YLWflyer

How can this be a "perk" when buying J or as an Elite Member when it seems like its rarely actually executed. It seems more often the baggage comes out on the carousel in whatever order the handlers decide. I asked a friendly AC employee yesterday how come the priority bags were not coming out first and her response was that the baggage wasn't labeled correctly when loaded.
Does anyone else notice or find this frustrating? or is time AC changes there slogan to "we are not happy, till you are not happy!"

Fiordland

I think it depends on the aircraft and airport.

Most of the narrow-body aircraft don't have cargo containers. For these it is loaded last onto the aircraft so it is usually the first off.

In the case of the wide-body and the A321 the containers with connecting bags and the ones coded as business etc. go into separate containers from everything else.

My one negative experience with priority baggage coming out last was on US Airways, flying business class into Rome several years ago. Most of us in business class had to wait an extra hour for their baggage. Yes an hour. Turns out the container was stuck and the ground crew were able to open all the other cans but not that one. (Likely one of two Italian baggage handler smoke breaks tossed in for good measure, not certain)..

After that I don't complain about the order on the conveyer belt. It is usually in the first 1/3 of bags on the belt. If there are a few non-tagged bags that is fine by me.

I also think it is a function of the bar code ids not the bright red priority tag. Some of thouse non-priority tagged bags you see coming off may in face be priority bags.

canopus27

You'll notice that the bags are not labeled as "High Priority" ... they just have a priority.

It's like when you have a shower, and the frequent flyers are promised that the water will have a temperature.

YLWflyer

This reminds me of landing in YVR on AC34 and waiting close to an hour to get bags as the Priority ones were all the last off. This caused a few of us to miss our domestic connections.
The bags being in the first third off is acceptable, the last is the part that frustrates me...

RoutingWonk

I’ve found that priority baggage is much more likely to come off first in outstations rather than yyz/yul/yvr. I’m flying on peak holidays more often than not and the priority that’s made the difference to me is at the baggage desk. The dirty looks I got when bypassing a 2 hour line at 8 pm on the last day of Winter break made me embarrassingly happy. I got home before midnight.

jc94

Priority baggage is a priority to you. Not to AC.

That said, I haven’t had major issues with it appearing late recently (can’t recall an instance in 2 years where it wasn’t in the first batch). But then neither I flown with it that often either, it’s not an E35 perk so it’s only when I’m in PY or J.

canopus27

LOL. Just like Rouge is a low cost carrier .... but it's low cost for AC, not you.

Stranger

Actually, lately we have had positive experiences. At YYC, priority always comes way earlier nowadays. LHR is usually pretty good. Even at YYZ it has improved.

KenHamer

Sounds like nothing has changed.

As someone who used to fly that route 6-8 times a year 1+ hour waits were typical. But as yvr was home for me it was more of an annoyance than a problem.

CZAMFlyer

To be fair, lots has changed in the years since you frequented that route. AC 34 generally docks at Gate 50, 51 or 52 and the inbound baggage belt sits literally across the head-of-stand road about 60 feet in front of the airplane's nose. The bag system itself has been drastically improved and speeds increased as YVR focuses on serving as a primary international --> US hub. It just won't do to have clunky baggage conveyors. Where the lack of change may rest is with the motivation and speed of the AC handlers themselves.

Perhaps what we need is a system like the ones in more advanced countries like, er, Ethiopia. Star Gold priority bags in ADD have a separate carousel, and it starts to rumble into life well before the other carousels that serve the remaining plebes on the same flight.



#1 Carousel in ADD is dedicated solely to priority tagged bags.





And here it comes...my lonely bag, about 5 minutes after the engines stopped, and before anybody else's are in view. I didn't wait to time how long it took theirs to appear.

Adam Smith

Yes, priority baggage is inconsistent, which is frustrating.

I've had bad experiences on plenty of other airlines on this front though, including UA, so I don't know that anyone does a great job.

karachi

priority luggage has come out very quickly for me almost all of the time. out of maybe 15 times that I checked luggage last year, the priority bags arrived within 10 mins 13 times. once they took 45 mins, in other countries, they've arrived quickly 100% of the time, esp in Asia Pac.

worldtraveller73

I haven't seen much benefit to this feature; other than a shiny orange tag that makes you feel semi important. I've experienced it first maybe less than 50% when I have checked a bag.

songsc

So this is how it's supposed to work. Priority bags should be loaded last so that they will be the first ones to unload. In reality this may not be feasible due to following reasons:
1. Late checked-in/transferred bags. Those bags will be loaded last, so they will come out before priority bags. That's why you occasionally see one or two regular bags coming out before priority ones.
2. Weight and balancing issue. Some aircrafts have two cargo holds, and the bags/containers must be unloaded in a certain sequence to prevent the aircraft from becoming a seesaw. For this reason regular bags can be unloaded before priority ones.
3. Aircraft swap. I once had a AC767 went MX, and we got rebooked onto a 777 with our bags. The bags came out in the completely reverse order, priority bags were the last to hit the bell.
4. Incompetent staff. I once saw a discussion on FB, some baggage handlers said they like to play the RCHHMP by removing priority tags from "non-priority" bags. By their accounts only J bags qualified for priority bags. So now you know why sometimes the priority tag disappears and your bag came out last. Happened to me once when I was doing a J to PY flight.

And I agree that priority bags seem to work much better in some "advanced" countries than advanced countries. Perhaps we should think about what are really so advanced about advanced countries.

Transpacificflyer

My recent flight to YVR had the bag on the carousel at midpoint with other priority tagged bags. That was a mid day flight. I find that delivery times reflect day of the week, holidays and time. For example, late night flights to YUL there is no such thing as priority. YUL probably has one of the worst baggage delivery times in Canada. Holidays and weekends at YYZ , I can wait 30 minutes or so after clearing customs on Int'l lights. and the priority bags will come out in no particular order.

Would the bags come out any differently in Asia Pacific? Japan is the land of on time delivery. Never a problem at Hong Kong and pretty good at Taipei, but then the baggage handling is by non Air Canada personnel. I find it amazing that EVA has my bags waiting for me at the carousel in YYZ, while I can wait, and wait and wait on AC.

+1