daftboy

Just to add that on the occasion I check a bag on shorthaul on BA (not very frequently) more often than not a priority tag will be added to the bag, whether from LHR T5 or from an outstation (typically DUB or BHD). Doesn’t make a blind bit of difference of course, and the bag will come out at some random point, usually towards the middle/end.

Phil the Flyer

superweak

I hadn't appreciated that BA are specifically excluded from the oneworld baggage priority policy - explains why BA always manage to anti-prioritize my baggage, while even with a BA->AA connection, AA manages to get my suitcase out first...

cgtechuk

Allegedly this is due to a limitation at Heathrow but I have my doubts

HIDDY

Is it an advertised benefit even when travelling CW or F?

dinbangkok

Wow, yes you're right. Now that I've looked at the Oneworld website more closely, it does indeed indicate with an asterisk that British Airways is the only Oneworld airline that doesn't participate in the priority baggage scheme for frequent flyers. I'd grown used to it as a benefit on all other airlines I fly on. Mea culpa! To be honest it was my first ever long haul flight on BA economy (always been CW), to get my 4 qualifying flights to retain silver so I'd wrongly assumed it was a benefit. 95% of my flying is currently with CX, SQ & TG, which based on the last 4 BA flights I took, appear to offer a superior product in Y & C IMHO, take good care of frequent flyers (TG personally greets all its status flyers if they're flying in the back and offers them first choice and serving of the in-flight catering), and of course offer priority baggage... which actually works. Fingers crossed that BA manages to pick itself up especially after the recent IT mishap.

I should add that when I arrived at my final destination (CGK), lo and behold and as expected, my bags were in the first few that came off the flight... but then it was operated by CX with a BA flight number!

LCSinTexas

I don't know, with one exception my bags are among the first on the belt in both DFW and CPH. This has been the case since early 2014 to present, traveling mostly F or J. Maybe these airports do something unusual?
Either way, I appreciate it because in CPH it can mean the difference of making the train home or waiting an hour for the next one.

RobDBA

Actually in reality, yes you do - every single time I check in as a gold I get tags and I very rarely fly higher than WT. So priority handling may not be a benefit (and I can confirm it isn't - my bags come out in the first minute or two about 1 in 10 times) - but the priority tag itself is standard practice!

mmxbreaks

On my flight from LHR to LAX last week my bag, checked with a priority tag, was literally the last to appear on the carousel. It took 40 minutes to arrive. I assumed it was lost (thankfully it wasn't!). Sometimes they're useful, sometimes they're not.

sammyg901

Reminds me of a time flying back from BWI in WT+ and I ignored the bag going around on the belt with about 3 priority tags and stickers, then eventually realised it was mine. The agent obviously decided my bag could have an upgrade even if I couldn't

m3red

If emirates can do priority tags well why can't BA? My first tagged bags come off first nearly all of the time.

Paralytic

£££s

Internaut

I get told a lot of things. Then there's what I experience. Based on that experience, you are definitely right about Asia!

Globaliser

A couple of weeks back, we inadvertently gave this an anecdotal test. We were
flying in F and checked-in at the First desks, but separately.

When I checked-in, the agent didn't put a priority tag on at all. On the strength of what has frequently been said about T5 baggage and our own experience, I said nothing about this so the bag went off without one.

When my companion checked in, a yellow First priority tag was attached.

At JNB, our bags were both within the first dozen off. I think my bag beat my companion's by two.

It does occur to me that there may be an explanation for some of the occasions when priority-tagged bags come off after many bags without priority tags: perhaps the untagged bags are actually priority bags that have been properly recognised by the system even without a tag?

But if the bag is later to be handled by airports and airlines where visual sighting of the tag is necessary for manual sorting, then I can see why a priority tag may well be important.

corporate-wage-slave

That's certainly how LHR and larger airports work: if you see a bag without a tag, it may well be a priority on the barcode, so indeed any external tag will make no difference one way or the other. So to go back to the OP, the agent was spot on.

The recent ITV programme shows how this works: the bags go off from check-in down several hundred metres of computerised beltways, which go over the top of every AKE bin that will be loaded into the aircrafts. Over each bin is a barcode reader. When the barcode and AKE bin are matched, the bag gets tipped off the belt, down a funnel and into the AKE. The filled up AKE is then wheeled into place on the aircraft. Different AKE container = different priorities. When they get to the destination airport, the AKE bin should (but isn't always) offloaded in the priority order, all the contents of that container - tagged or otherwise - end up on the belt. Sometimes at the arrival airport a second AKE arrives for offloading, and the process may mean the first bags off that AKE overtake the last bag off their earlier AKE.



And so, as we so often say on FT, priority tags are only added to make it easier for staff to do something useless when passengers demand priority tags. Barcode is everything.

At some smaller airports, with entirely manual processes (and Asia would be rich in these examples) the staff will clamber around the bags - which won't be in AKE containers - and fish out the tags. Alternatively pre-sort the bags down in the base station before putting them onto the belt (PH airports do this) Overall this is slower for all concerned, but is guaranteed to keep Priority tagged passengers happy.