I flew from Madrid to Genoa last Sunday night with Air Nostrum who are a regional airline in the Iberia group. We checked in quite early with no problems, went to the departure gate and my hand luggage was tagged. It is the fairly standard size close to the largest you can take on board but with in the limits.
As we boarded I was told to leave my hand luggage on the tarmac so it could be loaded into the back of the plane - not the luggage compartment. That's fine.
Arrived in Genoa, collected my hand luggage from the tarmac and went inside to get my checked luggage. No luggage arrived and not only didn't mine arrive but 7 other people also didn't receive their luggage. This on a plane of less than 50 people.
Lodged a claim etc and was told to ring to find out what was happening the next day. Tried to ring on and off all the next day and no one answered the phone. No communication for 2 days.
I was on business and had my supplier "take over" for me and all that happened was that he got totally frustrated. At Tuesday mid morning we rang the hotel and they said they had just been notified my luggage was at the airport and had been since Monday night. It would not be delivered to the hotel but we would have to pick it up.
Went to collect it and my supplier had a long conversation with the staff and was told this was very common. There was always missing luggage as there is often too much luggage for the size of the plane and they just don't load it all. I & 7 others were the unlucky ones. They also ensure it gets there just under the 24 hours so that there will be no insurance claims. Most policies are that the luggage needs to be missing for more than 24 hours.
Moral of the story - don't use Iberia/Nostrum or if you do just take hand luggage.