On flights served by widebody jets, international or not, the luggage is containerized and priority luggage is given it's own container(s), which is loaded last. Like RC said, on domestic narrowbody flights the luggage is all mingled. Unless the ramp agents go out of their way to load the priority luggage last, into the same bin, it won't come out first.

As for your experience, it sounds like your luggage found its way into a MC container.

What I'm most curious about is the meet and assist service at NRT. The one time this happened to me was during irregular operations out of MNL. I'd volunteered my op-upgraded seat the previous day, and when I got to the airport the next day, the NW flight was cancelled. NW actually FIM'd me onto EgyptAir MNL-NRT (in C, they felt bad) since their flight was cancelled. When we deplaned onto the tarmac at a remote park in NRT, an NW agent had a sign with my name on it. She led me to a waiting van, where she had a WBC boarding pass for me (op-upgraded), and drove directly to the NRT-SFO aircraft which was being held while they waited for me. I got some dirty looks to be sure, but I sure felt like a million bucks. VIP treatment for me... :-)

[This message has been edited by lopez151 (edited 09-02-2003).]