Priority luggage tagging - does it actually work ?
 

I generally fly BA Club Class, and I have a BAEC Gold Card (if that is relevant).

So my bags get a nice bright "Priority" tag at check-in, but my perception is that this doesn't really do anything. I often find that I am left waiting at the carousel wondering why so many other bags (mostly without priority tags) have arrived first.

Most recently, we flew LHR-YVR and back and on both ends it felt like our bags were among the last off.

Of course, I am aware that I may have selective memory. I take many flights, and I suppose I don't really notice the times when the bags arrive promptly.

Likewise, I don't expect 100% hit-rate on priority bags actually achieving priority.

Still, it's frustrating to pay the extra money (partly for priority handling) and be first through to the baggage area only to be left waiting.

What is a reasonable expectation ? Is there any actual priority in the process, or is the labelling just for show ? What does it depend on ?

One other possible factor: when we're travelling for leisure, we often check in pretty early. Is there any reason to think this could cause some "First on -last off" outcomes ?

Priority luggage tagging - does it actually work ?
 

Bags that came in from a tight connection or a last minute checkin frequently come before priority bags. That makes sense given logistics.

Every airport is different.

The carriers that I find that consistently do a good job of ensuring Priority comes out first are CX and JL. On occasion AA. I would imagine they would have to load the priority luggage last so they'd be the first ones to come off the plane.

BA doesn't work at all with priority tags. I've had mine come out last and it was on and A388 flight. You can imagine how long I had to wait.

Of course, but what I'm observing in these cases is our priority bags coming very late on - say 40 mins wait. I recall one time in Las Vegas (Virgin UC in that case) when it was over an hour - right at the end.

It may be awkward and impolitic to suggest, but my experience with BA has always been that behind the scenes (i.e. with baggage handlers) there are many strongly held resentments about anyone being treated better than anyone else....despite (or especially because) the potential beneficiary paid more for the service. Last month I watched bags being loaded onto BA 3 (LCY - JFK) in what appeared to be an abusive, deliberately careless manner, and it took over 45 minutes for the bags of this business-class only flight to appear on the belt at JFK.

Having flown CX F only a half-dozen times, it's obviously not fair to generalize too much ---- but each time our bags were among the first to appear.

It's a bit disconcerting to read that (at least some) others share my doubts about priority handling. I think I was expecting the replies to tell me I was imagining it !

I'm a *A flyer and the only OW airline I've experienced in at least 10+ years is CX. With quite a wide variety of *A carriers (Asia, Africa, North/South America, and a bit of Europe) I find that my Priority tagged bags are pretty consistently before the non tagged bags. The only one I see blunder on this occasionally in my travels is UA but even that's not so frequently. Even last week my Priority tagged bag that CX tagged was interlined to SA and was still nearly first off in JNB despite OW priority tags looking completely different than *A.

It looks nice to have the priority tags, but what's more important is what's in the barcode. Some people think that by having the priority tags on there (talking about CX and people who later weren't entitled to it cause they travelled with a friend prior who did), it will come out first. It won't. The information inputed onto the baggage tag will determine how it's handled. Priority tags just look nice.

Priority luggage tagging - does it actually work ?
 

Priority luggage handling isn't actually a British Airways Gold benefit. The tags are there to make one feel important. :)

When I said "priority tags", I really meant the bar-coding. I assumed the tags were a visible sign to those of us who can't read bar-codes that, yes, the priority status has been encoded.

My question is ... does this priority coding do anything ?

I hadn't really thought too much about whether Gold Card status gave priority handling (although that would be a good perk and - actually - I would have guessed it WAS a perk so thanks for correcting me on that).

But what I really was asking about it priority baggage for Club (and First) travel.

I'm usually either flying Club class or flying with hand-baggage only in short-haul economy, so the issue of economy baggage with Gold Card status doesn't come up very often.

My expectation is that Club baggage should and does have priority, that this is coded on the luggage tags, that the orange labels are there for reassurance to the passenger, and that the handling systems in most airports can actually operate to give priority to correctly labelled luggage.

My frustration is at the apparent lack of actual priority given to Club class baggage and even now I am guessing that I've just been a bit unlucky from time to time and I've remembered those occasions instead of the times that it worked correctly.

It would be very disappointing if - indeed - premium cabin luggage isn't prioritised even in theory.

My experiences with BA has been priority bags coming out last. I'm a CX Diamond which is equal to BA Gold and has never come out first.

Don't ever check in luggage if you're flying on the A388. If your flight is full, you're going to be waiting forever!

I think BA's ability to provide priority baggage handling is highlighted perfectly in the recent announcement about new privileges for oneworld sapphire members. They now get priority baggage handling on every airline in the alliance - except British Airways. Is this because BA themselves recognise they are simply unable to deliver (sorry!) on this?

Similar experience here. I typically do a few BA flights per year with check-in baggage and am resigned to my bags coming out at random, except that they never first.

Been BA gold for over 5 years. Whether travelling Economy or Business class on BA my bags normally always appear towards the end.