Priority Baggage Tags
 

Sitting in the P-Club in Austin (which, on a side note is one of the nicer small clubs) and on a few rants given my delayed flights. I know this topic has been discussed elsewhere either in its own post or as part of others, but I wanted to rehash it.

Where the priority bag tags work, they are a wonderful perk. And, truth is, for the most part they seem to be working for the most part. However, it seems that at least 25% of the flights the tags are worthless. For example, travelling EWR to PUJ on May 16, my "priority bag" wasn't delivered until the 50th or 60th bag and it was the first blue tag to come up. I'll get jumped on I know becaues this was PUJ and they just got air conditioning . . . travelling SNN to EWR in BF on May 4, my priority bag didn't arrive until the very end--with all the other priority bags. And I've had similar experiences elsewhere about 1 in every 4 flights (I do generally carry-on, unless other members of my group are checking bags--then I check mine too because what's really the point in carrying them around if I have to wait for them).

Anyhow, this is a known recurring problem and its rather frustrating. I'd like to see Continental do some quality control (especially at EWR) to see if the priority tags come up for a sample of flights and to take some sort of action against those that don't. I complained once about this when my bags were the last ones out and the response from Co Care seemed to indicate they take this very seriously; but it seems like one area that just doesn't improve.

Perhaps other posters could indicate real examples of this occurrence since CO seems to follow-up to our posts.

In my experience, this program works almost flawlessly on CO. I think there was only 1 time when my bag was #50th or something like that. My biggest beef with NW is that the priority tag means absolutely nothing there. If you want to experience how good CO's program is, I suggest you fly NW!

Seriously, I have had such good luck with this on CO, I haven't had the need to complain about it. I know they do have many operational aspects in place to make this program possible. Your input might help them, however. With NW, I write down the order the priority tags come out in and send them the data. So far, it has amounted to little more than getting some extra WP miles, which I don't really need. Still, I'm hopeful it can be solved at NW. You might try doing the same when you have a bad experience with CO's program.

Have had luck with this when its one flight only

All my connections, the bags seem to be loaded as-they-come, so other bags may be loaded after the blue tags have been loaded if some other pax have short connections.

Think about it, why would they wait for last minute arriving connecting bags, and only THEN load the blue tags.

Because they load the priority bags last.

"Un"Priority Tags
 

Priority tags are rarely observed when flying into Seattle in addition to the first bags arriving at least 30minutes after arrival. Then this past Saturday, i checked in 2 bags to OAK. The first one arrive among the first group of Priority bags, while the second one arrived the last bag. When arriving into IAH, Priority bags are usually acknowledged; it's when you leave IAH and arrive somewhere else, Priority tags are not acknowledged.:mad:

Not necessarily. I was flying from EWR to ATL last week, and had a chance to observe the loading process through my window. The priority bags were being loaded to one side of the hold, while all others were either in another hold, or off to the other side.

As a result, my bag was actually out first ... On both this flight, and my return, priority tags worked perfectly with CO (unlike AF where the agent at check-in actually told me that the ground staff at CDG totally ignore the tags).

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

If the shoe fits...

Im not too thrilled with the Priority Tag system. My bag usually has bad luck and comes out near the middle of the pack (although other blue tags do come out first.) Once, CO forgot to load my blue tagged bag onto the plane. It sat there at EWR until someone realized and put it on a later flight. Needless to say I wasnt happy.

My experience has been hit and miss. My home airport, SAT, tends to deliver on the implied Priority Handling promise more than other airports. OTOH, MIA is more frequently a miss and customs at IAH has had some good near first bag deliveries and some real late deliveries, ex., one time I counted over 150 bags from the same flight on the carousel in Customs before my first bag came out. In that case, dozens of bundles of all types sizes came out on the carousel and NONE of them had any type of priority handling tag on them. My assumption was that these bundles belonged to less than frequent travelers to IAH who were going to be even further delayed when Customs saw their uniquely packaged bundles. (Message to CO - let those who fly you more frequently get their bags out so they do not wait behind others whom will be of special interest to Customs.)

My practice is now to not check bags at all unless the trip is over 4 days and/or I am bringing something back (ex., wine) that has to be placed in checked baggage. I will give CO credit for having the program when it works. AA does nothing to prioritize the luggage of its most frequent travelers.

Cleveland is very good about priority bags. All Jet arrivals have one bag runner dedicated to running the local bags. The priority bags arrived first unloaded carousel shuts off and regular bags arrive 10 minutes later. Continentals goal in Cleveland is once flight blocks in they have 14 minutes to get 1st bag on carousel and 24 minutes for last bag to hit carousel. Now there are flaws as well.

I agree with the originator of this topic. I fly out of EWR and never check bags when traveling for business. However on family vacations where we often check bags (since the liquid ban) I don't think the blue tags expedite their delivery significantly. It's a great concept though and would be a good perk if performed consistently.

My personal experience with Priority bags, mostly at IAH and BWI, has been about 50-50.

Overall, I'm pleased with the priority tag service. My bag is usually one of the first out, regardless of where I am going. Twice, all the priority luggage was the last out- both were late night flights in EWR, after having the carosel number changed at least 3 times. I despise baggage claim in EWR. I usually wait at least 30-45min.

I almost never check bags out of EWR when I travel on business, but this past weekend I traveled for pleasure with a set of golf clubs. At IND the clubs were the third bag off the plane, but EWR is a disaster.

For some reason 'odd sized' luggage is separately claimed at a counter behind baggage claim 9 and the procedure I'm told is to unload ALL of the normal luggage at the carousel and then bring the odd sized luggage to this counter. So the blue tag has no meaning at all for a set of golf clubs at EWR. Since I had nothing else checked, I had to wait for about 35 minutes for my bag at this counter - very irritating.

In my experience, flying out of or into EWR, Priority Bag tags have never made a difference.

Usually my bags have come out 15-20 min after the first bags, sometimes as early as 5 min after the 1st bags (but mixed in with a lot of non-priority tagged bags) sometimes dead last.