems like the waits are a bit longer, I've always tried to rationalize that as the majority of bags at a hub are connecting and given more preferential/time sensitive treatment then terminating bags which get dumped last... But that's just my thinking...