Deano, you need to take a long hard look from Post number 8 and see the direction you sent this thread.
As for your very last point, you asked, who the hell do I think I am. The measure of that is status and money.

Anyway, the fact remains, if a bag is missing on a FO deal, the airline is the point of contact and the one that carries the blame. On a package deal it’s the tour operator – in each case it is no matter who actually mislays the kit.

I’ve had a bag follow me over the pond to Amsterdam. I was inbound Gatwick. It was an airline van that pulled up at my house to return it, not the Handling services.