This is extremely helpful information! I nearly swore off flying BA after the incident, but next time I definitely know what to do on similar connections. Everything finally makes sense now.

Yeah.. I booked a AA to BA connection (LAX-LHR-RAK- now discountinued) and I online checked in for the BA flight before checking in the AA flight. This is further complicated when I ask my bags to be forwarded to HKG, as my RAK vacation ended. When I kept calling the BA bag desk, the agent kept saying that the bag is at London, and everytime I was promised it will be on the next flight to HKG, but it never made it until six months later. I think the whole passenger/bag match thing that LHR has is contributing to most of the delay/lost bag in LHR.

Question: The many bag agents I talked to said that revenue cargo, customer's baggage always comes before mishandled bag. Is this true? I would think that as a gesture of goodwill, BA should always put a mishandled bag ahead of revenue cargo to minimize inconvinence. Also, does the AA to BA bag check "glitch" applies to CX to BA connections?