[babypuncher]

When the customer shows up at baggage claim and is able to point out on a map on their iPhone exactly where their bag is, they should be moving hell or high water to locate and return that bag.

Nothing about how the airline handled this is reasonable. The couple was tracking their bag as soon as it didn't show up at baggage claim. They knew exactly where it was when they filed the lost bag report. The airline actively ignored this information and spent weeks doing nothing meaningful about it before paying up for the lost bag.

What you describe is a reasonable outcome when the airline has no way of knowing where the bag went, but this simply was not the case here.