How much can you claim for a delayed, lost, or damaged bag?

On an international flight between Montreal Convention states the airline's liability is capped at 1,519 SDR per passenger — about $2,072 at the 10 June 2026 IMF rate. This is a ceiling, not a fixed payout: you are reimbursed your documented, proven loss (receipts for interim purchases when delayed, the proven value of the bag's contents when lost) up to that limit. For US domestic flights the minimum liability is a flat $4,700 per passenger under 14 CFR §254.4. On a route that touches a non-Montreal state, the older Warsaw Convention applies at roughly 17 SDR per kilogram (about $23/kg), so a 23 kg bag is capped near $534.

Under the Montreal Convention you must give the airline written notice within 7 days for damaged baggage and within 21 days for delayed baggage, counted from the day you received the bag (Article 31). If the bag is never delivered it is treated as lost after 21 days, and you then have up to 2 years from the arrival date to bring a claim (Article 35). Miss the short 7- or 21-day notice window and the airline will almost certainly reject the claim as untimely, so file the written notice immediately even if you are still gathering receipts.

Yes for delayed and damaged bags. The PIR is the report you file at the airline's baggage desk in the arrivals hall before you leave the airport. Most airlines treat it as the formal written notice required by Montreal Article 31, and without it they routinely reject delayed and damaged claims. If you have already left the airport, contact the airline's baggage tracing desk right away and ask them to open a file — but the in-airport PIR is far stronger evidence.

No. EU Regulation 261/2004 covers flight disruption — denied boarding, cancellations, and long delays of the flight itself — not baggage. Baggage on EU and UK carriers is governed by EU Regulation 889/2002, which applies the Montreal Convention limits (the same 1,519 SDR ceiling). Citing EU 261 for a baggage claim is the single most common mistake in this area; cite Montreal / EU 889 instead.

Only on routes governed by the older Warsaw Convention 1929, which still applies when a flight touches a state that has not ratified Montreal. Warsaw caps liability per kilogram of checked baggage — about 17 SDR/kg (250 Poincaré francs/kg), roughly $23/kg at the current IMF rate — rather than per passenger. So under Warsaw a heavier bag has a higher ceiling, and you must enter the checked weight to get a figure. Under Montreal and US DOT the cap is per passenger and weight is irrelevant.

Yes. The Montreal Convention makes the airline liable for damage caused by delay (Article 19), which in practice means the reasonable, necessary purchases you had to make because your bag was missing — toiletries, basic clothing, a phone charger. Keep every receipt: airlines reimburse documented expenses, not a flat daily allowance, and the total still counts against the 1,519 SDR ceiling. Buy what is reasonable for the length of the delay, not a replacement wardrobe.

The conventions express limits in Special Drawing Rights (SDR), an IMF basket currency, so the dollar figure moves with the daily SDR/USD rate. This tool uses the IMF rate from 10 June 2026 — 1 SDR = $1.364 — to convert the 1,519 SDR Montreal ceiling to about $2,072 and the 17 SDR/kg Warsaw rate to about $23/kg. The underlying SDR limits themselves change rarely: Montreal's were last revised on 28 December 2024 by ICAO's five-year inflation review.