I've had a fantastic set of experiences in some 5 years of Star Gold so far, regarding priority baggage. It might be because I tend to fly on 747s on "quality" airlines mostly (think ANA and Singapore Airlines), but without exaggeration I can count with one hand the number of times that my bag wasn't in the first "lot" which were unloaded from a flight. Those times that the bag wasn't swift in being sent down the belt, I would normally find that somehow the priority tag has made its way off the bag for one reason or the other.

In fact, at places like LHR the bags are more often than not already waiting for me on the carousel. Especially when ANA insists on putting the "First Class" tags on my bags, as a Star Gold member. Even LH managed to deliver my bags in the first lot both ways back last December.

Having said that, I have never set foot on the NA region since becoming Star Gold so can't offer my experiences from that region. Certainly between Europe and Asia, my experience has been overwhelmingly positive.