After a long flight, no one enjoys standing in a crowded baggage claim area while waiting anxiously for a bag to arrive. Most travelers want to quickly retrieve their bags and head to their hotel, train, or home after spending hours on an airplane. Through experience, many travelers have discovered a collection of airport travel tricks that can improve the likelihood of their bags arriving faster than everyone else’s.
Many frequent flyers use these techniques frequently, particularly during busy travel times when baggage claim areas can become chaotic. Some of these tricks require relatively little effort and do not necessitate any kind of extravagant spending or exclusive privileges with respective airlines. Making just a few small changes before boarding can result in a dramatic difference in the amount of time it takes for your bags to arrive at the baggage claim once you’ve exited the aircraft.
One of the most effective techniques is using priority baggage service. Many airlines will provide priority baggage if the passenger is flying business, first class, or has a high level of loyalty status with an airline. By tagging the bag with a priority tag, the priority baggage is frequently loaded differently than other bags, and they are typically unloaded earlier than other bags. More than likely, the priority-tagged baggage will be among the first bags to arrive onto the baggage claim conveyor.
Surprisingly enough, checking in at a much later time can often give you an advantage also. Since when bags get loaded inside the aircraft, they get loaded in a set sequence, if an airline loads a bag last onto an aircraft for example, most likely that bag will also be unloaded first off the aircraft. Therefore, sometimes travelers who check-in later than everyone else by being closer to the end of their assigned check-in time may never know it, but they have benefitted from the cargo loading sequence of the airline. This sequence is often different at different airports, but can still present the same or similar situations for aircraft loaded later are sometimes unloaded earlier from the aircraft.
Another travel tip that seasoned travelers love is that of utilizing gate check. When overhead space in the aircraft becomes limited, sometimes airlines will allow passengers to gate check a carry-on bag at the gate just before boarding. Oftentimes the gate checked items are kept in close proximity to the main/load cargo doors of the aircraft, where they are very accessible to passengers shortly after landing. While not all flights will utilize a gate check service, there are holiday and travel seasons that may create a higher frequency of use, therefore asking your airline whether or not they utilize a gate check service could save you a significant amount of time waiting for your baggage.
Although some people request fragile sticker labels at check-in because their bags contain fragile contents, there are also some instances of confused or inconsistent handling practices. For example, because the tag indicates that the bag is fragile, staff may place the bag on top of the stack or in other easily accessible places in the cargo compartment, thus increasing the chances of getting it to the baggage carousel sooner than the average piece of checked luggage. Depending on the specific airline being flown, there may be additional charges for extra handling services or they may give out the tags free of charge.
The size of the airport also plays a major role in how long one must wait for luggage. Many travelers do not realize that the volume of baggage being handled by large airports (especially international ones) slows down the entire baggage delivery process due to the sheer number of bags being handled. Smaller airports tend to have a much smaller volume of aircraft landing, so in most cases bags are handled much quicker than at larger airports. As such, travelers transferring through a regional airport will typically experience a much shorter wait for their luggage than those who transferred through one of the world’s largest airports.
First-class travel not only provides greater legroom and higher-quality meals than coach; but it also entitles the premium passenger to receive priority handling for their luggage automatically. In some cases, first-class luggage is handled separately and transit to the carousel is done via specially designated carts dedicated to transporting first-class baggage, resulting in decreased delivery times in many of the busiest times throughout the course of the year.
The frequent flyer program can help you reduce your wait-time at baggage claim if you obtain priority tags when traveling in economy class, depending on your frequent flyer status with airline. Frequent flyer status also increases your ability to receive priority tags for checked luggage. Frequent flyer programs can be used over time to save many hours of time (and money) at the airport without always having to buy higher price tickets.
Long delays when claiming checked luggage has become a major issue in today’s modern air travel system and, in particular, during busy travel periods such as holidays and during busy international travel periods. Due to this, travelers today spend a lot of time searching for smarter ways to avoid wasting time at their destination as soon as they arrive. While there is no specific method to guarantee that your checked baggage will be the first to arrive at baggage claim, implementing multiple different suggestions should increase your likelihood of receiving your checked baggage before anyone else.
Likewise, many of the details that are important to having an easy time getting to your destination fall into smaller categories that many travelers fail to consider, for example, checking-in at the right time and selecting the most appropriate flight perks. Making minor choices before you depart will make your arrival experience a great deal more enjoyable than if you had made poor choices prior to departing.
