3A? Isn't the hatch for baggage on the right?

So how hard would it be to hire some welders, and put in a partition in the hold: orange tags in the little hold, non-orange tags in big hold, and tell the baggage handlers to load and unload accordingly?

Typo perhaps, did you mean 14 and not 4?

I seem to be having very good experience with the tags. On all my flights from PVG to SFO, my bags show up within the first 15 bags. On SFO to PVG leg, although they don't show up as quickly but they do seem to be clustered around luggage with P tag.

It's been pretty consistent for me this year when I've had checked baggage - bags are always in the first grouping out with the other priority bags. They might not be the first out, but they're definitely loaded before non-priority bags. This covers SFO, OAK, PHL, BOM (LH), TPE (SQ and UA), and SIN (SQ).

This is UA! That is not what we consider a service enhancement.

Most likely impossible, or nearly so. Basically, you can't modify an airplane without the FAA getting involved, and it's always big bucks to do it.

I have always had mixed luck with these tags. Sometimes my bag comes early and othertimes its one of the last off the plane. Usually all bets are off if I have a conection.

I did hear a news story the other day that UA was considering selling priority bag handling to non-elites. Not sure if that would have any impact on the process. I know if I actually paid extra for these tags, I would expect my bag to be among the first. Seems risky to me to sell something you cannot deliver.

Not to mention what that would do to the load/balance issues.

Used to be? No way. SEA is one of the worst!! I take a family vacation there every summer and we often wait 45 minutes. Stop at the RCC, have a coffee, take the train, bags still not there!

Then in August they came out in about 20 minutes. We were floored.

OK, so my data points are only once / year, but for more than a decade. Am through there often, never check when travelling solo.

I've had mixed results also, but it certainly seems better lately. I mostly do a regular IAD-SFO, and it seems that at both ends, the first group of bags coming out is all orange tagged. The last dozen times, probably, I don't think I've seen a single non-tagged bag before mine comes out. After that, of course, I'm gone.

LHR this spring, I had the same experience about pulling the bags off, but the bag was there pretty quickly. DEL was similar setup, and the bag was off by the time I got there, but we were met by some people and that slowed us down. I'd say that my experience has been that international was better than domestic, but I'm not seeing that any more. Caveat being, as I say, 90% of my domestic is between 2 UA hubs.

Would that be on the auction block before or after the Brooklyn Bridge? I pity anyone who takes UA up on this, that is if they decide to offer it.

On second thought, if they did sell priority bag handling, presumably they'd use the same priority tags as for elites, as I can't see them wanting to have 3 different "classes" of luggage. If that were the case, and if (big if here) UA realized that they have to make the service reliable in order to be able to sell it, it could actually mean that our priority tags would finally be useful.

Dare to dream.

I have searched past FT threads and been unable to find *recent* discussion on this issue. I am sorry if this post is redundant.

I understand priority baggage handling is not a benefit for UA elites, since it is not specified on its membership guide. However, *A Gold guideline does promise priority luggage handling, and since UA is part of *A, shouldn't I entitle to the orange priority tag once I become an 1P?

In other words, priority baggage handling should extend to 1P and 1K on any UA class.

Please let me know if my reasoning is right and if so, what has your experience been? Have you (1K/1P) been able to receive priority handling on Y cabin?

I am currently 2P and getting 1P next year.

By the way, when I flew US last week, I got the *A priority tag with my UA 2P status, from a small airport that only served one-cabin aircrafts! Ohter than that, I have never received the tag when I travel on any US or UA Y cabin.

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Yes, you can get a priority tag in Y if you are 1P or higher on UA, which is * Gold.

I would not get your hopes up too high; the tags are by no means an indicator that your bags will come out first.

First of all, welcome to FlyerTalk!^

FlyinHawaiian is correct, and it is especially important to note the last part, that the priority tags are essentially worthless and hardly affect when your bags arrive.