Yes. I believe it's so airlines know what to do with the bags once they "locate" them. Should the bags go to the destination airport? Should they go to another airport? Should they go somewhere else?
Well, again I'm speculating here, I'm not an airline official (lest someone accuse me of giving bad advice or something
) but I would say that a bag that has been concluded by the airline as "missing" a plane to some destination will default to going to that destination on the tag at the next possible opportunity, even if you don't tell them.
If two planes leaving for the same airport leave within an hour of each other, and you are on the first plane but your luggage doesn't' get on that plane, and they realize this before you do, I am guessing they would just stick it into the next plane bound for that airport even before you have an opportunity to tell them it's missing. They simply tell you later (when you ask about it) that it's on (or will be on) the next flight out. If you don't have any connections when heading to MCO, this weakness is a pretty low concern for DME riders as it's much more likely that the luggage won't get mis-directed.
I'm also going to simply guess that in most cases the default is simply to send the bag to the destination on the tag, and no where else, since that is where it was supposed to go to begin with.
I also believe airlines want to know how many bags are "missing". Can all the bags go on the next plane? Is the next plane overbooked on it's own and there's no room for "extra" bags?
Is this really a concern? Do baggage areas of planes usually "overbook". Even if it does, the airline still is going to get the luggage (or multiple pieces of luggage) on the next available plane to where it's supposed to go. The only reason an airline would need to know how many are missing is if they themselves are not aware of anything missing. Again, speculating here, the airlines are aware when they make a mistake if not putting a bag on a plane because it's sitting in front of them with no place to go. But if it goes on the wrong plane somehow, I seem to observe that at most airports there are luggage agents at carousels that pull luggage that was never claimed. You always see these bags sitting alone near the offices, etc. At this point they can easily determine if that bag is at the right airport, and if not, take steps to get it there, or even contact the owner.
I agree there is a small chance of a bag being "lost" by the airline. My question is, if you don't tell DME to look for the bag, and you don't tell the airline what to do with the bag, once the bag gets to MCO, what happens? .
If it got to MCO it didn' really get lost, did it? And, if it got to MCO late, because it was re-routed somehow, it STILL has a yellow tag on it. It still gets pulled. Or, if it doesn't because it's late at night, the airline sees it an orphan bag with a yellow tag. A reasonable person would say "this bag is meant for Disney, they didn't abandon it". They hold it. They call Disney and tell them there is a bag there for them.
Granted, you'll know in about 4-5 hours you're missing a bag. So you contact the airline and they say it's been found and has been delivered to MCO. Do the airlines still deliver the bag to you, since you didn't file a timely claim, or do you have to go back to the airport yourself to claim it?
If it has a yellow tag on it, you do nothing since it arrives just like every other yellow tagged luggage. DME sees it before the carousel or the luggage counter does. It goes to Disney just like all the other bags on that plane, regardless of the fact that it's late, or regardless of the fact you got on the bus or did not get on the bus.
I'm pretty sure the airline isn't going to commit customer service suicide and say "you didn't tell us fast enough, and even though it's got a yellow tag on it , and we know that means special circumastance apply, we're going to keep your bag and look through your underwear....just hours after it departed from it's originating airport.
Every time the airline has "lost" one of my bags (more often than when they've all successfully made it), they've delivered the bags to wherever I was staying. Of course, I let them know about it before leaving the airport, so they'd know WHERE to deliver them to.
Yes, that would make sense. But a yellow tagged bag is technically not at it's final destination yet...it still has to make a "connection" to the yellow tag people. So, they wouldn't even GET your bag to ask you about it. DME would see it and pull it, or if late, the example above.