This is the response I got today.

So now I need to call and ask which family member has filed a claim. Could be my son or could be my wife but wasn't me.

This whole situation so just awful. First they say I didn't give in time. Then they say a family member filed a claim.

What a joke. They acknowledge they lost my bags..fix the issue. If you do the math, the total compensation is only 30 percent of the ticket Cost.jeez.

Regardless of whether another family member has or has not filed a claim, it is liable

Oh trust me I agree. However what can I do at this point? They're just making ridiculous excuses.

Should I send another email at this point or just go the small claims route?

I'm truly sorry, but not at all surprised. This is how the new American rolls.

I urge you to read my post #32 above. Writing them a snail mail letter threatening legal action is a lot less trouble than actually taking that action (even through Small Claims Court), and it quite likely to result in the same outcome.

Where would I mail this letter?

I think the more effective route is to file a small claim action and at the same time send them the letter. Then, if its resolved, I can just drop the small claim action. I live in san Diego and the courts are BACCKED up, so 30days may mean a lot in the end.

Ill post the letter here tonight after I take a nap (just flew awful ATA 757 OGG to PHX).

I would contact Sean Bentel, and I would choose snail mail. See http://elliott.org/company-contacts/american-airlines/ , where his e-mail address is listed as well.

Finally located my bag- 5 days later . No thanks to AA.
 

I thought I would post this in case it helps others. This looong thread was helpful and provided hope that my bags would turn up.

Background. 4 bags . On AA flights Den/ Lax/ Syd. Delay with AA saw us put on a United flight to LAX, then ticketed on QF via Brisbane to Sydney. We knew then that we would be lucky to see the bags at the other end. United into LAX was late , but as we raced for our QF connection saw tht the ORIGINAL AA 73 flight was about to leave. They were happy to seat us so off we went, now knowing that the bags wouldn't be with us.

Landed in Sydney, immediatel filled out a missing baggage claim as per the AA LAX staff's suggestion. Went home and waited for 12 hrs before calling AA .

Using their bag tracker site was hopeless. 3 of the 4 bags hadn't been scanned ( according to the site) . 3 days later the situation was the same. One bag had been delivered , still 3 missing. AA staff in Nevada were very sympatethetic , empathetic , but ultimately HOPELESS. Eventually go the 'World Tracer ' number from them and called United bag tracking.

A very helpful gent in new Delhi was able to tell me that the bags were en route to Sydney via Brisbane and gave me the flight number . !!

Much relief and called AA back. They had NO idea of where the bags were , no correlation between the World Tracer number and the AA bag tracker site.

Gave up and called QF baggage services in SYdney. They EVENTUALLY found the bag , NOT by the AA provide file number or the PNR but by the World Tracer number.

Sooo. If you got to the end of this litany of late night and calls to 20 agents across 3 continents here is my recommendation .

1. Don't panic . As one of the original posters said , the chances of losing baggage permanently is pretty damned small .

2. Be polite . People DO want to help , but quite often responses aren't filed or entered. EVERY ONE of AA's bag claim people were suppsedly contacting United in Denver to see if they had our bags. As of yesterday (3 days later) there hadn't been a reply from either AA Denver or United to the AA Bag Lost personnel.

3. Grab the world tracer number and start calling .... Don't wait for help . Being a nuisance eventually got me somone who dug a little deeper. Vishel in United Baggage Services NEw Delhi , thank you .

4. Don't tell your spouse not to waster his/ her time filling out the paper tags at the airline desk to attach to your baggae (next to the EXP luggage tags) . The paper tags were the way we eventually were traced from Brisbane domestic ( who had no access to AA system )

5. I am going to buy a set of Magellan Retriever tags .

What happened to you American, we had such a good thing.
 

In my personal experience, having priority tags put on at ticketing have zero effect on whether or not you'll get your checked bag at your final destination on time.

You see, the last two times I've flown domestic with American, yesterday and in December, it has been on paid domestic first class. Both times I had a priority bag delayed. I'd be angry at American, but I'm more sad than anything. I simply can't fly with them anymore when the odds are this bad.

Right now I'm in Los Angeles, where I've just woken up to see an email from wheresmysuitcase.com. It's the first and only email I've seen that tells me my lost/delayed bag is on its way. No call or email from American. While there's hope that my bag is now on its way, I'm sure others who've dealt with this situation know how stressful this can be, and you know about ruined days and nights.

So I have a question - has American baggage handling always been this bad? Is there any point winging and moaning and switching to another carrier, or is everyone else equally bad?

One can pick a carrier for the network (non-stops to desired destinations), on-board services, price and a few other factors. Don't pick a carrier for baggage handling - unless you're thinking of just sending stuff ahead by FedEx.

The U.S. government publishes data on baggage handling. Some operating carriers are worse than others (and American Eagle/Envoy has long been among the worst of those reported).

The February '16 report with data for all of 2015 is at this link:

https://www.transportation.gov/sites...uaryATCR_1.pdf

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...pswzubrkke.png

I flew BOS-DFW-SYD-AKL (one AA/QF ticket) with a checked bag arriving this evening. Turns out AA somehow loaded my bag onto the DFW-SCL flight instead of SYD. As opposed to putting it on the direct SCL-AKL flight, they are instead shipping it via LAX to AKL getting in on Monday hopefully.

I only found out the baggage was missing when I arrived in Auckland. I made the claim at the Qantas desk since I came in on a QF flight and AA does not yet have a presence here. Any advice on whether or not AA will reimburse for a set of clothes to get me through the next few days? Or do I need to go to QF for this since they operated my last flight? Thanks in advance.

You need to deal with Qatas since it operated the last flight

The airline is liable for the delay - normally when reporting missing luggage to Qantas. the agent would give a visa card with $65 initially

Although $65 is all that is offerefd upfront, the airline is liable up quite a a bit higher than that $1000 ish iirc

Thanks Dave Noble. Appreciate the insight.

Wow, all of two times! ;)

Otoh, even with tight international to domestic connections, our bags have made it and generally been out early with their priority tags.

But a few anecdotal experiences from you or me do not equal data.

My bag has stuff. If it shows up late, it's mildly concerning, but to give the airline and missing bag the power to "ruin days and nights" is IMO giving up entirely too much power to an airline. Life gets genuinely challenging; it's best to learn stress management techniques before something serious occurs.

Good luck retrieving your bag.