Some posts above are on the money with this one. Airlines are generally sticklers about these issues, and as I am sure I have said previously, airlines have written the rules to be as one-sided and onerous to customers as possible - from their
Conditions of Carriage to the Warsaw and Montreal conventions. These greedy
spurii have, since the day they started carrying passengers, written the rules to benefit themselves, and only grudgingly make concessions to their self-loading freight, er, passengers.
So, ten days late filing a claim, there is no likely mercy for the OP in this issue. Admittedly cheap luggage with torn seam? They would likely have said "it's normal wear and tear, caused by overpacking cheap luggage". Items lost? They will require receipts to pay more than a nominal amount (hint: as you pack take a dated digital photo or two - this is what I do to document my dive gear). The approach is nearly Napoleonic - it's
your fault, unless you can absolutely prove it is theirs; the passenger has the presumption of guilt, if not chumpdom. (I suspect this explains in part the popularity of sites that enable passengers to learn how they can gain a better hand in the game.)
This is all pretty much regardless of status, unless you are a much more frequent flyer than merely Executive Platinum by miles, and hopefully also have status in your life with the ability to influence others' travel. IMO, they really just do not care, and the airlines are pretty much siloed as far as management concerns, so baggage losses are not something other departments really care about.
What to do? Buy cheap luggage (also a good theft preventive) and move on when it is damaged; buy some of the luggage out there with lifetime warranty, like some TravelPro, Eagle Creek, Stahlsac, etc. and have it repaired / replaced properly by the manufacturer. If you want to spend some time and receive some token miles or the like, formalize a snailmail complaint with a copy to DOT.