Mini-Rant: No Priority baggage handling :(
 

I recently flew ICN>NRT>IAH and checked in at the *Gold counter for Asiana. Seems at first they didn't realize my *G status when I had checked 2 pieces of luggage. I was then handed my boarding passes without my OP account # listed and without any indication of *G status and also no lounge access pass/invitation card. I asked about the lounge access and she called the OZ lounge, then asked for my OP # and then gave me the lounge access pass.

When I arrived in IAH, I was expecting my luggage to come out early, but actually ended up coming out near the very end without any priority handling tag attached. By then, the Customs checkpoint line was atleast 50+ people deep.

I suppose I should have made sure that the priority handling tags would be attached to my luggage when checking in with OZ, but wasn't worried since I thought that if they missed it at ICN, CO would have tagged my luggage at NRT. But it didn't happen :(

Once your luggage has been tagged to its final destination, it is not going to be re-tagged at a connecting airport.

Priority tags need to be placed on your bags at the first point of being tagged. OZ failed to do this since they were not aware of your status. CO at NRT would have zero information about your bags "status" since the transfer is handled ramp side.

Lesson learned: make sure your bags get tagged with priority tags before you walk away from the ticket counter.

This can work in your advantage when interlining your bags to a non-alliance partner. Since the next airline does not remove the original tags, they will probably honor the existing "priority" and your luggage will come off faster at your final destination.

Depends on the airline. I've had it done for me, mostly by foreign carriers.


Why not? Once they accept the bag, I'm sure it's somehow associated to your record in the system, no? I've had OALs verify they got my bags successfully before, so they certainly know they got it, which means they know my status.

I've also had other carriers insert priority or other tags as appropriate during interline transfers. Both QF and OZ did this for me. It was quite impressive.

The reason I assumed my luggage would be retagged by CO was because it happened to me before when flying from CWB>GRU>IAH. TAM airlines checked me in all the way through to IAH, but no priority tags were attached for my luggage. However, when I reached IAH, my luggage had priority tags on them.

I will assume that NRT has scanners but the ramp only uses these scanners to accept the bags into the system as being on board. You can access the PNR if you elect to do so but as far as I know our rampers don't use this function. As an agent in the baggage service department, I have the ability to see if your bag was loaded and off loaded. Actually any airline agent can do this verification if they know the computer entry.

I am not familiar with how our ramp receives information regarding inter-line transfers of bags. Nor do I know if they are to add priority tags to bags that should have them.

SQ does this as well if you pass thru SIN and have checked in at some outstation like SGN, MLE, or CMB.

Frankly, priority tags seem to do little or no good anyway in my experiences. Case in point: this past weekend I flew on a paid business class ticket, with priority tags, and my luggage finally showed up about 15 minutes after bags started coming out. The next day, I flew on a discounted ticket with no priority tags and my luggage arrived in the first 10 bags. Perhaps it depends on the airport but much more often than not I've found that luggage handlers do not try very hard to put priority tagged bags out first.

Was this CO? If so, I'm surprised. CO usually does a good job honoring priority tags domestically.

I wish I could say that priority tags help, but in my case it I haven't seen any difference. :td:

If this is CO i am very very surprised. CO has their fair share of faults but this is one place they shine (at least IME) My bags are always in the first group of bags to come off the belt. The oversize bags don't seem to always be handled with the same speed as the normal luggage but that's not entirely unexpected.

Disagree,

I flew FCO->MXP on LH and continued on MXP->EWR->GRR.

When I left FCO my bag was tagged with a LH bag tag that indicated VIP, but no priority tag other than that. When I arrived at GRR, someone along the way had opened up the LH tag and added a CO Priority tag in the LH tag.

Needless to say I was pretty shocked, and my bag was the third bag off the plane at GRR. :D

Your milage might vary, but they can re-tag it mid-trip!

-Chris

then again there were only 3 bags on the plane :p

Ive had both great service by CO with the PT on from get go and Lousy where it was 1 of the last ones off a fully packed 777 and waited close to an hour both @EWR and overseas for my bag with a PT on it to finally come appear

This had nothing to do with when I dropped off the gas, as Ive dropped them off early and very late and experienced both ways under both conditions

Waiting for bags in EWR from HKG is probably the worst. Many elites plus 50 BF pax makes for a lot of priority baggage. In this case one almost gets rewarded for checking in bags closer to the cutoff time.