Priority tags on luggage - does it make a difference?
 

Hi

I flew from Stavanger to Aberdeen yesterday and I got a Priority tag on my luggage...maybe because of my gold card or because I was flying economy extra. Anyway, when I arrived it took forever to get my bag and when I finally got it and finally got outside the taxi line was looooong so I had to wait for 30 minutes to get a taxi. In the past I have also experienced this when flying Star Alliance to various places. So is there any point in the Priority tags or is it just a trick to make us feel "special" ;)

Depending on the destination it is either just a trick or real benefit. Also depends on the airline you will be flying with. Lots of complaining also in this forum so search will reveal that it doesn't work always so nicely and your experiences are quite typical.

Next time, try to fly for example to Asia and you will see the difference.

Hi

Yes, I have flown to both Africa and Asia and I have had similar experience there. So that is why I get the feeling that the tags are just nonsense.

Then it must be just you. :D Or the airlines you have chosen. Or then Star Alliance service is just going lower and lower.

I have experienced quite nice priority tag service but usually not from SAS, Asian airlines are much more consistent with that and even LH compared to SAS.

One thing to note, it of course requires that the destination airport is a bigger Star Alliance airport where they are taking care of the ground operations by themselves. It doesn't work so well in the airports where they have subcontracted that from some local (sometimes competitor) handling company.

Priority Tags usually make no difference. Why? Because in this day and age all luggage at major airports is scanned by the bar code they tie around your luggage.

The priority luggage tags are just a comfort for the premium passengers to think their luggage is being handled with mink gloves by semi-pro gymnasts when really its handled by the same monkeys as everyone elses.

Or in the case of British Airways, priority tags magically make your luggage come off last. Possibly because they fall in the way of the barcode and have to go to manual sorting.

Still many airports glue Heavy / Rush / Transfer / etc tags into tag. I would assume that those have some kind of message anyway. And there are even some RFID solutions today in use (HKG and CX for example); readers could still recognize the priority status these days and do something differently while being mostly automated. Priority tag luggage could in theory packed into the separate container, which is always emptied first into the carousel.

But of course the airline will determine how much their appreciate their elite customers - which doesn't mean much when sometimes half of the airplane is EBGs in case of SAS (at least feels like that).

Priority Tags generally works and the main objective is to get the luggage on the belt first, not to handle the luggage with care.

I'm sad to say that the airline that's worst in class in the Star Alliance is SAS, some say due to a protest from employees in SGS who don't get enough time/manpower to execute the instruction to get the Priority luggage out first or pack the planes correctly in order to have the receiving non-SAS airport see the Priority luggage and get it out first.

This has been semi-confirmed, and it's a disgrace.

But for other airlines, it works in most cases. This year I have great experience with LH, UA, US and AC

In my opinion SK has slightly improved. In GOT I have experienced they actually try to put "priority" luggage first on the conveyor belt, of course it does not always work but it has improved. LH in my opinion is even better, in FRA & MUC they usually load "priority" luggage separate, then we should not even talk about the HON Tags, they ware worth gold...always seen HON luggage first on the belt at several stations.

In my opinion it is not a way to make you feel better, but for sure it depend a lot if the airport you arrive in.

My five cents on this one.

*Scandinavia in general is quite rubbish when it comes to priority tags. Makes very little difference at e.g. CPH, ARN and GOT.
*Works better on longhaul flights and on aircrafts with luggage containers (A320 series), then they have the opportunity to have a separate container for priority luggage and load it last/offload it first.
*Lufthansa is pretty good on priority tags, even intra-Europe. I have excellent records in Germany (FRA, MUC, TXL) and even at other airports arriving on LH (PRG, LIS, LHR for example)
*Asia is great on most *A carriers, south Pacific pretty decent too

I have the exact same experience....

Credit where credit is due. This summer Mrs999 and I were in America. We had a domestic first class flight on UA, ORD-LGA. We were the first ones off the plane and proceeded directly to the baggage claim area. By the time we got to the carousel, there were about 10 or 12 bags -- including our two -- already lined up on the floor, with an attendant watching over them. It was amazing.

cheers,

Henry

Oh no. I always thought the bags were handled by Swedish blondes, and not just any blondes, they were supposed to be virgins as well. Now you´re telling me they´re handled by monkeys. :p

I haven´t experienced much of a difference. Mostly I feel almost embarrassed when my backpack arrives on the belt with the red tags on them. I always tear them immediately off.

I share this experience too.

I have also been on tight connection flights within EU when my luggage have been connected but fellow colleges have missed thier.

I think that if your bag comes off first in any country outside of Asia, it is pure coincidence.

In China, they separate the F, C and *G bags and these always come on the beslt first, with a sign dividing them from the other bags. You then have to show your boarding pass on the way out to prove that it matches your luggage. Other countries could learn a lot

Agree SAS is worst in clase - it is pure marketing bs. I have even talked to a customer service representative from SAS stating that they can not support that feature :td:

Having said that UA & US is not far behind (or ahead if you will) in my experience. LH is hit or miss

As to areas:
As stated above AsiaAc is usally quite good at this - even at small airports.
Europe is crap
NA is so-so (hard to say on intercont flights into NA becays immigrations usually takes so long that bags are allready on the belt by the time you get there.