First class baggage tags..
 

Do they actually work, I always get my bags last it seems, first class tag or not....

It really depends on the airline, the airport, and an array of other factors including when you check-in, etc.

Case in point, I have always received my bags first with priority tags in HNL from CO (which also nicely uses a second carousel for priority tagged bags), but never from NW. In some of the smaller spoke airports, I can count on getting my bags next to last with priority tags on; it's just a matter of knowing how each airport operates.

In my experience on UA, there is a wide disparity in the way priority bags vs other baggage arrives based in part on the airport I am using. In Singapore, for example, priority bags arrive first and fast. In Houston, it seems to just be by chance and all bags arrive very late.

slippahs, do you know is UA uses two carousels in HNL? A few months ago I was there and concluded that on my flight they likely used that approach although I had never seen it before.

coming home from SJC to LGA yesterday, it seemed that Priority tags on CO worked like they are supposed to. All the first bags out were with the Priority tags, and those toward the end both at IAH and LGA were without.

Unfortunately for me, I did not notice that the Counter agent forgot to put mine on (GE and sitting in First) and my bags took "forever" to come out on the conveyor in LGA, long past the Priority bags arrival. :(

In Asia, NW Priority/WBC tagged bags do come out first :p

Unfortunately, I really can't recall, since the UA bag claim is the last one in the terminal. Sorry. However, perhaps a PM to someone like cblaisd, who flies a lot through HNL, might answer the question.

I always assumed that the 'priority bags' were stored in a seperate "cage" on the plane, thereby allowing them to be unloaded and placed on the carousel first?

I've found it to be entirely random. It doesn't seem to matter if I'm in First or Coach. Sometimes my bags come off first, sometimes last, and sometimes in the middle. International or Domestic doesn't seem to matter.

I was fortunate on my last trip and my bags came out near the beginning everytime except when arriving at El Dorado. Even on an Avianca domestic flight they arrived near the front.

my sense is the priority tags mostly work at the major destinations of an airline, and in some minor ones the ground staff doesnt really even know what those tags are about!

Always worked for me with Singapore Airlines. Others are not that good.

I'm going to check on this but I always thought the priority tag meant that it was a priority that the bag travel not that it was a priority that the pax get the bag sooner at the other end. I thought that the bag handlers would throw priority bags on the aircraft first so they'd be guaranteed to go and, of course, first bags on the aircraft are last bags down the belt at destination.

Bit OT, but the fluroscent yellow FT tag with "priority" in bold and CAPS did its bit for me at DCA this summer. Mine was the second or third bag off of the carousel (and no, I didn't have any airline priority tags!) Even ppl in suits and blackberries (obviously frequent fliers) were waiting for their bags. I remember saying to myself, "that was quick" :cool: Felt a bit weird since everybody was looking at me as I was the first one to walk away :p

AFAIK on NW and CO, priority bag tags mean they're supposed to have priority coming down the bag claim. The theory behind it is to minimize wait times after arriving off a flight.

When i flew LH F last year between FRA-YYZ i got there and the first two bags out were mine. They had *Gold and Priority Tags on them.

However when i have Virgin Upper Class tags on my bag i seem to get my bag whenever. Sometimes i even get Delta stealing my bag and sticking it on a JFK-LGW flight while im sitting on JFK-LHR! GRRRR

Chris

With NWA, sometimes it hard to even GET the priority tags :-)

I rarely check bags, but when I do, I think the priority tags work in MSP, and IAH, and DCA. They do NOT work on the return to my home airport. Both times I've had the tags, my bags came off dead last, right in front of the orange cone labelled "Last Bag." Editorial? Probably.

The first time I used the service on Continental, they lost my bag! As a sick irony, I had asked the lady to also priority tag my husband, who was not going first class and had no status, but I pointed out that he was my companion and it would be counter-productive for my bag to come out first and his bag to come out last. She was happy to do it. And his bag was the first one off the carousel. So go figure if they work or not, I can't quite grok the moral of my own story.

The tale has a happy ending, as my bag was found and returned to me the next night on the next Continental flight to Liberia, Costa Rica. A man from the airline even came to my hotel with the bag. I did not have to worry about scrounging around to fetch it. But I think from talking to other people they would have done the same for any misloaded bag, not just first class.