I don't remember ever beeing in the first half of bags at SFO... either domestic or international. In fact I've been one of the last 5 people at the carousel after a flight from HKG.

Priority for what?

A couple of weeks ago I was flying F (upgraded) on SYR-ORD-DEN-AUS (DEN-AUS on Y because F was checked-in full). When I arrived in AUS, probably 25% or so or the passengers have priority tags on their bags. Mine wasn't among the first to come out, although it wasn't the last one either.

I speculate that:
1. Too many priority bags in one flight, so mine wasn't among the first dozen to come out. Or ...
2. They know that I flew Y on the last segment, so it has "less" priority than F passengers.

Who knows ...

OTOH, often times ground crews at SYR forget to put priority tags on my bags, but they are always among the first batch to be delivered on the carousel.

Like many of you, I never check bags... except when travelling with my family, as was the case on my IAD to CHS flight this week.

Well, two our of three bags didn't make it on this direct flight ... why? Weight restrictions forced them to take some bags off the plane.

Wouldn't you think they'd avoid the "priority" tagged bags? But no ... they removed mine. And in sitting in the lost baggage office, I noticed the guy next to me who had the same thing happen was a Premier with priority tags!

So I'm thinking that the ground crew actually targets these bags. My new rule: I'm going to ask them not to put the tags on.

And actually, it's rather stupid to UA to take bags off from people with status. People who fly a lot know to complain. This little move is going to cost UA at least $100 in an e-cert to me. A non-status pax probably wouldn't know to complain.

Just dumb, UA.... dumb.

#1 - its UAX, what do you expect; and
#2 - if they loaded the bags correctly - the tagged bags likely went in last so they come out first and therefore were (too) easy for these fools to grab.

The tags are just like writing FRAGILE on a package before dropping it in the mail. If it shows up in one piece you assume (incorrectly) it had an effect and do so in the future. If it shows up broken you get more upset and wonder if they broke it on purpose and next time don't write FRAGILE on the box, if it doesn't get broke this time you confirm your suspicion.

The moral is just as there is probably no correlation between writting FRAGILE on a box in the mail and it getting damaged there is no correlation between the priority tags on luggage getting lost/left/damaged/coming out first. At the end of the day its all a roll of the dice.

*The above is really only correct on domestic UA operations, I have noticed at LHR they do a better job (though I still avoid LHR like the plague) and of course some other airlines actually do care and they have an effect.

at least in my experience with AA, it doesn't help.
But I cannot really remember the case with UA. I will pay attention next time.

The only airport where I have got "Priority" baggage service is LHR (and that was Terminal 4, I'm hoping Terminal 1 operates in a similar fashion).
For those who haven't flown into LHR, the priority bags always seem to come off first, and are then removed from the conveyor and placed next to a sign indicating "priority baggage". In most cases my bag has been there before me.
I think it would be useful if other could comment on specific stations where priority baggage works - as this can effect one's decision as to whether to check.

Whenever I've gotten the Priority tag (which is rare since I rarely check baggage), it's always worked as expected... one of the first 5 or 10 bags off the belt!

Definitely a YMMV topic. When the pri tags 1st appeared they were true jokes. Almost a jinx. Lately, I've got to admit somehow it seems to work a bit. My best luck is on intl flts.

Had a bad experience 1 yr ago where UX decided to leave a few bags due to wt restrictions. V disappointed they left pri bags when the belt was filled with non-pri bags upon arrival. Expressed my disappointment via 1Kall and got a $400 cert for my trouble...of course this was after a late delivery of the bags the next morning. Ugh....

The last 6 times I've checked bags, my bag has been the very first bag to come out. Amazing. ^^^ It still doesn't make up for the other million times though. Maybe I should go to a casino immediately.

Who is actually supposed to be getting their bags tagged "PRIORITY"? Is it starting 3P/2P/1P and up, or only 1K/GS?

I get priority checking as a 1P. When checking three bags with my wife this summer (she has no status) the TA was going to put priority on two for me, but not hers. I did manage to convince her that was rather silly, and she tagged all three.

This calendar year, all domestic flights, priority tagging has meant my bag comes out among the first bags on most flights, and still early on the others.

The system will issue PRIORITY tags for those in F, C, GS, and any *G, including 1K and 1P.

Mine always seem last on UA as well. The only time I have noticed it helping was on a flight in Europe. I was flying I think JFK-LHR-CPN-HEL. There was some massive baggage handling failure at CPN. They finally announced that we were going to leave anyways but that most bags were not loaded. We got to HEL and about 8 bags come out for the whole fight, which was pretty full. All of them were priority tagged, including mine.

You could have also checked all three bags since as a *gold you get three bags free. This was helpful for me when I went to Boulder with my wife as on the outbound trip we were on different flights. Since the bags where checked under my itin (direct flight) she did not have to leave airside even though she got to DEN about an hour before me to collect her bag.