Lost, Delayed and Damaged Bags

The carousel stops turning. Your bag is not on it. This moment decides your lost luggage claim, not the call you make from a hotel three days later.

File a report at the desk before you walk away. Get a reference number, a copy of your bag tag, and a delivery address. Do this even if the line is long and the agent seems unbothered.

File the claim before you leave the airport

Airlines call this a property irregularity report. It is the single most useful thing you can do in the next twenty minutes. It creates a timestamp, a description of the bag, and a paper trail the airline cannot later dispute.

Filing later still works, but it weakens your position. It lets the airline argue you had the bag after you left the terminal. A report filed at the desk removes that argument.

Keep your bag tag stub and boarding pass until the claim closes. Photograph the outside of your bag before you check it. A clear photo settles disputes about the model or color fast.

Keep essentials in your carry-on before this ever happens. Follow our carry-on packing rules so a missing checked bag never means missing medication.

Delayed, lost, and damaged: three different claims

A delayed bag is not lost. It still exists somewhere in the system, still covered by the same checked baggage rules you agreed to at check-in. The airline is trying to route it to you, usually within a few days.

A lost bag is a different claim with a different clock. There is no single federal number of days that makes a bag officially lost. Most US carriers currently treat a bag as lost between five and fourteen days after the flight lands.

Some travelers report waiting far longer before an airline will use that word. A damaged bag is its own claim, reported before you leave the airport or within a short window after. Each of the three has its own timeline and its own paperwork.

Airlines publish their own exact windows in the contract of carriage. Our Delta bag guide is one example worth reading before a trip. The number in the fine print rarely matches what a phone agent tells you on day one.

What US law says lost luggage is worth

US law caps what an airline owes you for a lost, damaged, or delayed domestic bag. The Department of Transportation sets that limit at $4,700 per passenger. That is up from $3,800 before a rule change took effect in January 2025.

This compensates you for lost luggage. It does not make you whole for every irreplaceable item packed inside. Airlines can ask for receipts or a reasonable estimate of value.

Pack anything irreplaceable in your carry-on instead, where you keep control of it. Thinking through how you pack a trip matters more than any claims process ever will.

Flying internationally: the Montreal Convention limit

International itineraries do not use the DOT dollar figure. They fall under the Montreal Convention instead, a treaty most major airlines and countries have signed. The current limit is 1,519 Special Drawing Rights per passenger.

That converts to roughly $2,175, though the exact dollar value moves with the exchange rate. That figure sits below the $4,700 domestic limit. In plain terms, lost luggage is worth less on an international ticket than on a domestic one.

International rules also move faster on paperwork. Convention rules give you days, not weeks, to put a damage complaint in writing after you get the bag back. Travel insurance or a credit card can close the gap the treaty leaves open.

Getting reimbursed for expenses while you wait

A delayed bag does not leave you covering your own costs. DOT rules require airlines to reimburse reasonable, verifiable, and actual expenses you incur while your bag is missing. That covers a toothbrush, a change of clothes, or a phone charger bought at the airport shop.

Airlines cannot impose an arbitrary daily cap on this reimbursement, according to the Department of Transportation. Save every receipt, even small ones, because claims departments ask for an itemized list before they pay. A general estimate without paperwork gets a smaller check, if it gets one at all.

Keep the boarding pass and claim reference tied to every receipt you submit. Community reports describe claims processing that runs only on business days. That alone can turn a wait of two weeks into a full month.

Damaged bags and the wheels and handles problem

A cracked shell or a broken zipper usually gets paid without much fight. Wheels, handles, straps, and exterior pockets are a different story. Most carriers write this exclusion into their conditions of carriage as normal wear and tear.

This means a wheel that snapped off in transit often gets you nothing. The same flight cracking your bag’s frame usually gets a check. Photograph any damage at the baggage desk before you leave.

Get it noted on your report while you are still standing there. A vague description later is easy for an airline to dispute.

Choosing luggage built for rough handling reduces how often this exclusion matters. Nothing survives a baggage system forever, but a reinforced case survives more of it.

Credit card coverage: the backstop many travelers forget

Many travel rewards credit cards include baggage delay and lost luggage benefits as a cardholder perk. These benefits usually sit on top of whatever the airline pays, not in place of it. You typically must have paid for the ticket with that card to qualify.

Delay coverage on most cards kicks in after a set number of hours. That is often somewhere between six and twelve, depending on the issuer. Lost luggage coverage typically pays out only after the airline process is exhausted.

Read the card’s guide to benefits before you assume it covers your situation. Coverage details vary enormously between issuers and even between cards from the same bank.

The bottom line

Lost luggage is rarely as final as it feels at an empty carousel. Most bags come back within days. The ones that do not are covered, within limits, by a rule with a real dollar figure behind it.

File the report before you leave. Save every receipt. Know your two numbers: $4,700 domestic and about $2,175 international.

A credit card or travel insurance can close the rest of the gap. It is worth checking before you fly, not after the bag goes missing. Run the numbers on what a checked bag actually costs with our baggage fee calculator first.