Few things test a traveler’s patience like waiting at the baggage carousel, watching bag after bag roll by — but never your own. While others stride out of the airport, you’re still standing there, waiting and wondering.
But what if there was a way to change that?
Thomas Lo Sciuto, a ramp operator and gate agent at a U.S. regional airport, has shared a simple but surprisingly effective tip: check your luggage in last. It might seem counterintuitive, but here’s why it works.
“Bags are loaded front to back on the baggage carts,” Lo Sciuto explained in a Quora post. “So if you check in last, your bag is placed in the last cart, which gets loaded into the plane last — and that makes it the first to come out on arrival.”
There’s also a more direct method: gate-checking your bag. This means bringing your bag with you all the way to the boarding gate and having it tagged and loaded there. These bags are typically offloaded first, as they’re stored in the aircraft’s forward hold for easy access.
However, gate-checking comes with one key limitation: no liquids or items that wouldn’t normally be allowed in carry-on, since the bag still passes through security with you.
A third clever tactic comes from New York Post: ask the airline staff for a “Fragile” sticker. Luggage marked as fragile is often loaded last to avoid damage — and thus, is also unloaded first.
Still, a word of caution. If you’re labeling your bag, never include your home address. Thieves could see this as a sign you’re out of town and take advantage of your absence.
So next time you travel, try one of these strategies. A bit of polite timing, a sticker, or a gate-check request could be the difference between breezing out of the terminal — or being the last one standing.
After all, even travel frustrations have a smarter way through — if you know who to ask.
