Mrs deac83 returned from LHR last night. She had to gate check her carry on. When she arrived the two normally check bags showed up.

An hour passed the gate bag had not shown up. There were 22 other people in same situation. Eventually the AA rep said they found out the bags were sent to another terminal.

After another hour of waiting the agents insisted they had to wait for the bags or the would be thrown out.

Just after 2 hrs of waiting they finally delivered the bags.

I know domestically you can just file a lost bag claim, from personal experience.

The AA agent would not let them leave customs.

if AA actually loses your bag on an international trip I assume you’d have to claim it at customs once the get the bag.

Am I missing something here? They were basically being held hostage by AA. Something seems wrong here.