[pjmlp]

Yep, it happened to me during a Lufthansa strike a couple of years ago.

They distributed us and our luggage across a couple of planes flying out to Vienna.

My luggage arrived on an earlier flight and had to hear from the Austrian police, while I explained that it was Lufthansa's own doing.

[madcaptenor]

Sometimes this happens even without a strike. Once I flew San Francisco - Houston - Little Rock with about a four-hour layover in Houston. When I got to Little Rock my bag wasn't on the baggage carousel - it turned out they'd put my bag on an earlier flight. (I wasn't on that earlier flight because the long connection turned out to be a lot cheaper than a short one.)