I have always had mixed luck with these tags. Sometimes my bag comes early and othertimes its one of the last off the plane. Usually all bets are off if I have a conection.

I did hear a news story the other day that UA was considering selling priority bag handling to non-elites. Not sure if that would have any impact on the process. I know if I actually paid extra for these tags, I would expect my bag to be among the first. Seems risky to me to sell something you cannot deliver.