No offense meant -- someone else suggested similar in another thread, and it's a pretty ridiculous idea. The thought that Southwest would just give up getting bags back to people, have their personal items hauled away and liquidated, AND lowball a lot of people with a shrug of their shoulders and demand for receipts is not realistic. The optics and backlash (justified) would be horrendous. Compared to having employees spend some time looking at tags, calling some people, and putting them on planes that they are already flying places.

I did a brief addup of what I'd normally take on a wintertime trip. I'm not a fancy dresser by any means, and it would easily be $500+ to replace the clothes I bring on a normal trip. Add in more winter gear or dress clothes and it would be really easy to justify a lot higher. I can say if they did pull something like that, I wouldn't be surprised if people managed to "find" a lot of recent and full-price receipts for online purchases. Not suggesting anyone would lie about the contents of the bag, but protecting against being given a "thrift store discount" off of sale prices that aren't available now either. In the end, if I lose a suit that I wouldn't replace for 10 years, or 2 pairs of jeans that I have to get altered again, the cost to buy them now is the cost to buy them now.