Priority Baggage means "Low" Priority
 

We just got back from a trip from CLE-ATL-BCN in BE. We checked three bags and all were labelled with the green "Priority" tags.

In both Barcelona on the outgoing flights and Cleveland and Atlanta on the incoming flights our bags came out in about the middle of the pack. Many bags were unloaded before ours.

Not only does this type of action irritate and upset BE passengers, but it makes no sense. It would be more efficient if the first passengers off of the plane got their luggage first and not have to stand around in the way of people just arriving at the carousel, particularly when you add interim steps in the process like Customs. Things would work better if there were a logical order to the process.

Things like this make me less likely to fly Delta in the future. No wonder why they are losing money.

I've always wondered why people complain so much about this. Why should they work around the bags that are on the outside of the plane to get to yours? That would not speed anything up. Just bring the bags out as fast as you can and if you have to choose between grabbing a priority tagged one or not, choose the priority tagged one.

WN doesn't have priority tags but they have almost all their bags on the belt in the time it takes most majors to get the first bag out.

You need some of the magic FlyerTalk luggage tags.

This has been my experience as well since the inception of the program. It is not a big enough deal to make me stop flying Delta but it is/has been irritating. I assumed they discontinued priority baggage on flights less than 5 hours (?) beacuse they could not get it done.

I'm too lazy to do a search, but I'm sure you can find a million threads on this very topic. Back when I was PM (those were the days :) ), I tried an experiment since I fly to DAB alot. I'd check bags with and without the PM Priority tags. Believe it or not, in every case, my bags came our FASTER without the PM Priority tags! In fact, one time, my bags with the PM Priority tags were immediately followed by the "last bag on flight" sign :mad: I've had similar experiences with international flights.

No, Delta does NOT have to go rummaging through the baggage holds to find priority bags first. All they have to do is segregate the priority bags before loading the aircraft and either load them last, or load them into a baggage hold that will be unloaded first. Other airlines seem to have mastered handling priority baggage, and I've given up on trying to figure out why it's such a mystery for Delta.

You're correct. Except for upgrades to Hawaii this has been among the most discussed topic on this board.
My suitcases are bristling with DL Priority tags, FlyerTalk "Magic" tags, AeroMexico Premier tags, AF FirstClass tags and the like.
And my bags are always in the last 10% of the bags that come off the belt.
The DL "priority baggage" initiative has been among the biggest failures of their Medallion program over the years.
I've seen and heard all the anecdotal evidence of how well this program works for some but after 1,000's of flights with these tags, they don't work. Period.

I don't use those PM neon yellow priority tags as they tend to delay your luggage. Actually, I gave them to Dovster and he was thrilled. :D I wonder if he's ever used them?

Maybe that's the problem, you cite green tags when the DL ones are actually flourescent yellow. Personally I have found that on long haul int'l flights the last 2 years or so they do in fact come out in the first 20 bags or so (knock on wood), before that it was hit or miss.

DL is really bad about the "Priority" bags especially on domestic flights. I always have to wait until almost the end to get my bags. For int'l flights if my bags are tagged priority then they come out in the first batch (BUt only at the intl destination) Forget about JFK. All BE passengers are always standing around until the end.

It is true as other posters above have said that other airlines have this system down. I have found that NW & CO do a good job for priority bags on intl flights.

I was on a trip last monthe EWR-ATL-NRT-PVG. EWR-NRT on DL then NW from NRT-PVG. Of course in EWR my bags were tagged with a DL priority tag and my Platinum yellow tag. I thought I would be waiting forever at baggage claim but my bags were the 3rd & 4th onto the belt and they came together. Guess NW pays attention to the Skyteam tags.

Obviously many of you have not been up on news the last two years ago. There is NO priority bag service domestically, it hasn't existed for awhile. Yes occasionally they'll tag it, but it means nothing, go back in the threads and check it out.

To go into further detail, when we got off the plane from Barcelona to Atlanta (9+ hours), we were near the first in line to go through Customs. This process took a few minutes for each passenger. We then had to go to baggage, collect our bags, and go through another customs line with our bags. While we were waiting for our bags at the carousel, there were quite a few non-priority that kept going around and around because it took probably 20-30 minutes for the passengers in the back of the plane to get through the first Customs line. Yet some of their bags were already unloaded and on the carousel. Very inefficient and customer-unfriendly.

So for those of you think this is only is true on domestic or short-haul flights, you are wrong. And is it enough to make me avoid Delta altogether? Probably not. But is another nail in the coffin.

Finally, I flew on an upgraded domestic FC ticket to Vegas in April on Contintental, which also comes with priority baggage handling. On the return flight, my bag was the first off of the plane. It seems that CO can make this work. Delta should be trying to keep up with the competition or it will lose. Maybe it has already.

We just got back from Alaska with bags tagged priority. Both there and return ours were
the first bags to come out. So someone must be looking at them - or we just are lucky.
Of course - not completely lucky. In Alaska 3 of our bags were the first off the line.
The 4th never showed so we waited an hour anyway - it did arrive that night ane we
got it in the morning so it ended up not being a big deal. Mostly DH's hiking boots and
stuff like that so not needed that night - but would have ruined his trip (well, put a damper
on it) had they not arrived. On the way home all 4 plus our oddly wrapped new walking
sticks all came out first. We were out of there way before the crowd. Very nice.

We must have had an unusual experience because we all enjoyed the meals inflight
and had wonderful service. Even two movies on the return flight which made DS
very happy. We ordered him the kids meal - on the way there it was OK - he liked
it. On the way home it was excellent - I had to keep stealing bites from it.

I did find out one interesting thing about the movies. One was more of an adult film -
Million Dollar Baby. I asked about the rating and she said they edit them for inflight
viewing since children are present. I had always wondered about that.

Are you are saying that some Delta agents at the check-in counter don't even know the policy and incorrectly put tags on baggage that will be ignored by the baggage handlers?

Also, for international flights returning to the US, priority baggage handling would only apply to those passengers whos final desination is the entrance city. If you had a connecting flight, the priority tag would then be ignored once the bags are put on the connecting flight.

You're partially correct here, hfly.
There is no current priority baggage service and IMO there never was one. Yeah they dutifully sent you priority tags every year and would often attach an add'l priority tag to your bag at the counter but that was the extent of the "service".
Somebody forgot to coordinate this tagging with the folks who actually handle the bags. Or decided they wouldn't or couldn't enforce it.
This priority baggage thing was such a pet peeve with me that it was one of the few things I ever formally complained to Delta about.
The answer I got? "We have out-sourced the baggage handling at many of our airports".
My answer?
"So what?? In fact, that's probably a reason that priority baggage should work BETTER!! With a private contractor you are a customer and you can make the correct handling of priority bags a requirement. If contractor A doesn't handle them properly, you fire them and hire contractor B or C until you find someone who does the job right."
DL, as usual, didn't take my advice....

Slickrick, I think having flown over 150 long haul int'l segments with Delta in BizE that I know the difference between int'l and domestic, O/D vs. connecting and so on.

Look people, it is this simple, two years ago DL said that for shart haul domestic there would no longer be Priority tags, IMHO at many stations if you are PM (not F, but PM) they will in fact still throw the sticker into the tag. For solely domestic hops this is hit or miss as to whether it works. Internationally these tags apply and as I stated above I have noticed a quite big improvement in my bags coming out early over the last two years. Its that simple.