My experience has been that on domestic flights and connecting international flights the priority stickers dont mean anything. My impression is that your bags get priority onto the plane, and thus buried under everything else .

I have on some rare ocassions when I check including international seen bags appear very rapidly particularly in MSP. Earlier this year I had a box where I was able to secure some extra priority stickers and completly covered the box. It worked, even after inter-line connections through SYD, SIN, and NRT. It was one of the first items off of the belt .

Regarding having someone meet you at the gate, this spring I had a flight from GRU to IAH and the agent meet me in the jetway to present credentials for CO presidents club, shower facilties, etc.