My bag was one of the first to arrive on the carousel...

but items were missing. Makes me wonder if those orange priority tags also scream "Valuables inside this bag".

Lets not get ahead of ourselves, I don't think I'd call it "solved", but rather: making improvement. Lets see some good length of time with consistent performance before we start calling it solved.

If it does, someone's going to be disappointed with what they find in mine . . .

One of my international trips the priority tag helps me identify my bags had mis-connected earlier. After almost all bags with priority tags came out first and then I wait a while more but still could not see my bags. Then I went directly to check and found out my bags were mis-connected.

On international flights priority tags work wonders (at least at NRT & PVG).

Almost all of my experiences to LAX have been just the opposite (coming out near last with priority tags). However, on my most recent flight NRT-LAX, my bag was among the first 10 bags to come out. So perhaps things are getting better at LAX. I can only hope.

A red tagged "PRIORITY" luggage gets lost
 

1) The question is straight forword. The place is ORD.

2) Did anyone else with red tag "PRIORITY" luggage had a similar experience?

3) While discussing the situation with CSRs at the baggage claim area I was told that UA just layed off 150 CSRs.
There was bitterness expressed by the CRs present. One was just disinterested. (ignored me). The second CSR suggested to me to speak to the computer terminal... and see if the computer can help find my luggage.... - Meaning try to find it without the person-to-person assistance of the the CSRs. The third CSR handled my situation after an hour and the luggage was later delivered home. The issue that emerged was the big bonuses that management gives itself at the expense of cutting CR positions.

4) .... I am only trying to do above "Alternative Dispute Mediation" service between management and labor... I think that the individual UA employees are generally fine folks.

I'm sorry to hear about the incident you had with your lagguage, and the inconvenience comming with that, however, priority tags get attached to Premium travellers's bags to insure to be offloaded first. They do not have any influence on being lost etc.

*raises hand*

Lost luggage happens. It sucks, but it happens.

I'm not sure what relationship you are trying to establish between the P tag and fact your bag was lost? The P tag is not a panacea for all baggage ills.

The P tag should, ideally, get you quicker baggage delivery at your destination and potentially put your bag at a higher priority for loading should you be on a flight that bulks out or is otherwise forced to leave baggage behind for operational reasons. Beyond that, it's really just another bag.

Some more info about your itinerary would help...

I had heard about UA canning about 150 front-line employees. The Chicago Tribune did an article about it recently and the movement towards kiosk help, rather than actual human help..:td::td:

However, I am still surprised that the bag was "lost". As priority bags are the last to load and first to unload, I would think it should have gone straight to the cart.. Unless it was not loaded at your starting point.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...,6957579.story

I've suffered delayed luggage with connections more than anything else, all with priority tags. I've also waited ages at the baggage carousel, watching bags without priority tags (and same nonstop itin as mine, not connection bags) come out before mine. The P tag doesn't guarantee anything, but it's pretty and it helps us feel important :D

CSRs at SFO aren't all that helpful either - problem is that there are too many PAX with lost/delayed/etc luggage and not enough CSRs to help them. And those kiosks can allow PAX to input the baggage tag number and sometimes indicate that the bag was delayed...

The Priority tag is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine(corny I know). On United, domestically at least the tags don't have much use. On more service oriented airlines (LH, SQ, other alliances) the priority tags often have their own bin on widebodies and consistently come out first.

You know, I always thought that the priority tag did very little domestically. But our last flights in Dec. were SFO-MHT and back. At both SFO & MHT, when the bags were tagged, they were missing the orange Priority part that sticks out. When I questioned the check-in agent, I was told they don't do those anymore but if I looked closely at the baggage tag, "Priority" was printed on there. It certainly did not stand out but I took her word for it. This was the first flights in years that we had delayed luggage both ways. Makes ya wonder??

On 2 Jan our priority tagged luggage was lost for two days on the MSY-ord-muc-ZAG leg.

On the 22 Jan ZAG return leg, we had to retrieve luggage in MUC. It took two hours for our tagged luggage to appear.

On the MUC-iad-MSY leg today, everything went smoothly and the priority tagged luggage, three pieces, was among first off.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

The colour of the tag does not remotely impair its capability of getting lost. UA regularly bungles my luggage for a few hours or few days. Lufthansa is even better in doing so.

The more legs the more chances it'll get lost. That's just how it is. If you have to change terminals or change airlines or even have a tight connection it just increases the chance it'll get lost.