A sample of 1 and in a different era (1994), yielded a different results (see my post above). In today's environment, who knows; I would like to believe that they will still let you though, has anyone actually been told by customs to wait for bags and miss/risk missing a connection?

If you miss your bags at customs (for whatever reason) is there any paperwork to fill out in the US? When this happened to us in France we had quite a round robin of faxing, completing and re-faxing forms that allowed them to inspect our bags in our absence. This waiver was required since we weren't physically present for a potential inspection.

When we finally caught up to our bags as SXB they had made a thorough tour of Europe, but were waiting for us looking very lonely in a corner of the customs area of this quite small airport. The person just pointed them out to us and said "there you go". They had some sort of customs clearance form on them, but didn't look like they'd been rifled.

No, Customs does not feel they need any permission. All bags get x-rayed - there is no doubt or question about it.

I did have a situation in the past in which one of my bags never showed up at the port of entry. I assumed it had been lost and then went to my connecting flight. Somehow the bag made it through and was delivered with all of the other checked baggage from the connecting flight. I still have no idea exactly how that bag got from ATH to RDU, but it did. This was pre-9/11, so customs may not have been as zealous as they presently are.

Do you have any evidence to support this? Sitting on pax luggage in the secure zone seems like a big liability to me, and once the luggage has cleared customs, I would think they'd be obligated to forward to its final destination.

A bit late to the party but this is actually an extremely common scam in some parts of the world. I've seen dozens if not hundreds of these done, although in most cases it is to avoid paying excess baggage fees for the entire journey.

Maybe I could have been clearer: the carriers do forward the bags to their final destination (meaning aiport). They just will not deliver them to the passengers home. You have to pay cod for delivery to your home, or pick them up at the airport.

only thing i would have in a checked bag are piles of dirty cheap laundry. Nothing of value for me to care.

That's 'cause the TSA and the baggage handlers already got the good stuff before the bags got to Customs?:p