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Re 4 - yes they will if you insist enough. Quite frankly I find it astonishing they would refuse this - especially if the alternatives are oneworld airlines.

Because I actually found a use for Avios--four tickets to Paris, and plenty of availability!

BA non customer service
 

London to Chicago Thurs June 26, three bags did not arrive with me. one delivered Friday night, received message that one was being flown FED EX to my permanent address in another state on Sat. even though I am in Chicago until Monday. Final bag still unaccounted for. Traveling with three bags as I am spending 3 months in US. cannot reach BA customer service on phone, and website gives misinformation.

Why can't BA recover from luggage woes more quickly?
 

Transited through Heathrow on Saturday on my way back from Milan. Flight in from Milan was held for 30 minutes awaiting a fare, which meant my connection time was down to 40 minutes. I made it through security okay (thanks to Fastrack) and boarded my flight to Edinburgh on schedule. However, no sooner had the doors closed than the captain announced that all aircraft were now being held on the ground due to rain showers in the London area. We pushed back 45 minutes Kate, then got held in the takeoff queue- arriving in Edinburgh over 60 minutes late.
To crown it all I switched on my phone upon landing to receive a text from BA to tell me my gag had failed to make the flight.

Sunday afternoon, and 6 BA flights to Edinburgh later, my bag has still not turned up. As others have noted the website is useless for telling you of any real progress. I am not going to waste my time on the phone either.
Not a great advert for BA. One pissed off Gold card holder, who will be more inclined to take hand luggage only in future- making the cabin storage nightmare even worse.

Update on my situation: flew to Madrid via LHR on Friday, on way back via LHR now and no sign of bags yet... With the stuff I bought that I needed in MAD (i.e., shampoos, shower gel etc) I had to check in a bag on the return journey but now worried that may not make it either...

Well, perhaps, but see items 1, 2 & 3 above. When the website has no info, you can't get through to anyone on the phone, and the agents at the airport where you are have no more information, who is the focus of your insistence?

With the bag I lost for a week in the meltdown earlier in the month, I found out later that it simply sat at LHR all week, scheduled to go on "tomorrow's flight." And got bumped day after day.

There is only one BA flight a day where I am in PHX. They should have routed it through LAS, LAX, SFO, DEN, SEA, IAH, DFW, ORD, DTW, PHL. . . just pick one, any one. . . then on an AA/US flight to PHX. Such routings happen every single day, many times a day.

Instead, it was acceptable to BA to just let it sit there until they had space to put it on their one direct flight. No wonder they didn't tell me where it was -- I would have insisted that they route it some other way. ;)

Having never been to PHX, may I ask if the airport has a separate baggage reclaim section for international arrivals and those of internal flights? I suspect yes, but still wanted to check.

The reason I ask is simple: what if the reason your bag could not be routed via an internal US destination is because someone, at some point would have needed it to clear customs with it at its point of entry into the US? Who could it be? It could not be you, since you were in PHX. And any internal flight from those destinations that you listed will probably not park in the "international" section. Therefore, the only way for BA to re-unite you with your bag may have been to fly it direct, because that way you can clear customs with it at its point of entry into the US.

I could be spouting complete nonsense, in which case please disregard, but that's my theory.

Any updates on the situation for outbound flights today?

I cant think of a single occasion where I have travelled HBO on both legs of a journey.

For example, on a two night trip, I go HBO for the outbound largely because I don't want to be caught out by lost/delayed luggage. Normally, my case is only just within BA's generous limits because my "essentials" include several "what-if" scenarios. On the way back, I check bags in so that I don't have to deal with lugging things round and airport and I can afford to relax a little because I'm heading home.

Yes, this is not important. (Imagine if you were going to a place with no international service at all.) If you don't personally bring the bag through customs, it can still be routed to you (this is what happens if you forget to collect and recheck it). The bag may be inspected and hand searched by US Customs before it is released back to the airline, and if there are any problems I suspect it will not be difficult to connect you back to the bag. I always understood that the Customs form you filled out when you entered still applies to the baggage that hasn't arrived yet, but then I never bring anything worthy of special attention into the United States.

It doesn't work this way. When I entered the country I claimed on my custom's declaration the value of goods I was bringing into the country, or that would follow me (in a delayed bag, items shipped to me, etc.)

When a delayed bag arrives, the airline clears the bag through customs in the secure customs/immigration area (at which point it may be physically inspected), then brings it landside. At that point it is handed to me, passed along to a delivery service for local delivery, given to FedEx for their delivery, put onto a connecting flight(s) to the final destination, or sits in the airline's baggage area until they figure out what to do with it.

So I don't clear the delayed bag with customs -- that's the airline's job. Where it enters the country, and with which airline, doesn't matter.

I often do the same. I can't remember the last time I checked a bag on a flight out of the UK when I wasn't with a family member who insisted on checking luggage (I figure that since i'm going to have to wait for their bag anyway I might as well check mine too).

Well you have the same Tardis-like bag as me, so I'm not surprised. Never pack for what-ifs incidentally, it won't snow in Paris in June. Everything should be 100% needed, or left at home, there is no middle ground.

Nice lady at check-in says it's fixed. But that is what they said Thursday. At least the piles of luggage are gone.