Does priority luggage ever work?

I have in the last 12 months had to travel with a little more luggage and have started checking in my suitcase.

This has been a horrible painful experience and while it has on a few occasions come out quickly more than 75% of the time it has been lost in the middle of all the bags.

Am I just unlucky or do other people have the same experience. All my flights are PE or UC and I am an Au card holder.

[preiffer]

Same here, on MANY occasions (including my last flight)

[Neil]

It has been mentioned in quite a few TR's recently how bad the priority luggage has been, and personally it has only ever worked 50% for the time for me. VS need to sort this out, they offer it as a perk when flying in the premium classes but are failing to deliver it[n]

Neil

Sounds like my experiences have been pretty similar to yours over the last few months....[n]

Returning from SFO last week I placed a PE tag on my rucksack before I got to check-in just to take the chance away that my bag wasn't tagged by the agent.

Suprisingly it was the 4th bag off at LHR so I think I will be tagging my own bags in the future...[:p]

Yup - it's consistent on other airlines too, BA and Emirates in my recent experience. e.g. Gatwick North on Sunday arriving on Emirates First Class - bags came off in the middle, not only that but they were signalled as coming off carousel 8, then as they appeared the PA said carousel 7 and 8, so loads of people running around between them. That's BAA for you [}:)]

I've been lucky with priority luggage over the last year.

[preiffer]

I HATE it when they do that - issue TWO baggage belts. So which one do I watch?!? [n]

Originally posted by slinky09
Yup - it's consistent on other airlines too, BA and Emirates in my recent experience. e.g. Gatwick North on Sunday arriving on Emirates First Class - bags came off in the middle, not only that but they were signalled as coming off carousel 8, then as they appeared the PA said carousel 7 and 8, so loads of people running around between them. That's BAA for you [}:)]

I've always had problems with VS but on any *A when I'm *G and my stuff has always come out amongst the first batch

[RichardMannion]

Drives me up the wall, not consistent in any way. The array of 'excuses' at LHR is appalling - they are forever blaming someone else - 'they loaded it in the wrong bin' etc..

Only airline with good track record for me is SQ (although I have never picked up bags on an SQ flight at LHR which would be challenging).

VS priority bags is no better or worse than BA. On Emirates First, my bags were the last to come out (I did check in very early).

At LHR these days, just be grateful if you get your bags at all!

Priority Luggage ... Never seems to work in Orlando or Heathrow [n]

It hasn't really worked for me much this year, apart from arriving at JFK, they were waiting for me, but on my last flight back from DXB they seemed to unload 1 bin of UC then all of Y I had to wait for the BF bag for 45mins! [n][n] They really do need to get this sorted, along with priority boarding! [:I]

Never had a problem with priority baggage when travelling PE from either LHR or LGW

Claire

Originally posted by andrew.m.wright
Priority Luggage ... Never seems to work in Orlando or Heathrow [n]

It worked when we flew out on the 7th, just walked through immigration and the bags popped up - it will be interesting to see if we actually see our bags when we get back to lgw never mind anything else

David

On my last 2 flights I have been fortunate that my bags have come off first despite not having any right to priority luggage. Perhaps this just backs up what you have all been saying.

Bags have always been off first for me.

Can't say it is ever a problem for me.... It usually takes longer to get through immigration than the bags need.
Though on my last Korean Air flight, I had the pleasant surprise of finding out I had moved up a level on skyteam and they give 2nd priority to their "elite" members, and amazingly my bag was first up the belt.
On my previous flight from lhr to pvg, the check in agent went to great pains to explain that the bar code did all the prioritising and my bag didn't need any other priority sticker.... Not sure if it worked because the immigration queue at pvg was as slow as usual.

Whenever i fly out of LHR, it's pretty much always been on the mark.

When you're travelling into the UK remember at many of the airports not only do they still use manual loading, but as they're not VS staff and third party contractors, they most likely are not that fussed about what bag goes where.

Unfortunately this is one of the downsides of outsourcing!

(fingers crossed) We normaly fly PE LGW-MCO, normally between 7-10 large suitcases, and in the last 7 years, we are normally one of the first through customs.

Bet I've jinxed myself for the March trip!

Karen

Priority baggage worked fine for me at both MCO and MAN last November. Bags were out on the seperate belt at MCO [for UC / PE] within a minute of me clearing immigration [no queue there either]. Back at MAN, I was in the car park [with my bags] within 10mins of leaving the aircraft.

James

Since having to check baggage, last 3 trips VS350/351/350) flying UC my case has come off 1st, 3rd and 4th.

More than happy with this!!! And 1st and 4th were in Mumbai - even more of a miracle. Returning tomorrow on VS351 - may this roll continue.

originally posted by lipstick

When you're travelling into the UK remember at many of the airports not only do they still use manual loading, but as they're not VS staff and third party contractors, they most likely are not that fussed about what bag goes where.

As you say they manually load and they are not VS staff but surly the baggage is still VS's responsibility. The problem here is that they included priority baggage as a selling point for PE & UC and it's just not happening[n]

-Steve

Originally posted by KenUK
Since having to check baggage, last 3 trips VS350/351/350) flying UC my case has come off 1st, 3rd and 4th.

Please PM me next Saturday's lottery numbers would you?

Have to say - last six VS flights in the past three months only one had UC baggage tags, not that it made any difference. It's certainly the exception when they come off first.

Do they containerize on some a/c or at certain locations or are they all just thrown in?

Auch aye, Howard,
Edinburgh

Wellll, as somebody involved with the handling of VA baggage at Heathrow, I feel that I should comment ....

How it happens at Heathrow ...
It doesn't matter what label *you* put on your bag, it is the label attached at check-in which is read by the machines (laser scanner on the bar-code) which decides where your bag goes. If you're in UC then it goes into the 'J' bin (as we know it), and if you're in UC it goes into the 'W' bin. Almost all the other bags go into the 'Y' bins. A selection of bags (usually the late arrivals, or odd sizes and shapes - ski's, golfclubs, surf boards, etc) are placed into a separate hold at the back of the aircraft.
The baggage bins are delivered to the back of the aircraft, and are loaded by us! The 'W' and 'J' bins, and the one(s) containing Transfer bags (ie, bags for passengers flying onwards from your destination) are the LAST to be loaded. In an ideal situation the 'J' bin should be in the doorway of the hold, but it could be blocked-in by bin(s) of Transfer bags.

When the flight gets to the other end the 'J' bin *should* be first off the aircraft, or firstly the Transfers and then the 'J'. The 'Js' should be first on the baggage belt at the other end (in theory!).

For an inbound (to Heathrow) flight, we are all waiting for the flight to arrive. There are people who's job is just Transfers and those who's job is just 'Js'. They are the first to collect their baggage bins from the aircraft; they go to different places in the baggage hall, so we can just be concerned about the 'J', 'W', 'Y' and loose baggage. The 'J' bins have priority, and we have to deliver them to the baggage belt first. It does happen that the 'J' bins are delayed from the aircraft, so those of us doing 'W' and 'Y' have to wait. On a few occasions I have got the the belt first, but had to move aside to allow the 'J' bags and 'W' bags to be done first.

It does happen that some 'J' bags are loaded loose into the rear hold, and they *should* be unloaded first. But when you open the door and are met by a wall of 50+ cases (and cargo, and courier, and push-chairs, and child-seats, and ski's, and surf boards - you get the idea!) it is not easy to find one or two 'J' bags in the pile. These bags are manually unloaded, manually loaded into a cart, and then manually unloaded onto the baggage belt. Please spare a thought for our backs! Unfortunately (but not always) these loose bags are usually the last things to be put onto the baggage belts.

Regarding 'multiple belts' or 'switching belts' - I have never ever seen multiple belts in use at Heathrow, and the only time that I've known a belt switch to happen was when somebody (okay, okay, it was me!) put the VS010 bags on the VS020 belt; but that was before the belts had started and any of the passengers were in the baggage hall. We just changed the screens in the baggage hall! Oops.

(Hopefully I won't get into trouble over saying all this!)

[honey lamb]

Thanks, Biggles, for that informative post. [y]

Three questions:
When you checkin at another station and are interlined to LHR for an onward destination to VS does the barcode that is put on at the first point of departure indicate that it is a UC case or is it just a generic Y code?

Does a J barcode get put on when checking in for flights to LHR?

What about J golf clubs? It seems to behit and miss as far as they are concerned. On occasion Aer John's clubs have come out on the belt with other J bags and other times we have had to wait till nearly the end