I hope I'm not being negative here.

The comment "always had some problem or the other with AA" might carry a bit more weight if it came from someone who didn't just say "I flew AA precisely 4 times".

I flew AA precisely 101 times this year so far. It's not clear to me how an airline can "screw up my schedules" in this age of email, web, Treos, cell phones, flight notifications, etc. as it hasn't happened to me in years; I do submit that sometimes connections are missed (last time for me on AA flights PHL-DFW-SAT this Monday due to PHL weather); checked luggage is subject to be screwed up on any airline pretty equally these days thanks to random ground staff, outsourced service providers with little incentive to perform, TSA etc. and that's why checking luggage is something to be avoided (I have checked a bag two times this year on the 150+ segments I've flown, that was on a family vacation flights to Mexico and back and we checked the cheap and bulky stuff).

I didn't quit flying AA, UA, WN or others. An airline is a tool to get from A-to-B for business or pleasure. Like with almost anything in life, whether you will have a positive or negative experience in that A-to-B is 90% up to you (you know, things like positive attitude, using common sense, etc.). Sometimes bad things happen, and you do what you can to mitigate and move on.

I didn't start traveling doing what I do now; I used to get pissed off at delays until I finally realized I can't change the weather but I *can* have backup plans; I checked luggage until permanently losing a bag full of CDs and books I bought on a trip; etc.

To the OP, good luck finding the camera or some recourse. You made a judgment call in checking the camera, many of us here wouldn't do the same and you probably won't again either.

My friend had a nondescript camera bag with a Canon EOS 20D and $2800 of lenses on the floor behind the front seat of his M3 that he parked in San Francisco two weeks ago for 45 minutes to get lunch. When he got back the side window was smashed in and the camera bag was gone. Now, he's not stupid (quite the opposite), but he didn't think he was taking an unreasonable risk. I never would have done the same, I'd carry the bag with me or incospicuosly lock it in the trunk. It's just a difference in our risk tolerance. And I have to admit, although I don't really think he's stupid, my first comment to him was: "Dude, that was really stupid!". In the context of what just happened to him he didn't disagree...

Sami