All of this is speculative, so I can't really say you're wrong, but I find your assumption that the airline wouldn't lie very odd. Businesses lie pretty much co

All of this is speculative, so I can't really say you're wrong, but I find your assumption that the airline wouldn't lie very odd. Businesses lie pretty much constantly as a matter of standard operating procedure. My personal assumption is that when a business tells you that something like this can't be done, they really just mean that they won't do it. I mean it's not like they couldn't track down the bag if they chose to devote the resources to it. I'd basically say that for businesses it is basically _always_ just a question of balancing costs. Anyway like I said all of this is speculative. But I find it interesting that you and I have such diametrically opposed viewpoints when it comes to this.