Inspired by the thread "Ever leave baggage at customs to make connecting flight"

(Hypothetical but possible)

You end up gate checking some baggage. At the connecting city it does not appear on the jetway for you to grab and you are told it went to baggage claim.

It's a tight connection so you run for the connecting flight.

Is this actually a misdirected baggage situation where the airline has to go get the baggage and deliver it to you, in other words "connect the baggage" for you?

It is misdirected baggage. Gate checked bag should appear plane-side. It's the airline's responsibility to deliver it to at your destination.
destination

While it is a misdirected bag, it is also probably untagged and they don't have a clue where it should have gone. I wouldn't expect them to find the bag, and as there is no record of it being gate checked they will probably have no record of it at all.

You may get lucky if they actually go through the trouble of matching the ID tag to the missing bags and all that, but it will take them ages to find it without a bar code on it.

Assuming somebody didn't pick it up as it was going round and round in baggage and just walk out with it.

Why would you not check it thru to your final destination?

In addition, as was mentioned, the agents probably just put a tag on the bag and got it on the plane: they did not enter the tag number in the computer, so if the tag were ever scanned at your connecting city, it would read 'unknown'. Sooner or later, after you filed a claim they would figure out the bag was yours and send it on to your final destination. This is not to say they would deliver it to your home. It would be far easier to gate check it to your final destination.

A couple of weeks ago I boarded a non stop flight BOS to DTW with a legimate carry on bag. There was no overhead bin space available. The flight attendant took my bag and 'gate checked' it and brought me a receipt with a bar code. She told me because it was a big plane it would not come up on the jetway but on the carousel. Never happened. Three days later got a call from San Antonio where they had my bag and the only way they connected it to me was because my business card was on the luggage tag. I was happy it was returned.

Inteerestingly enough, the airline wanted to know the contents of the bag so they could match it to me. I told them there was a jacket and hat on top with my collegiate son's school, name, team, sport and number embroidered on the items. They asked me to be more specific.

There are two types of gate-checked bags. On regional planes bags are returned plane-side. On mainline bags go to the final destination baggage claim.

That's a really stupid way of handling gate-checked bags, especially for connecting paxs. This happened to me once (at ORD) and I had to go out and claim the bag before connecting. Luckily that was some years ago before TSA went overboard, but still very annoying.

It depends on the type of jet used as well as the local airport conditions. If you are familiar with the airport, you more or less know whether it will be at air side or carousel.

Some UA gate agents have in the past tried to be proactive and insist on gate checking bags when in the end there is space and i usually am insistent if there is space, no gate check even if im the last to board as it will save a lot of trouble later.

Tha GA can gate check your bag to your final destination: no need to go out and reclaim it.

So what happens if the passenger absolutely needs the contents of his/her bag available to him/her during the flight? For example, a type I diabetic's insulin.

You need to pack accordingly. My "personal item", which usually goes under the seat in front of me, is a computer backpack and contains a supply of vitamins, my jewelry, my computer and iPod and anything else I'll need during the flight. If the rollaboard gets gate-checked I can live without the contents in-flight and there's nothing in it worth pilfering.

Another tactic is to keep all your "can't live without" items in a cloth tote bag (even the kind you use for groceries will work) on top of everything else inside your rollaboard. If you have to gate-check it, take the tote bag out first.