“We don’t lose enough bags to justify that investment,”

That investment would be in RFID and it would be just 20c a bag according to this NY Times article.

The airline industry would rather fly planes with no passengers but full of misplaced bags than make that investment?

I hate checking bags but do have two suggestions:

a) Particularly in Europe - please let us carry on bags. Modern planes have large overhead bins for a reason.
b) We pay $ 2.50 per flight segment to the TSA. Steal 20c from there and pay for the RFID. Trust me it will also help make our security leaner and tighter