narvik

Might have more to do with who, how and where they are loaded; and who, how and where they are offloaded. Not all in UA's direct control.

What I do know is, that if things go wrong; UA has definitely upped their game when it comes to getting the lost luggage to its destination. The information flow is great (by telling where the luggage is, and what will happen next).
I was positively impressed with how they got recent lost luggage back to me.

Flyingwasabi

IAH-OIL-TRASH

It’s my perception that Las Vegas seems to be the fastest in the group of airports I visit frequently. It just seems to stand out from the rest. Maybe the casinos give bonuses for getting people out of the airport and onto the gaming floor ASAP🙂

laxmillenial

I guess. But as you can tell, the answers are, as predicted, varied. I don't think "15-30" is a 'disaster' but it could be if you're trying to connect tighlty. SFO took 15 minutes (intl flight so dumping it pre-customs) in my experience, LAX is the ~25. Priority tags came out right in SFO/LAX, but not in St. Thomas (hence the island).
The only advice is to not check a bag. There's really no hacks, no 'get arounds', or any 'advice' that can be given.

If you're really curious and you check a bag regularly, you could start keeping track of your times whether you have a priority tag on it and a non-priority tag on the bag. With the bag tracking feature on the app, it'd be pretty easy to aggregate times when the bag was put on the belt and you could see if having a Priority tag hurts you!

jsloan

I think that's it, exactly. I read a story about this around the time they opened T3. Apparently, there were a number of complaints about slow baggage delivery at T1, so they intentionally lengthened the walk to baggage claim, and satisfaction went way up. I can't find the source now, but it seemed entirely believable at the time -- humans are notorious for overestimating the amount of time spent waiting for something when their attention isn't occupied with something else.

gene2632

LAS does seem much faster than EWR. We fly that route often and most of the time bags are coming up by the time we reach the carousels in LAS. It is a longer trip from the gate to baggage claim there, maybe 5 minutes more than EWR. Long ago I started noting the time we got to the gate and the time we got our bags. In LAS the average is about 20 minutes in EWR the best we have done is 30 minutes and it is often over 40 minutes. Premier bags in LAS usually come up first, at EWR it is always hit and miss.

tarheelnj

(Fantasy) Bags that are gate checked on mainline aircraft would be returned at the gate like smaller UAEX planes. Fewer issues with overhead space, less gate-licing, fewer bags & faster turn times at baggage claim. Yes, staffing would be an issue, but I did say it was a fantasy.

lincolnjkc

I don't think it would actually resolve anything... The jetways are already bad enough when half the plane is gumming up the pathway waiting for their bags on a UAEX bird, plus the nature of baggage delivery on jetways makes it a horrible traffic flow (bags are dropped at one point, while people are at the back of the line, if there is one, trying to fight against the flow of people getting off the plane, etc.,) not to mention the slower baggage handling times while rampers have to sort bags into connecting, jetway, or baggage claim vs. just connecting or baggage claim, and the inevitable bag that should have gone to the jetway winds up at baggage claim or vice versa.

Even if you bumped up staffing, I think you're just moving the delay around, and by having people congregate on the jetway you're slowing both deplaning (see above) and clearing the jetway so that the aircraft can be turned (cleaners on/off, crew changed, new people on).

I'm also not sure that it would have a significant impact on boarding/overhead bin space -- psychologically, you're still waiting for your bag rather than just grabbing it as you get off.

tarheelnj

I agree with your points. Standing in a cold jetway waiting for your bags can be worse than waiting at baggage claim.

I was focusing on the value of not having to gate-lice before boarding, plus the expectation than anyone who had already checked a bag would rather have the carry-on sent to baggage claim anyway, so the number of people waiting might not be that many. From my EWR experience (long wait time plus often seeing Elite tagged bags mixed with regular bags), it seemed to make sense. They have to have staff to bring up strollers anyway. As for the fighting-upstream factor, this would replace the fighting-upstream issue on the plane when passengers seated in the back can't find space for their bags, slowing the boarding process.

But in the end, I agree that the logistical challenges most likely outweigh the benefits (unless someone wants to suggest this as a GS/1K benefit).

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I think you, in effect, did :

apodo77

mahasamatman

Sometimes at remote outstations like TPA, the contract baggage handlers aren't the most motivated or efficient.

mduell

Nor at major UA hubs like IAH. 40+ min is the norm.

CruiserCLE

AFAIK, TPA is not a contract station, but could be wrong about below the wing.

OP - yes, sadly while TPA has some great CS agents, baggage has always been an on and off issue throughout the years while I've lived there. Did you see if another flight (or two) landed around the same time? The norm IME is that they collect luggage from all of the flights and deliver it all at once, which also makes the priority tags pointless (not that they ever help most of the time) and could easily create the 40+ minute wait you are describing.

EWR764