*** UPDATE ***

I will be reunited with my bag in IAH tomorrow.

About an hour ago I received a call from a CO agent at SNA asking if I lost a brown roller bag. Apparently, it made it's way from MEM to IAH on Sunday, the day I lost it (even though I called the bag office in MEM, who told me they had never seen it). At IAH it somehow ended up in the hands of CO.

Apparently (and I can't remember doing this), on the old tag I put a date (2/16) and a final destination (SNA), so CO sent it from IAH to SNA.

At SNA, the agent ran the green tag number to which, of course, there were no hits. She saw my name on the bag and used some common sense, "I wonder if he's a OnePass member?". She ran me through OnePass and found me. The bag is on the morning SNA - IAH flight.

Lessons learned:

If you reuse the green tag, keep at least a record of the number

Put a final destination on it (SNA isn't my home, but I would suggest putting your home airport on it)

or...Don't reuse the green tags