Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for you?

[LiamR]

Continuing on from this thread OT (http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/qantas-frequent-flyer-program/qantas-new-bag-tag-test-26365-13.html#post426302 )

Baggage at certain airports is getting worse and worse, NCGI has improved it. I rarely check in baggage, but when I do, I find myself waiting towards the end of the baggage arriving, when on QF as an elite, baggage should be amongst the first to arrive.

What is everybody else's experience? What airport in Australia has the longest wait times?

Does Priority Baggage work? Does NCGI make it better or worse?

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

As an elite, I rate NGCI with bags 3/10

As far as any priority in collecting bags, I've never seen any ongoing hard proof there is any difference between status/class in my thousands of flights.

 

[straitman]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

Does Priority Baggage work? Does NCGI make it better or worse?

Priority Baggage normally works for me.

I have not used NGCI yet.

 

[oz_mark]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

Does Priority Baggage work? Does NCGI make it better or worse?

My experience was that it generally worked when using the coloured tags. It has not worked for me at when using the new tags.

 

[Blackadder]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

Had better results with the coloured tags, seems more a mixed response from the few times I have travleed since NGCI has come in.

 

[ausi ski bum]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

My understanding is Priority only means if they have to offload some bags due to weight or whatever, the priority bags are last to be considered.

 

[ozmille]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

International with the coloured tags my bags have been relatively fast coming out. That might have something to do with the fact that I usually walk very slowly to get to the baggage claim area because I hate waiting after a long haul.
Domestic I usually try not to check in bags.

 

[Groundfeeder]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

Only had one occasion when my NGCI bag came out at No.4, the rest since then have been beyond No.50 (when I stop counting) even with Priority tag.:evil:

 

[codash1099]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

FWIW, priority tags don't appear to get any better attention in the US. Bags from an AA flt LAX-HNL took an inordinate time to come off (even rivalling PER at its worst) and tags meant nothing

 

[harvyk]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

The longest I've waited before bags even started coming out was at MIA, it was over an hour before the first bag came out.

Second longest was at HKG, the decided to use the one carousel for 4 different (all wide body) flights, even though there where multiple other unused carousels...

As for priority, with J tags I've found it to be hit and miss, at CBR they seem to ignore J tags completely (or at least always have for me) other places they seem to be OK. The best was SFO where they placed the J + F bags in a roped off area away from the carousel and the attendant asked for you name and went and got the bag for you... Very quick...

The priority tags don't seem to be worth the paper they are printed on... A couple of times I've seen priority bags come out first, but most of the time the priority tag does nothing (although the baggage offload theory seems plausible)

 

[dfcatch]

I find on average bags arrive IME faster on AA than in Australia.

Priority baggage in Australia with the paper tags on QF I find 5/10 at best. I haven't used NGCI with checked bags.

On AA I have found priority bags to work 8/10 and have flown AA extensively.

NZ and AC with priority tags has been 10/10.

BA and CX have been 7/10 with priority tags.

I've said it before, YMMV but I have found Australian baggage handlers to be, on average, horrible at any sort of prompt performance. And even worse at getting priority bags out.

 

[marks]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

Do find when I land OS (SIN, LAX, HKG) The priority & J paper tags work almost 100%.

If it works OS, why doesn't work at home? Maybe the lack of Qantas baggage handlers in the OS airport helps...

 

[SamR]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

I also had much more luck with the coloured tags.

I've travelled a lot lately with paper bag tags with the 'priority' logo printed on. It seems to be fairly meaningless.

 

[Sprucegoose]

My understanding is Priority only means if they have to offload some bags due to weight or whatever, the priority bags are last to be considered.

Interesting perspective, I had never considered that!

 

[Tooner]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

I've had bags go missing in SYD and HKG (the latter ending up going on a holiday of their own and arriving back in SYD just after us).

With NGCI we've only used it once, and all came out quick, but loading in SYD the system wouldn't allow 2 bags on my membership (even though it should).

In general, I find the bright yellow F tags work best internationally, while domestically I avoid checking luggage at all costs.

 

[david870mdg]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

MEL has to be the worst in Australia... Particularly QF Domestic.
The baggagle "handlers" just sit out the back and play cards or do something other than work surely...

JFK ex QF107 can be like playing a lottery in terms of wait times.
QF "priority" tags are worth the paper they are printed on IMHO.

As for HKG and SIN, even KUL and PVG - never had to wait ...

 

[m_ratt]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

Priority baggage has worked about 85% for me recently. (Using WP NGCI tags)

CBR-MEL - success.
MEL-CBR - 1 bag quickly, 1 slowly (I watched the priority luggage be unloaded first from the front cargo door of the 734, prior to AAE cargo).

CBR-MEL-PER - all three checked bags quickly, though 2 of 3 NGCI tags didn't work in Canberra so had paper 'Business' tags. I was very surprised to see my luggage quickly in PER, as normally I have to wait a while.

 

[straitman]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

MEL has to be the worst in Australia... Particularly QF Domestic.
The baggagle "handlers" just sit out the back and play cards or do something other than work surely...

My experienc in MEL has always been better than PER.

My worst experience ever was in BOS off an AA 757, 2130 and no other aircraft and we waited 90 minutes for bags.

 

[thewinchester]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

My worst experience ever was in BOS off an AA 757, 2130 and no other aircraft and we waited 90 minutes for bags.

Are you serious?!? I would have been having kittens at 30min, and having words at 60 with ground staff. 90min is an unspeakable joke.

 

[straitman]

Re: Baggage, whats the longest you should wait? Has Priority Baggage ever worked for

Are you serious?!? I would have been having kittens at 30min, and having words at 60 with ground staff. 90min is an unspeakable joke.

No joke and no ground staff :!: