How to Get Your Suitcase to Be the First to Arrive at Baggage Claim
If I don’t have to (read: I’m flying with a drink ), I always do my best so that I don’t have to check my bag while traveling. Aside from the fees associated with handing over your bag, in my opinion the worst part of the whole experience is waiting after a long flight for your suitcase to appear on the carousel. This waiting usually makes me regret that I bought a bottle of whiskey and postponed the trip home for 20 minutes.
If you’re like me and hate waiting for your bag, Travel + Leisure recently offered some tips on how to make sure your bags are one of the first to fly out of the plane. The key is to make sure your bag is one of the last loaded. That way, when they load the plane, yours will be one of the first.
So how do you do it?
T + L has two sentences. First, just check your bag at the gate. While you will have to fork out over $ 25 at the check-in counter when you arrive at the airport if you wait and check your bag at the gate, the airline often waives the collection. Since the bag handlers have already loaded all the luggage that was checked by people when they arrived at the airport, your check-out bag will most likely be placed on the plane last, which means it will probably be sent first and alone. out first on the carousel when you arrive.
It is clear that this trick only works when you have a direct flight. If you do have a connection, then your checked-in baggage will re-enter the mix on your next flight as if you had checked it when you arrived at the airport.
The second T + L sentence is a little more interesting and involves checking your bag as usual, but asking you to mark it fragile. T + L says fragile bags are loaded on the plane last, which means your bags should come off first.
What’s more, this trick should work even if you have a connection and switch planes and this fragile sticker is free.
Another less straightforward way to get a suitcase first is to gain status in the airline’s frequent flyer program or purchase a first or business class ticket; VIP suitcases are often viewed first and removed from the carousel earlier than bags belonging to economy travelers. class. or who do not have an airline status.
And as T + L points out, every airline and airport is different, so these tricks may not work all the time, but they are definitely worth it.