Most of the time your baggage is rerouted as necessary to get to your destination as listed on the tag.

Sometimes, that can take time, particularly if multiple airlines are involved (the last airline on your itinerary is the one responsible for getting your baggage to you). Example: we departed SFO to LAX-MAD-BCN for a cruise on a Tuesday. The AA aircraft went tech on us, so we were rerouted onto UA. The Bags remained on the disabled aircraft until it was repaired or moved to the next available flight to LAX, and missed the IB LAX-MAD flight.

Our cruise departed Saturday morning iirc, and our bags arrived late Friday afternoon. If the bags missed that, we’d have contacted Iberia to forward the baggage to either a port city a couple of days out, or to FCO, where we both stopped after one week and ended the cruise after two weeks.

We also have our full itinerary printed inside the bag and in a Magellan’s bag retriever tag to make it easier for baggage offices. I highly recommend these.