Originally Posted by
hikouki
I am a bit confused. I thought that taking your bags through US CBP is such a big deal? And in fact we are one of the very few, if not the only country that requires passengers to manually pick up and re-check bags, even when just transiting through US soil. And apparently it is OK to just leave the bags behind?
It's not OK. If you do what the OP suggest, then before the bag makes it's way to you CBP will give it a full inspection. This used to involve opening the bag and going through it, but I'm not sure if that's still the case. The airline would also be within their rights to charge you a handling fee, and some will unless you pickup the bag yourself from the final destination airport (a few days later).
As far as having to collect your bags, that's starting to change. AA flights from SYD->LAX no longer have this requirement and it's expected this will increase to additional flights/countries in the future -
https://www.vacationstravel.com/baggage-changes/