Hi Floridaguy -
I did exactly what you described. We did not use a kiosk and a customer service agent switched our flight and printed out the claim tags for us.
Upon arriving at the airport, the three of us went to the same SW agent to ask about switching our flight to an earlier flight that departed in an hour. After the agent said there was room on the earlier flight, all three of us (on separate reservations) checked our bags. All three of us received boarding passes to the earlier flight from the agent, yet my bag was tagged to the later flight, and my two friends' bags were tagged to the earlier flight. This is clearly an agent error, which I didn't catch because I didn't check my claim tag.
Yes, I wish I would have checked, but my failure to catch the agent's error shouldn't result in (1) my having to wait an extra 2.5 hours at the airport on arrival and (2) paying to uber home alone since I insisted my friends with the car at the airport head home without me. The worst part was perhaps the attitude of the employee at baggage claim, who robotically kept saying bags are not guaranteed if I switched my flight. Not only was I never told that, but my bag had no opportunity to make the earlier flight since it was mistagged.
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