Hey Ken, first of all, sucks. Sorry that the bag arrived near empty
I have only been in a situation once where a bag never arrived. Was B6 -> EI LAS-BOS-DUB. Luckily I only had some clothes in it, but it did contain an irreplaceable player jersey of mine from HS
Eventually got a cheque from EI (I’m aware that it should have been from B6, but my dad worked for EI for 30+ years and is a German native, so it was handy when he contacted the then German CEO of EI asking him to help move things along)
Back to your situation. You won’t get all $4K+ from any airline unless exceptional circumstances. I and others will tell you to go to your insurance company to sort this, albeit maybe too late to report it at this stage? Call them now, tell them that Copa has offered to pay $1.6K and see if they will make up the rest. Montreal convention (you are flying international) states that airlines are liable for about $1.7K
Regarding what happened, while you did leave your bag with CM, they personally didn’t hold it overnight (imo). It goes onto their 3rd party handlers, which they obv do employ, but also would have gone thru TSA etc too. Essentially passed through multiple hands from multiple entities before it got back to you in Colombia
Regarding not flying the airline again, sure that’s your personal choice and you can move your spend elsewhere. But as you have the same status as myself, you probably know that things do not run smoothly. I know when to call in (as more likely to be connected to one of the 4 amazing female agents in there, and there is a great male agent too) for any issues I have. You need to know how to “handle” the agents in general and just not put up with any nonsense. Have you been able to use your Certs for USA to EUR/Asia flights at all with United? This has been a massive battle for me for about 4 years now - and finally might be getting sorted, hence the expert mode going down for about a month on United
And they don’t even board us by name anymore
Dont check important stuff. Never check electronics and just be “sensible”. Sounds like you were on a business type trip. Ship it with DHL/FedEx next time, and just bill the company (which might be your own or course)