[peeters]

Donating an unclaimed bag is maybe an option (if the recipient is legally required to destroy all personal data). Donating a bag that your passenger has filed a claim for, and can tell you the location of, is a business decision. The penalty in this situation should be so obscenely high as to make it irrational for the airline to consider it.

Merely compensating for damages implies the bag was lost in good faith. I can't just steal your car and pay you fair market value for it without your agreement.

[rhino369]

>Donating a bag that your passenger has filed a claim for, and can tell you the location of, is a business decision.

It's not clear the airline could really determine which bag it was. I imagine these lost baggage centers have a very large amount of bags. Finding it is a needle in a hackstack problem under the likely assumption that the bag is lost because the airline paper tag was missing or unreadable.

There aren't enough facts to determine any active choice was made here. The airline should pay for the bag, but nothing seem malicious here.

[renewiltord]

You can use Find My to isolate the bag. It'll lead you to the general direction, you can pull the bag from the bunch based on a passenger description, and then you can just walk it away from the rest to see if it is correct.

[radu_floricica]

Like rhino said above, in all likelyhood the label on the bag was most likely ripped (or it wouldn't be lost in the first place). And trying to describe a bag is... challenging.

[icedistilled]

That seems like a business decision to use poor labeling and likely negligent,

They should be required to show some good faith effort that their labelling system is design to be reliable instead of the cheapest possible, and also show they have made a good faith effort to return the mound of lost bags.

[yardstick]

Normally there are at least 3 separate stickers affixed to a bag with their flight/tracking details. Hard to lose all 3

But this is also why I leave a business card or two inside the suitcase.