Hi,

this happened to me last Thursday, had connected in AMS to BRU, on the way back from MEX, when my luggage didn't arrive with me, but in the next plane, 2hrs later.

When i asked the luggage handling company why my luggage was not loaded on the 1st plane (I was Silver, just passed Gol, and the 1 piece was definitely labelled Priority in MEX), she said that happens quite often.

I understand it was a small foccker but i doubt everyone on it was Elite member and i just happened to be at the bottom of the Priority queue...!!!

When we landed in AMS we were told they couldn't open the luggage compartments and that there would be delays, i am naturally skeptic and wouldn't be surprised if they used this trick to get people to wait for the next planes in which many bags arrived...

Any other unlucky ones out there??

Actually, this could well be true. these Fokkers are fun in a way but they are prehistoric pieces of engineering, and more often than not, they don't take off at all and flights are cancelled altogether, so probably lucky you didn't get stranded in AMS waiting for one of the F50s to work! the E190 will probably make things quite a bit better

Priority tags tend to be useless full stop. Not just on AF-KLM but on most other airlines too. Sometimes I've had my luggage come out first but it's so rare that I put it down to luck rather than the tags.

I wonder what this has to do with the priority tag. All luggage will go into the SAME compartment, and in theory they should be loaded/unloaded such that the tagged ones arrive first, Mind you, this often fails, I guess due to the "local" luggage handlers. In your case, it looks to me as if there was a small technical problem and quite uncommonly, I'd say, you were even told that this was coming.

What I meant is that whilst I was wondering why my priority tag luggages arrived in the second plane, the luggage compartment problem was quite useful in a sense as it allowed the airport (BRU in fact, not AMS) to sort of hide the fact that a lot of the bags were coming with the next plane, as there was no other communication than "we can't open the door...", until the second plane actually landed, which was 2hrs later...

By the way, the baggage hall was a right mess and many angry people around, as it was the 4th day of a strike at teh airport I think... so getting some information from the handling company took quite some time.

I flew AMS-JFK-AMS this spring, my luggage was tagged with the priority label, and both in JFK as in AMS my luggage arrived well behind other passenger's luggage. I really wonder why KLM puts on these tags, as they seem useless.

As others have said this has nothing to do with priority tags. If you're on a short connection in AMS then there is a certain risk that your luggage will "misconnect". If they're slow in unloading your inbound flight then ALL bags will be late coming off the aircraft and a priority tag is not going to speed things up.

If you connect through a major hub it's something you have to live with. Just one of those things. Not worth getting excited about. My usual greeting to staff at the baggage desk at my regular KLM destinations tends to be a friendly "hello again".

That sounds familiar. When you joke with them and make it clear that you had no expectations that your bag would actually arrive with you in the first place and just focus on getting the claim done and agreement on delivery it is much better than getting all bent out of shape. Always pack an overnight bag with one or more change of clothes when flying KLM the "reliable [sic]" airline.

It would not at all surprise me if the red priority tags are like the proverbial red rags to a bull to some egalitarian luggage handlers.

Johan

Actually CO does a superb job handling priority luggage tags. It CAN work; I've seen it happen!

There may be something there, although this would not be an egalitarian but, rather, a nationalistic attitude: In ATH and HER I've never, ever received priority-tagged luggage without first looking at tens of other pieces coming through, and this with a variety of airlines. Only exception: Aegean Airlines.

Priority tags never have any real effect for me... I was told at MME that they don't have any and haven't for ages.

For me, the priority tags worked extremely well this February:

Me and my family were on KL1952 ZRH-AMS with a connection to NW63 AMS-EWR and there with a further connection on CO99 to HKG (I know, a crazy way to fly to HKG ). Due to fog, our flight was delayed for almost 30 minutes, so our connection time in AMS was just 60 minutes (of course boarding started much earlier). We reached the flight just before the gate was closing. We took off with a delay of 30 minutes, also fog related. Due to strong headwinds our delay grew to 45 minutes and we arrived at EWR at 1.30 pm giving us just 90 minutes of connection time. Fortunately, immigration and customs were a breeze (no other intercontinental flights arrived), so we were through in just 15-20 minutes. Our bags were first on the carrousel! Check-in at the CO elite counters took longer than the whole immigration process but we reached the flight with our bags, we could even take a 10 minute 'rest' in the Presidents Club.

True again, Florin. Our bags must have been among the first out in HKG again, though we didn't really see this happen, immigration at HKG took forever.

So, in this particular case, Priority Tags really helped. Anyway, it does most of the times when I fly west. When flying to MNL, even my priority tagged luggage doesn't arrive first.

arrived this morning on the DAR-AMS 571. All WBC and priority labeled bags came out last. Also 2 non rev. KLM personnel (from TZ) where flying WBC which resulted in no more availability even though I wanted 2 WBC tickets on this flight.

Almost each and every time I arrive in GRU, my suitcases with priority tags arrive within a very short time. In HKG I have had similar experiences. However in outposts like BGO, it takes ages for priority luggage to arrive.

Why is it easier to expedite priority luggage in big airports when travelling on 747s and 777s, than tiny airports like BGO when travelling on 737s or fokkers?