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I'm still fascinated by this "I have good reason to know" comment. What special knowledge are you privy to that tells you your bag is sitting in this alleged warehouse where if only you could sneak in, you'd find it? How do you know it wasn't damaged on the tarmac and discarded, misdirected and is in Dubai or Bangkok, accidentally left on the plan, had its bag tag tear off and got sent elsewhere, or some other outcome?

By the way, all airlines want and expect you to put a nametag on the outside of the bag, and strongly recommend you put a tag inside also. Further, UA explicitly advises you on their website at online check-in and in other locations to print out a copy of your itinerary and put it inside the bag.

Had you the OP, and luci1019 followed this commonsense advice you would likely have your bags now. Airlines rarely "lose" bags; they get misdirected, they get removed for weight/space reasons and put on other flights, they get misdirected, but if they have identification on/in them they have a good chance of making it back to you. Maybe once or twice a year (out of 50 or so flights per year) a bag gets misdirected and takes a day or two to get back to me. That's not great, but it's not "lost".

I'm sorry you lost your bags, and especially if there were "irreplaceable family heirlooms" in there. For future reference, you should never check irreplaceable items or other items of unusual value. Carry on, and if you can't carry them on, ship them with a good carrier that provides end-to-end tracking like FedEx or UPS.

I'm sorry, but the idea of the airline and security allowing some random passenger to wander around some warehouse in a huge city/hub airport is ludicrous. Maybe in a small-town airport, yes. Being allowed to look in the "back room" in the baggage service office next to the baggage claim carousel, yes. But off-premise in some lost-luggage-warehouse in the secure area? Not gonna happen.