You mention "no claim bonus" here but in another you mentioned "excess". Is it both reasons or one or the other?

My delayed baggage cover does not have any excess, and there is no "no claim bonus" element - I have not come across a travel insurance policy with "no claim bonus" yet, although many motor insurances and some household insurances do. I still recommend you get your friend to check his insurance policy to see what he is covered for, because under many policies even if there are "no claims bonus" issues there is no penalty if you are not at fault in any way, and since it is no fault of your own for an airline to lose your bag, it may be exempted.

In any case I suggest your friend writes back to QF to say that it was not acceptable to be just offered an apology and to ask that the expenses are reimbursed. Note, you should not be asking for compensations - what you should be asking for are reimbursement of expenses incurred as a result of baggage delay.

Is there any possibility that your friend actually asked for compensation rather than reimbursement? I am asking this since you used the term compensation in your post. They are two very different things.