In theory, your bags aren't supposed to take a flight you didn't take unless they're catching up to you after being delayed/lost. In practice, not so much. My

In theory, your bags aren't supposed to take a flight you didn't take unless they're catching up to you after being delayed/lost. In practice, not so much. My favorite example: a couple years ago when I was regularly flying in and out of DCA (from Kansas City), sometimes I'd take the direct flight and sometimes I'd take a connection in Charlotte. But several times when I took the connection, I'd arrive in Kansas City to find my bags waiting in the airline baggage office, since they'd taken the direct flight and arrived a couple hours earlier.