> Instead UAL sent me an official disclaimer stating that their legal office had determined that UAL was not liable and the bag would not be returned nor compensated. <
Crazy. How did it all end? Did you eventually get your luggage back? Did you contact the FAA?
No and no. The bag and contents were not worth the continued hassle. I simply resolved to never fly on UAL aircraft again. It helps that shortly after that United ceased going to TSN. They still sell the cheapest tickets for the trip but you fly the short intra-USA hops on their sub United Airways which is average service and fine for short hops and then the long jumps on ANL which is really nice, as all the east Asian A/Ls are.
United used be called by another name:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgu5tb_total-bastard-airlines_shortfilms
But it started out as:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2q4lmi