Originally Posted by oklAAhoma
As to how your bag could be lost, there are soooo many possibilities. Sometimes bags get sent to wrong detination, and sometimes they fail to get sent anywhere at all. They can fall off the cart, every now and again entire carts don't get loaded, and sometimes they are off-loaded because of weight issues (doubt that's what happened to the OP though). If you can imagine it, it's probably happened to someone's luggage.
+ the TSA too now don't forget. AA can legitimately claim that they were not in control of your bag throughout the process. And I hate to say this, but someone who may want to malicoiusly take a bag (a thief at bag claim, or taking a bag from one of those over bulging luggage piles by the TSA waiting to be screened) would have little trouble. For all you know, your bag made an earlier flight and someone else picked it up, either accidentally or maliciously. I agree -- if you can imagine it, it's probably happened. Someone else once picked up a bag of mine in error and called me an hour later at my cell # on my biz card while I was still filling out the luggage report. Miraculously, we were at the same hotel so I found his bag and we exchanged there. Lots of stuff could have happened that isn't even necessarily AA's fault.
Knock on wood -- seven years of travelling well >100k a year (w/ lots of intl/multi-carrier connections) I've never completely lost a bag nor do I know of anyone who has. Give it 72 hours before you start to freak out.