As a 1K travelling on economy, do I get priority tags internationally? What about domestically? What are people's actual experiences? Thanks.

My experience is that United pays very little attention to priority bag tags anywhere.

I have complained about priority baggage during the summer. Here is a reply I got back from UA:

Dear valued customer,

Your message was received from our Hong Kong Reservations office.

You are correct that Premier Executives and 1K members, Star Gold members, should receive a priority Star Alliance baggage tag. I am concerned that you continue to receive inconsistent service in this regard. Your comments will be shared with our Syracuse airport management as a reminder for our Customer Service staff. In addition,I'm asking our Worldheadquarters Customer Services management to include this information in their weekly Customer Services briefings. These briefings are provided to all of United's Customer Service professionals worldwide.

Your comments and continued business are very important to United and our Star Alliance partners.

Best regards,

Barbara A. Bartz
Sen. Staff Representative
Customer Relations/United Airlines

I hope there is at least some improvement.

seawold, yes, you are entitled to Priority Tags both domestically and internationally, as well as 3 pieces of checked luggage as a Star Gold.

In theory, as a Star Alliance Gold traveler you are entitled to priority tagging of your checked luggage at check-in for all *A flights. If you see that it does not occur automatically, you should specifically ask that the "orange arrow" be placed adhesively in your UA-generated, barcoded bag tag.

In practice, fat lot of good it does. Last week I flew United Business to Australia and my one checked suitcase had the orange arrow. Not only was my bag not first off the plane, it was never off the plane. This sank in as I stood there, alone, like a moron an hour after we landed. The bag somehow got lost on the nonstop flight from SFO to SYD, and only turned up 2 days later in Perth.

The only priority bag is one that's carried on.

Seawolf - have never had to ask United. They seem to do it automatically whether first flight is coach or C. Have checked in on 5 different * carriers this year who all also apply their own specific priority tags. Nearly all those flights were as a 1P, but to other * carriers, 1P and 1K are the same status.

Premex yes 3 pieces to and from USA, as the vanilla allowance is two. I don't think a * Gold travelling to * destinations or * carriers to/from other than USA gets 3 pieces - certainly not in coach. As I recall the entitlement is ONE extra piece of checked on top of the vanilla ONE piece allowance in coach.

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~ Glen ~

[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 12-12-2000).]

The standard allowance is 20kg, pieces is only on the US routes

Thanks for all the reponses. I've had good experiences with priority tags on international flights. Never tried domestics. Any difference between United First and Star Priority tags?

I have seen no tangible differences between First or Star Priority tags: Both seem to equally guarantee that my bag will be the last bag off the plane, especially on domestic flights.

(This happens so frequently that my wife and I have a standing joke about it. She frequently picks me up when I fly into SFO. If I am delayed getting through customs, she often says "priority baggage tags?".)

-b-

usually on International flights, the first bags to come off the belt are a mixture of UA First and priority bags. About three years ago though, I was travelling in F class and one of my bags was literally the last bag that showed up... but that was just a one time thing.. never has happened after that..

I did have one glorious flight to NRT when my orange-tagged bags were the first and second bags off the conveyor, from a nearly-full plane. Other than that I've noticed little difference with and without the tags.

The only place the priority tags have worked for me, believe it or not, is SFO, and they have been very consistent!!! Elsewhere it seems a waste of time - often 3 bags come out early and the fourth half an hour later.

There can be a culture difference for some airlines. In Sept I flew from Los Cabos with MEX and had the Classe Ejectivo tags (comp. upgrade due to * card!) and the Star * priority tags. All those bags so tagged came out first at LAX. Then they STOPPED the belt for a minute or so, almost to make a point to the huddling masses still waiting for their untagged bags!

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~ Glen ~

Unfortunately on almost all the United domestics flights i take my luggage doesn't seem to arrive first because i have the priority or first orange tag,
i noticed that i get it faster on international flights

I just arrived in SEL today, and my orange/yellow "UNITED FIRST" tagged bag came out literally third, after two other bags of same tag.