In a New York Times Q&A travel column, Pascal Hua says that after a flight from Paris to San Francisco, a passenger picked up his bag by mistake at the carousel. Air France told Hua that they are responsible for luggage only until scanned onto the belt, although they gave him a "delayed baggage" claim form. He finally got his bag back, but directly from the passenger who had taken it who was passing through Paris.
Roger Collis responds that Air France is wrong: Compensation for lost bags is the responsibility of the carrier that operates the final leg of the trip, assuming that baggage is checked through to the destination. "I see from your letter that Air France gave you 500 euros ($665 at $1.33 to the euro), and 10,000 frequent flier miles, not too bad in my view," Collis replied
