I had a chat with an acquaintance who works at a post office yesterday. Anything that comes from a mailbox definitely isn’t treated as priority mail. No matter how much postage you pay and whether you have a priority sticker on it or not. Priority mail MUST be dropped off in person at a post office. You have to hand them their piece of mail and tell them to send it priority. Even mail that gets dropped off at mailboxes right outside the post office is automatically economy, even though they’re emptied and sorted by hand by the employees at the post office.
The blue priority stickers aren’t valid anymore either, they have new ones. Haven’t seen them yet in person, today is the first day of the new “stamps can be priority” rule applies.
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My cards to the USA also don’t seem to arive. I have a card that’s on it’s way for 56, 34 and 26 days now. Normally it would take about 2 weeks. I also swapped a card in october that never arived.
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Today I posted my first postcard with this new priority sticker. I left a space on the postcard measuring 2.5 x 2.5 cm. The postal worker placed the sticker on it, stamped the card, and I took a photo of it before hopefully going into the priority mail pile.
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Wonder what is going on in Austria post in general,this is how they stamped my Xmas mail ( sorry if this is off topic )
@Marghit Thanks for posting a photo here! Was this sent within Austria, or another country? I’m guessing even out of Europe because of the postage, and that would make for a new confusion with the new system 
Because I was at the post office yesterday too, to hand in priority mail with stamps for Austria and for overseas. Like you I left space for the new sticker, and I was very surprised when the postal worker told me that the new yellow priority stickers were only for within the country. He put the old blue priority stickers on the cards that went to other countries. This information is nowhere to be found in the article where I read about the new system 
I agree, it’s really hard to find out what to do. On the surface it seems very easy, but there are hidden conditions that are not communicated clearly enough (e.g. not being able to put priority mail into post boxes). It was the same when we were not allowed to use stamps anymore for priority mail and could not drop it in the mailbox anymore. This change was made last autumn. I’m sure there are still people in small villages etc. who don’t have a post office near and put their mail with enough stamps for priority into a mailbox, in good faith that it will be delivered the next day. In reality they just overpay for slow service.
The bold in Prio items only in the form of postal stationery is from me. This is a very important detail that can easily be missed. Prio mail can only be dropped in a mailbox when it is put in postal stationery. I am not sure if there is another term for it, here it is “Ganzsachen” and it means an envelope pre-printed with the postage (so when you buy the envelope at the post you pay the postage price). This is the ONLY priority item you can put in a mailbox. My guess is that this can be automatically recognized in the sorting machines and so it is allowed to put those in.
Prio items with stamps can not be put into mailboxes since last autumn, as stated multiple times by multiple people here in the thread, and that is still valid since 1st of April. The only official and surefire way that prio items with stamps will be transported priority is if you hand them in at the counter.
Yes, we could be lucky that some postal workers who sort mail from mailboxes are nice and put mail into the priority bins when they see the right amount of face value and a blue priority sticker, but the important thing is that there is no guarantee that this will happen, and we have no way of knowing if it’s more of an exception than a regular occurrence. Just for this reason I would be careful with suggesting it to others so lightheartedly. It makes it seem that this would be a regular option and the information easily can get lost that they have to expect their cards to arrive way (WAY) slower and that they just might have thrown money down the drain
ETA: The postal worker yesterday also told me that they are not allowed to give out the new yellow stickers to customers. He already had asked his superior that day. Now there’s just the question left if we always need to leave space for this sticker from now on for international Postcrossing mail like the official information from the post was, or if the international mail still can get the blue priority sticker (that he is allowed to give out) like he put on my mail yesterday 
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Also to China…any experience with the new sticker?
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China arrives perfectly fine with Economy stamps in about a month (the official ones I sent at the end of November too), so I save my money and time and send without the new sticker.
I’ve started to use the new sticker to the USA only last week. Since February the envelopes with the paid printed label arrive within a reasonable time.
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Please dear Austrian members, update the info on the wiki 
Now the wiki still claims you can’t use stamps on priority mail, and you can.
Let’s not try to make it more difficult for new members or travellers to sends cards 
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I updated the wiki, saying priority mail needs to be handed in at the counter.
However, I still do not know what is going on with the priority stickers- if only blue stickers are used for international mail, or also the new yellow ones (different sizes). Mixed information is going around. So I just added a warning to leave some space for a priority sticker. Maybe someone else has clear official information from Austrian post in the meantime, and can edit this part in the wiki.
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Just a small note, it has happened to me twice that two postcards arrived from Finland on the same day, sent on the same day. One in priority mode, the other in economy mode. It might be worth sending to the Czech Republic only in economy class. It will probably arrive at the same time as the one with the priority label 
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Yes, I think it’s wisest to do how the official information is and no need to think could there be some hidden information only shared somewhere else, or to somebody. Surely the blue priority is still understandable. In case someone uses it, and it’s forbidden, they can stick the yellow version on top of it.
@Picicmunda yes, it’s true to many countries. I send most my cards in Europe with economy mail. I had to think why I had written I use priority, but: this thread used to be about mail to USA in general. I send my mail there with priority, because at least at one point economy there took forever, and was only 0,20€ cheaper I think.
Today one of my cards to the USA was registered,… after 120 days…
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My last 2023 card to the USA is at 148 days today.
My very first of 2024 went to the USA (now 144 days) but user was last seen 4 months ago…guess that’s a guaranteed “will drop off the system on 01/01/2025” 
Anything since then left by Priority and arrived - and the new yellow stickers work too 
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When you look at the mailbox how can you assume that you have to hand over your mail to US at the counter…Because of holiday post offices in Austria are closed on 12 days this month.Just drew 2 addresses in travel mode,yes to US and yes it’s a holiday…
I understood it’s not only to US but all priority mail.
And the yellow part talks about “eco-briefe”, so I would think it means economy mail.
Also all price is for economy mail.
This was actually very useful photo, I have been thinking how one is supposed to know not to put the priority mail there, if you are for example tourist, but I would not put a priority labeled mail there.
Of course it’s sad the office is closed, so you can only wait until it’s open or send economy? Has the economy option been faster lately?
I sent some with 2,10 € for priority but not handing them to the counter,took between 40 and 60 days…
sorry but I don’t live in Austria.
Ok.
So you can send from your home. The cards will have different id, but it happens.
Or, if you already attached the stamps, you can take those home and send to the Austrian post office, I understood there is the postmarking service in Austria too?
Or, drop to the box, if it’s ok it will take longer.
But I agree, they are not very informative.
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Another of my cards to the USA travelled for quite a while:
Postcard AT-721719 (postcrossing.com)
But I absolutely refuse to send my cards “priority”! I have enough slots now, so I can send official cards whenever I feel like it. 
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