In one embodiment, a packet switching device sends packets to be sent from a single link of a bundled link interface to multiple egress network processing units (on a same or different line cards). A single one of these multiple egress network processing units is configured to be in the active mode sending particular sets of packets. The other egress network processing units are configured for these particular sets of packets to be in the non-active mode, and hence, will correspondingly drop these particular sets of packets. In case of failure, an egress network processing unit can quickly (e.g., changing a flag) be changed to the active mode to quickly reduce or eliminate loss of packets.