How Much Compensation Do You Get for Lost Baggage?
On most international flights the liability cap is 1,519 SDR per passenger — roughly £1,600 or $2,000 — under the Montreal Convention (the ICAO raised it from 1,288 SDR with effect from 28 December 2024), provided you reported the problem on time and kept your receipts. Airlines settle real claims below that cap every day; the cap is the ceiling, not the payout.
How Much Compensation Do You Get for Lost Baggage?: questions people actually ask
How long until the airline admits my bag is lost?
The legal default is 21 days after the flight; many airlines declare earlier. From that point the full liability claim opens.
What can I actually claim for?
Necessities while the bag was delayed (receipted), and for a lost bag the contents’ value — documented where you can — up to the liability cap. High-value items sometimes have notice requirements, so declare them at check-in when travelling with them.
Does travel insurance pay more than the airline?
Often yes — policies commonly cover the excess the airline does not, including some high-value categories. Airline first, insurer second is the standard order; insurers ask for the airline’s settlement letter.
The convention that sets the number
The Montreal Convention 1999 governs most international flights and caps airline liability for baggage at 1,519 Special Drawing Rights per passenger (SDRs are an IMF currency basket; the figure adjusts periodically — the latest revision, effective 28 December 2024, lifted it from 1,288, and it converts to roughly £1,600 or $2,000 at current rates). Baggage that is delayed rather than lost falls under the same 1,519 SDR cap — the separate 6,303 SDR figure you may see quoted (£6,600-ish) applies to delay of passengers, not bags — though delay claims for baggage are unusual and hotly contested. Domestic flights follow national law, which in the US runs to about $4,700 per passenger and in many other countries is less generous than the convention.
When a delayed bag becomes a "lost" bag
A bag is legally lost — triggering the full claim — if it has not arrived within 21 days of the flight, or if the airline declares it lost sooner. Before that line, the bag is "delayed" and you claim reasonable replacement essentials: the convention expects you to mitigate, not to shop a new wardrobe on the airline. Keep every receipt, and keep the claim proportionate — a week’s toiletries and a change of clothes are defensible; a camera you had always wanted is not.
The deadlines that void claims
Report damaged baggage to the airline within 7 days of receiving it, and delayed baggage in writing within 21 days of it arriving. Miss those windows and your claim weakens from "convention liability" to "customer goodwill". File the Property Irregularity Report at the airport on the day, then pursue the airline in writing — and note the practical reality that credit-card travel insurance and standalone policies often pay faster and broader than the airline’s own scheme, so claim in parallel.