"American" aren't alone. My nephew and his GF flew from London to Andorra last winter, just for a long weekend break. It was a ski package marketed by BA. Routing was to fly to Barcelona, then be taken by minibus to Andorra.

On arrival at Barcelona their checked baggage was nowhere to be seen. The investigation that confirmed that the bags had never been on their aircraft took too long for the minibus driver, and he left without them. It was now well after dark, and they were left with little option but to spend the night in Barcelona - pleasant enough, but not what they wanted to do. They also had to take a taxi and 1.5 hours to buy some of the essentials that hadn't come with them. BA offered no help either with organisation or cost.

The following morning BA were very vague about where the luggage might be, and more significantly what my nephew should do about it, so he told them he was going to rent a car which would be charged to BA along with the costs already incurred. They almost laughed at him but he went ahead anyway, and the two of them did have two days on the snow (instead of the planned three).

Back in England he pursued his claim against BA, and they denied any responsibility beyond the IATA standard responsibility. So he said he would sue them for misrepresentation and fraud (they had marketed the ski package, which incidentally was upmarket and costly, not bargain basement). Only after he issued the writ did they realise he meant it, and they paid his claim in full.

His baggage turned up, undamaged and unopened, two months after the holiday had ended. It had apparently been sent to South America somewhere, and because no-one there knew what to do with it was just left in a storage room until a switched-on supervisor investigated.

I've read that BA have the worst record of any major carrier for losing baggage and this certainly bears that out. The big problem was their "couldn't care" attitude, which is precisely what I see in AA. Is this the way of the future, or is there anything we can do about it? It's become dramatically worse since 911, with "security" being cited as justification for every inefficiency and excess charge.