Made a couple of recent trips with checked baggage and noticed that Delta has gone to a full self baggage checkin mode. In the past one would check in and note bags and a gate agent would print out and place the tag on the baggage. Now in SLC the tags are printed and the PAX places them on the bag and one drops them off to the agent. At LAX it is fully self service and the person there only assists, to the point of refusing to help in any way other than to tell you if you need more help to go to the counter. Now in my case when traveling my bags are at or near the weight limit, sometimes a pound or two over. So an agent always tags them as heavy.

In SLC as I had to drop them off to the agent at a desk so I asked them to place the tags on the bags and noted if the tags were not on "correctly" that is was Delta's responsibility not mine. The agent fully understood (see bailment for more details). At LAX the agent flat out refused to assist in any manner*. To the point that normally, an agent will put a secondary "tag" directly on the bag. When I asked about it the unassistant said if needed it would be put on at the ramp. Which really made no sense cause I thought the purpose was a backup.

Oddly the unassistant did realize that my tag should be "priority" and then wanted assist me by putting the yellow tag on once I removed the backing. I refused and said they didn't work so don't bother. After all that as the bags were just over the weight limit so another person had to override the system to allow my bag through. All-in-all I was not impressed, as a long time traveler I know what should be done to tag my bags to the point that tags are placed in a particular handle so to have then best chance of survival. But that is not the case for most. In the future I will just go to the counter.

Regarding the "priority" in deed they did not make any difference. One bag arrived promptly, the other not so promptly. QED

And I am now a full believer in air tags. At LAX it took a long time for our bags to arrive. When the second had not arrived I notice the last ping for the bag was still at the plane's location not near baggage. I saw an airline rep who said one more cart was arriving. I said are you sure as my air tag showed the bags still at the plane and showed them the location. They quickly checked. Note: this was not Delta but with Fiji Airlines as we did the infamous separate tickets.