canuk

As *elite, I should expect my luggage to come "faster:.

What should I expect ? with most US carriers it is under 20 min MAX.

At YYZ, elite bags come after connecting luggage and can take 40-60mins to arrive from gate time.

Guy Betsy

Most bags come off the line approx 30 minutes after your flight lands - and sometimes even longer if you're on a STAR alliance partner at TERMINAL 1.

I think most T1 lugguage handlers are color-blind especially to the ORANGE priority tags and the PINK Fragile stickers that one puts on items which require special handling!

AC baggage rep no where to be seen during that time. T1 is really a disgrace to the modern aviation world. When are they going to tear it down again?

[This message has been edited by Guy Betsy (edited 08-31-2002).]

Shareholder

Can't remember how many times I have waited at Detroit airport for NW to deliver my bags within a half hour. US carriers are no better on bag delivery than is AC at YYZ or any other terminal.

While we should be able to get our bags within a reasonable amount of time, and yes, Priority labelled bags should come down first, and too often don't, there can be a number of reasons for this not happening, particularly if a number of flights arrive within minutes of one another.

Last week I waited about 20-minutes for bags to arrive, and the Priority tagged ones did come off first. And mine happened to the be first one down. At other times, I have had to wait considerably longer, in part becase my bags had connected onto the flight from another, and thus they were not among the Priority bags originally loaded and first offloaded.

Perhaps you can be more specific about which terminal and what time of day this occured? How many other flights had arrived at the same time, and what gate did the flight arrive at?

Crampedin13A

I had the same thing happen to me at YYZ T1 on Aug.13. I was on the flight from LHR arriving at 23:59 so there were no other flights arriving at that time. Cleared immigration in 5 minutes and got to the carousel. The belt started about 10 minutes after that and 5 minutes later 2 bags came down. We then watched these bags go around for another 5 minutes until more bags started to arrive. I'd reckon that 75% of these bags had connected off an Emirates flight and consisted of large cardboard boxes and oversized cases. These went round for about 15 minutes until the Priority bags finally arrived about 45 minutes after we landed. Personally I doubt AC had enough unloaders for this flight and I feel sorry for anyone who had to unload that many huge cases if they were shortstaffed.

ACDUDE

The problem with baggage in T1 is that the corridor behind the baggage belts is so small that it's almost impossible to offload more then 1 flight at a time. There is no space for more than one tractor with 6-7 carts of bags to pull in and start offloading. I went in there once and all the bags were already sitting there but the agents had to wait in line to offload them. So many flights come in same time between 1500-1800 in T1 and the bags could take up to 1 hour to get to the carousel.

As far as I know there is always at least one can reserved for priority baggage and that can should be first to come of the plane. Problems could always develop along the way...

Shareholder

When AC first moved back into T1, they tried delivering Priority bags on that second belt, but didn't bother to inform people of this fact. It meant they waited at the regular flight-designated belt, not noticing their bags had already been delivered a few yeards away. AC quickly abandoned this approach, and Priority bags are now sent down the same belt as all other bags from a given flight.

exAC

There is part of the problem and it occurs at a number of other stations too [like YYC, YVR, YEG]. They wait at the aircraft until all of the bags are together and then take them in. Bags should come off in "waves" of one or two carts/cans at a time.

RampPilot

A nice thought, but not going to happen. On a standard ramp crew of four people, you need all four at the aircraft to get it unloaded in a timely fashion. Two guys at the front and two at the back--one inside and one outside at each end. If you send one guy off to run bags, you can only unload half the aircraft at a time, and you have more people than you need to do it. AC tried to implement the strategy of running the bags in in waves in YYC, but it simply wasnt possible.

A couple skeds ago they tried using specific "inbound runners" whose only job was to run bags in from flights, however with only two on per shift and with one tractor between the two of them, they made little or no difference.

Concerning the P-bags, I agree it is terrible that they sometimes are the last ones to come off the belt. Many times they are sent in the improper can, or are buried under regular bags. The big problem is that once again, if we run them in early we leave the rest of the flight to suffer. AC used to have a "Priority Runner", usually one guy per shift who would meet any incoming flights with P-bags and run them in as soon as they came off the flight. Brilliant! Problem was that when they needed to make a couple trims in manpower at sked-change one of the first spots to go was P-runner. The company's reasoning? "We werent making our commitment to our Priority tagged baggage, so we are no longer going to try"


Edited because my spelling sucks.


[This message has been edited by RampPilot (edited 09-01-2002).]

Cloud Lounger

a real pity

Ken hAAmer

Thanks RampPilot! And if no one else has, let me welcome you to FT.

FlyerGoldII

If AC can not/does not plan to keep its commitment to deliver priority tagged luggage to the belts first, why not discard priority tags completely (ie what is the rationale of using priority tags, if the luggage with such tags can not always come onto the belts, first)?

Shareholder

Because everyone would complain AC is taking another benefit away from us...

ALW

It's like, why do the American carriers call their domestic front cabin "First Class" when it's no different than AC's "Business Class"? And if proof of this were needed, AA renamed all the transborder flights to "Business Class" a couple of years ago without making any changes to the service.

andrew

LondonElite

I've found that with AC (esp term 1 at YYZ) the way to ensure that you are the last person to leve the terminal is to request flourescent priority tags. Be a first time flyer who checks in 7 hours before your flight leaves and they're sure to be the first ones off the ramp

[This message has been edited by LondonElite (edited 09-03-2002).]