I was coming home on leave, right after Gulf War I, and was travelling with a buddy (we both lived near Boston, so we flew home together). We checked in together in WA, put our bags on the carrier, everything. Flew home together, were given free champagne and we could smoke on flights at the time. Straight flight from WA to MA-no layovers. got to the baggage claim area-his bag was there, mine wasnt. Needless to say I was angry. Went home-my bag made it there 2 days before I left to go back to base...at that time I had bought new clothes, so almost everything was tossed out.
Little side story though; as I am sitting there, cursing the airlines, I turn around and there is arguably the largest man I have ever seen. He HAd to have been almost 7', and VERY broad chested & thick. I said something to the effect of "holy cow! What do you EAT?" The guy just smiled at me. I later found out this guy was a professional wrestler for the WWF, or whatever it was in 1990-1991. I dont recall the guy's name, but I havent seen anyone that big since. And thats a GOOD thing!