Globaliser

AIUI, at T5 the bags are automatically sorted by the baggage system machinery inside the building and routed to the correct cans. Priority bags are sent to the appropriate priority can and so on. The loaders don't have the option of sorting the bags at any stage; they just have to load them into the can that they have. That's why the yellow and orange tags don't do anything for baggage loaded at T5 - no human gets the chance to act on them.

I think that has been the common understanding here since T5 opened. If it doesn't work like that, I think we'd all like to know.

frandrake

Interesting and it does make sense, as when I checked my luggage at the self bag drop an electronic priority label is printed on the tag, thus I did guess as well that the priority info was somewhere in the barcode as well.

At outstations though, I still think coloured priority tags can be helpful.

710 77345

They are there more to provide guidance to people taking the bags out of the baggage containers, and those taking them off the baggage belts.

nldogbert

Were you flying in J-class or higher?
If this was purely based on your status, this is quite interesting as I've not seen any luggage labels printed from check-in desk both in the UK or outstations having this on the labels.

In general and reading some of the responses after my previous post, just want to add
- no, for me the coloured priority tag is not for the purpose of DYKWIA reason - if I had wanted this, I would go online and purchased maybe a GGL tag (if it exists) or try and find a place to print one
- I know for intra Europe/SH, there is not much priority in luggage delivery but for Long-haul routes, this is quite useful, it may not be the first but normally if it does work right (more or less), I don't have to at least stand at the belt for more than 10 mins after the first bag is on the belt to wait for my bag. This is where I still find some benefit of priority baggage handling.
- what makes BA so special that they can have the exception to be exempted from providing Priority Baggage Handling from other Oneworld members? If they want to cut cost here, they can do this to their own members.

I really don't see what's so difficult about BA including this in general if both Skyteam and Star Alliance members can do it without any issue- when flying with these airlines, even without the coloured tags that are included, the bags usually does come out as priority because this is included in their bar code and luggage labels.

Cheers!