Originally Posted by
dinbangkok
I was surprised to hear her reply, "Oh really? I don't think they make much difference to be honest." ...
I must say that I was quite surprised to hear this from a BA check in agent, has anyone else heard this before or agree with what she said?
A couple of weeks back, we inadvertently gave this an anecdotal test. We were
flying in F and checked-in at the First desks, but separately.
When I checked-in, the agent didn't put a priority tag on at all. On the strength of what has frequently been said about T5 baggage and our own experience, I said nothing about this so the bag went off without one.
When my companion checked in, a yellow First priority tag was attached.
At JNB, our bags were both within the first dozen off. I think my bag beat my companion's by two.
It does occur to me that there may be an explanation for some of the occasions when priority-tagged bags come off after many bags without priority tags: perhaps the untagged bags are actually priority bags that have been properly recognised by the system even without a tag?
But if the bag is later to be handled by airports and airlines where visual sighting of the tag is necessary for manual sorting, then I can see why a priority tag may well be important.