Originally Posted by tev9999
Bags are bar coded and scanned every step of the way, so typically the airline knows where they are. If you make sure your name/address/phone is both inside and outside of the bag, they will still be able to find you if the barcode falls off, the agent typed DFW instead of DTW or something like that. For international trips I also include my complete itinerary in the outside pocket - and the address tag says "itinerary in top outside pocket". These are free ways to make sure my bags find their way home.
Recent experiences over the last year makes me think that such scanning is not done by all airlines. When bags were delayed on a UA/UX itinerary, UA was able to locate quickly (in one situation with a missed connecction, they were able to retrieve my luggage so that I could have it overnight ^^^). However, in cases with bags delayed when US was involved, they seemed to have no idea where the bags were. "They usually arrive on the next flight" was the best they could do. In one case, they did arrive on the next flight, but it took their #$$%&# delivery service over 6 hours to deliver them to a hotel about 10 miles away from the airport (of course this happened the night before a wedding).
I had another experience last week with luggage delayed from not making a connecting flight, and I am considering filing a compliant with the DOT. Other than very slightly impacting the stats for the airlines, I don't expect much to come from it. Are others on the board filing such complaints? From DOT's site,
http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/problems.htm, the process appears to require a call, letter, or e-mail with flight details (I expected there to be an online form to complete, but that must be too efficient).