Interesting! Thanks for letting me know. I'll make sure FS-Dad asks for the tags if the agent neglects to add them next time.

And indeed he should get them even traveling domestically as a 1P. I almost always did (not that I check bags frequently).

Has any FTer ever got this kind of "United First" Tag with checked bag?

I got this at Milwaukee airport.

I felt "important" the first time that a priority tag was attached to my luggage. Other than that, I can't say that the tags have had a consistent impact.

The baggage handlers at the origin have an impact on whether priority bags are the first available at the destination. So, don't immediately blame the folks at your destination.

Pittsburgh bag delivery is absolutely terrible no matter what airline-class combination you have. I can recall once trip with a colleague and we had plenty of time to marvel at the one-bag-every-three-minutes delivery system.

Priority tags works well flying internationally going out of the States. Flying into the U.S. (especially ORD) they are useless....or worse. Don't know why UA doesn't fix this.

IAD-BOS last night. Priority bags were the first off the belt.

When did you get this??? All of the UA tags are the orange with start alliance logo.

BOS is one of the exceptions. BOS is the best.

ABE (UAX only) does an amazing job with priority tags. Never once has my priority tagged bag failed to come out later then the fourth bag.

I was returning home from a vacation and met up with my boss in ORD, who was returning home from a conference. He has no status, and made a joking comment about me boarding first. I said "just wait until baggage claim". 2 hours later at ABE, he says "so let me get this straight, your bag will come off first?" The belt starts, out comes my bag, my ski bag, another priority tagged bag, and my friends bag and ski bag. With a smile I said "see you on Monday".

So true here in China, I have been on UA 851 from SFO to PEK three times in the last six months, The priority bags are mixed in with the other bags. It is due to PEK T3 folks.
The Domestic US priority bags are first off 'most' of the time in the US.

Since I've worked at PWM (Oct 08), we've had those tags. We just only ever use them when we run out of Priority Tags.

I don't know exact criteria on when to use this as opposed to the standard priority tags.

The priority tag certainly had no effect on my bag getting on our ORD-IAD flight. 1P, flying in F, checked in 1.5 hours early, and low-and-behold: no bag on the carousel!

I have plenty of nice things to say about United, but I was rather upset that afternoon (more embarrassed than anything because the in-laws picked us up and I'm standing there like a jackass for 45 minutes waiting for a bag to never arrive). It finally turned up on another flight, but late enough that they didn't deliver it until the next morning. The courier also threw the bag out of the back of his truck before bringing it to the door (this was over Christmas and there were presents in it). The perfect cherry on top to what was supposed to be a simple trip.

pjhyett, so sorry to hear about your experience. for me, the priority tag has always worked well when the bag arrived with me...but on several (consecutive) trips last year in the space of a month my bag was misplaced...and dealing with the lost baggage department was a nightmare every single time!

... which we all know is another complete joke by UA, since any baggage supervisor/handler will tell you there isn't a set policy for domestic flights and it's up to the staff at individual stations to decide. As I've mentioned previously in this thread, I've taken the time to ask many employees at various stations across the system whenever I get a chance, and all of them have said the same thing: international flights, there's a policy; domestic flights, there's none.

BTW, does CO have a similar system?