Some months ago, American Airlines announced that it would begin priority baggage delivery for its top-tier customers system wide.  I was excited to hear that American was stepping up to the plate on this, even though I rarely check bags.  That said, when I do, I hate waiting for them!

After several flights without checked bags, I finally had the opportunity to put American’s new service to the test on my recent flights to and from Orlando.  The results?  Mixed.  My bags were close to the last to be delivered when arriving in Orlando.  But on the return to Washington, DC (DCA), they were among the first to hit the belt, right along with the other priority tagged bags.  Score!

I’m going to give American the benefit of the doubt on my Orlando arrival.  Why?  We were swapped from the usual 757 on this flight to a 767-300 widebody.  I don’t think AA serves Orlando with widebodies anymore since the A300’s retired last year.  The ground handling needs between a widebody and a narrobody aircraft are not the same, and I think this may have impacted the delivery of baggage in some way.  At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself, as the results I’ve read on Flyertalk.com and Travelingbetter.com have mostly been pretty positive.

Kudos to AA for stepping up to the plate and working to deliver this service.  I hope they continue to focus on executing early delivery of priority bags because little things like this can drive travel decisions for high volume fliers.