*G Companion Baggage Tag Incident
#16
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First, OP simply has it wrong. The companion was not entitled to priority luggage. Presumably the agent gave up because it's not worth tying up the line for 2 minutes, let alone 15.
Second, the orange tag is a "feel good". All that matters, if it matters at all, is the priority baked into the bar code. The orange tag is to make people feel important when they are not.
This was a ridiculous waste of time and got OP and companion exactly nothing.
Second, the orange tag is a "feel good". All that matters, if it matters at all, is the priority baked into the bar code. The orange tag is to make people feel important when they are not.
This was a ridiculous waste of time and got OP and companion exactly nothing.
#17
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Sure. Even accounting for all of my flights, I don't have a big enough data set to be significant. I will say that several of the airports I frequent seem consistent: MCO is consistently bad, for example; SAN seems consistently good.
#18
Join Date: Oct 2010
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I'm not convinced that the priority tags are useless - I was once on a heavily weight restricted ORD-PVD flight where a lot of bags got bumped off at ORD. The priority tagged bags made it just fine though,
#19
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#20
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#21
Join Date: Jan 2017
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LHR consistently seems to deliver my orange tagged bag first/early. I’ve landed there probably 75+ times over the years. SFO is completely random.
#22
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: EWR
Programs: Latam Pass Black; UA 1K, 1MM; Marriott LT
Posts: 300
I flew LH a few weeks ago, and somehow their priority tagging for their top tier equivalent seemed to work... those bags came off first, and were neatly stacked by a guy who was catching them as they came down the luggage chute. Now that is something that I would like.....
IME, as others have said, the "priority" or "VIP" tagging has been meaningless for me, so why even argue for the tagging in the first place.
IME, as others have said, the "priority" or "VIP" tagging has been meaningless for me, so why even argue for the tagging in the first place.
#23
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Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: SFO/SJC/OAK
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First, OP simply has it wrong. The companion was not entitled to priority luggage. Presumably the agent gave up because it's not worth tying up the line for 2 minutes, let alone 15.
Second, the orange tag is a "feel good". All that matters, if it matters at all, is the priority baked into the bar code. The orange tag is to make people feel important when they are not.
This was a ridiculous waste of time and got OP and companion exactly nothing.
Second, the orange tag is a "feel good". All that matters, if it matters at all, is the priority baked into the bar code. The orange tag is to make people feel important when they are not.
This was a ridiculous waste of time and got OP and companion exactly nothing.
There was no line, so I didn't feel bad getting my entitled benefits.
You're certainly right, the priority should be baked into the printed baggage tag. My initial question is why this wasn't done so when the UA site lists that companion baggage should also be priority.
I was quoting the UA site on Premier Access benefits. It states there that a companion of someone eligible for Premier Access is also eligible for all Premier Access benefits. One of these is priority baggage.
#24
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Premier Access is available to the following customers:
* Complimentary Premier Access is determined by the Premier status of the traveler on the day of travel for all tickets, including award tickets. Customers traveling on the same reservation as someone who is eligible to receive complimentary Premier Access will also receive complimentary Premier Access.
- MileagePlus Premier® members footnote*
- Travelers in United Polaris℠ first class, United Polaris business class, United First® and United Business®
- Star Alliance™ Gold members
- MileagePlus Club and Presidential Plus credit cardmembers
* Complimentary Premier Access is determined by the Premier status of the traveler on the day of travel for all tickets, including award tickets. Customers traveling on the same reservation as someone who is eligible to receive complimentary Premier Access will also receive complimentary Premier Access.
#25
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#26
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I'm always surprised by the hating on the priority tags. My bags don't come out first every time, but I would say at least 9 times out of 10 they are in the first 20% of bags to hit the carousel. The occasional time when they come out last is a huge contrast for me, so I'm a little surprised by other experiences.
#27
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Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: SFO/SJC/OAK
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This is the key. *G is eligible to receive complimentary Premier Access so so will their companion(s).
I understand the confusion based on the fact that the asterisk is next to UA Premier members, but the wording of the asterisk section outweighs this.
And companions I've traveled with have always gotten Group 2 boarding for example, so other Premier Access benefits are in fact hard coded in for them. Just the Priority Baggage one isn't hard coded for some reason, which I don't understand.
#28
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
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The fact you have gotten some companion benefit does not change the fact there is no statement on the UA site explicitly providing the priority bag benefit. There is nothing to use to get the benefit if not provided.
#29
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Join Date: Jan 2017
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The issue is simple. For some reason, United's systems don't automatically print out "PRIO" on the printed baggage tag. This seems like a simple fix on United's part. I'll be writing in to clarify and will than update the original post.
#30
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 776
So I learned that there is quite the range of what one would consider to be a "very unpleasant incident" with UA. Some say it's getting your face smashed in and dragged off the plane, others to rightfully get priority baggage tags for companions declined. Who am I to judge...