Lost Luggage What to Do First

Updated August 2026 · Vacation Checklists

Go to the airline's baggage service office in the arrivals hall and file a report before you leave the airport, get a written file reference number, and keep every receipt from that moment on. That's the whole first hour, and it's the part that decides how the next three weeks go.

Leaving the airport without filing is the single most expensive mistake in this entire process. Airlines can and do refuse claims from passengers who went home first and called the next morning. File first, complain later.

The best protection is the bag you kept with you. Our free packing list generator builds a 24-hour carry-on kit alongside your main list, so a missing suitcase is an inconvenience rather than a crisis.

Updated August 2026. Baggage rules come from three separate places: your airline's own contract of carriage, US Department of Transportation regulations for domestic travel, and the Montreal Convention for most international itineraries. Timelines and liability limits differ between them and are revised periodically. Confirm the current rules with your airline and at transportation.gov/airconsumer.

A note on numbers. No dollar figures on this page. Airline liability limits, daily interim allowances and card benefit caps are set by carriers, regulators and card issuers, they differ by route and by policy, and any amount printed here would be wrong for somebody. What you get instead is the sequence, the deadlines, the paperwork that decides a claim, and the questions to ask at the baggage desk.

The First Hour, Step by Step

Do these in order, at the airport, before you do anything else.

Do not accept "it'll probably be on the next flight" as a reason not to file. It usually is on the next flight, and filing costs you ten minutes. Not filing costs you the claim.

If you have a tracker in the bag and it shows a location, tell them and show them the screen. Airlines increasingly accept tracker data, and knowing a bag sat at your departure airport is genuinely useful information for the tracing team.

Delayed, Damaged, and Lost Are Three Different Claims

People use "lost luggage" for all three. Airlines don't, and the difference decides which timeline and which form applies.

That last row surprises everyone. A bag is generally not declared lost until several weeks have passed, often 21 days or more, and only then does the compensation claim for the bag's contents begin. Until that point, the airline treats it as delayed and is still searching. Frustrating, but it also reflects reality: most bags that look permanently gone at day three are back with their owner by day five.

The three-week wait is also why the interim expense reimbursement matters so much. It's what you live on while the clock runs.

Interim Expenses: Keep Every Receipt

While a bag is delayed, many airlines reimburse reasonable essential purchases. Not a new wardrobe, not a replacement camera, but the things you genuinely need to function.

Typically covered:

• Toiletries, including things you couldn't bring through security anyway
• Underwear and socks
• A basic change of clothes, scaled to the length of the delay
• Necessary work or event clothing if the trip demands it
• Replacement of a specific item you needed that day

Typically not covered, or heavily scrutinized:

• Designer or luxury replacements
• Electronics
• Anything bought after the bag was returned
• Purchases with no receipt

Three rules make or break the claim:

1. Every receipt, itemized, kept. Photograph each one immediately. A card statement line is not a receipt.
2. "Reasonable" is judged after the fact. A modest change of clothes from a mid-market store reads as reasonable. A designer replacement of the same item invites an argument you will probably lose.
3. Ask what the daily cap is at the baggage desk and note the answer with the agent's name. Some airlines publish a per-day figure, some assess case by case, and some pay a flat allowance immediately.

Worked example: a two-day delay

You land Friday evening for a Monday morning conference. Your bag is delayed and arrives Sunday afternoon.

• Toiletries and basics
• Two shirts and underwear for the weekend
• A pair of trousers for Saturday's dinner
• Three itemized receipts, photographed at the till

The airline reimburses most of it and declines the trousers, on the grounds that they were not essential for a two-night delay. Your credit card's baggage delay benefit, which kicks in after a set number of hours, covers a portion of the remainder. You submit the same receipts to both, disclosing the airline payment, and end up out of pocket by very little.

Note what made that work: the receipts existed, the purchases were modest, and the claim went to both the airline and the card. The same spending with no receipts recovers nothing.

There's one more piece of money to claim. Under a US Department of Transportation rule finalized in 2024, airlines must refund the checked bag fee when a bag is substantially delayed, with different qualifying windows for domestic and international flights. It is not automatic and airlines don't offer it. Ask for it by name, with your file reference and your bag fee receipt. Our guide to checked bag fees covers what you paid in the first place.

Liability Limits: What the Airline Actually Owes

If a bag is eventually declared lost, compensation is capped. Two different systems apply and which one covers you depends on the itinerary, not the airline.

• US domestic flights. The Department of Transportation sets a maximum liability per passenger for lost, damaged, or delayed baggage. It's adjusted for inflation periodically, so the figure changes. Airlines may voluntarily pay more but are not required to.
• International itineraries. Most are governed by the Montreal Convention, which caps liability in Special Drawing Rights, an international currency unit. That cap is reviewed and revised on a set cycle, so it also changes over time.

Rather than quote a number that will be out of date, here's what actually matters in practice:

1. The limit is a ceiling, not a payout. Airlines settle on the depreciated value of your belongings, not what you'd pay to replace them new. A three-year-old jacket is valued as a three-year-old jacket.
2. You have to prove what was in the bag. This is where the photo of the packed contents earns its keep. Receipts for expensive items help enormously.
3. Many categories are excluded entirely. Jewelry, cash, electronics, documents, keys, and fragile goods are commonly excluded or capped very low in the contract of carriage. That exclusion is exactly why those items belong in your carry-on. Our list of what not to pack in checked luggage has the full set.
4. International reporting deadlines are strict. The Montreal Convention allows 7 days from receipt for damage and 21 days from delivery for delay, in writing. Miss those and the claim can be barred regardless of merit.

Check the current figures on your airline's contract of carriage and at transportation.gov/airconsumer rather than relying on any number you read on a blog, this one included.

Lost Luggage What to Do in the Days After the Report

The report is filed. Here's the follow-up that actually moves a claim.

Day 1 to 2. Check the airline's baggage tracking page with your file reference, once or twice a day. Don't call repeatedly, since the phone agents usually read the same screen. If you have a tracker, keep watching it. A bag whose tracker shows movement toward your city is on its way.

Day 3 to 7. If nothing has moved, escalate in writing. Email the airline's baggage claims address with your file reference in the subject line. Ask for a named point of contact. Keep every reply. Written records are what a regulator or a card issuer will want later.

Day 7 to 21. Submit an itemized contents list if the airline asks for one, and it will. This is the point where your pre-trip photo of the packed bag turns an argument into a document. Include purchase dates and approximate values, be accurate, and do not inflate it. Inflated claims get scrutinized item by item and delay everything.

After the airline declares the bag lost. Submit the formal claim, then submit to your travel insurance and your credit card benefit for the shortfall. Disclose what the airline paid. Double recovery isn't allowed, but topping up a depreciated settlement usually is.

If you get nowhere. For flights to, from, or within the US, you can file a complaint with the Department of Transportation. For flights within Europe, the relevant national enforcement body handles it. Airlines respond noticeably faster once a regulator is on the thread.

Prevention: The Five Things That Actually Help

Most of this costs nothing and takes ten minutes.

1. Photograph the packed bag, open, before you close it. One wide shot of the contents and one of the closed bag from the outside. This is your inventory and your description, and it takes five seconds.
2. Put a tracker inside. An AirTag or equivalent turns "we're looking into it" into "it's at the airport you left from, in the west baggage hall." Trackers are permitted in checked bags under normal use, and several airlines now accept shared tracker locations as part of a claim. Check your airline's current position if you're unsure. Our luggage tracker guide compares the options.
3. Name tag inside and out. External tags get ripped off by belts. An index card with your name, cell number, and destination address sitting on top of the contents is what reunites an unlabeled bag with its owner.
4. Remove old bag tags. Stale barcodes genuinely misroute bags. Strip every previous tag before check-in.
5. Pack a 24-hour kit in your carry-on. Medication, chargers, glasses, one change of clothes, underwear, basic toiletries, and anything for a specific event. Our travel essentials checklist covers the full set, and the carry-on packing list shows how it fits.

Two more that help at the margins: book longer connections, because most misrouted bags are simply bags that missed a tight transfer, and check in early enough for the bag to be loaded on your flight rather than the next one. Our guide on how early to arrive at the airport has the bag drop cutoffs, which are hard deadlines at nearly every airline.

Travel Insurance and Credit Card Coverage

These are separate backstops from the airline, and both pay on top of, not instead of, the airline's settlement.

Credit card baggage benefits. Many travel cards include baggage delay coverage that starts after a set delay, commonly six or twelve hours, plus lost baggage coverage. Conditions to check:

• The trip usually has to be paid for with that card, sometimes in full.
• The delay clock starts at arrival, and the threshold is strict.
• Coverage is often secondary, meaning you claim from the airline first and the card covers the shortfall.
• Deadlines to notify the benefit administrator are short, frequently 20 to 30 days.

Travel insurance. A policy usually covers both delay and loss, often with a higher limit than a card benefit and fewer exclusions, though electronics and valuables are still capped. Read the per-item limit, not just the total. A policy with a healthy overall limit and a low per-item cap does not cover a laptop, and the per-item cap is where insurers do most of their declining.

Whichever route you use, they all want the same three things: the airline's file reference number, proof of the delay, and itemized receipts. That's why the first hour matters so much. Everything downstream depends on that reference number.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I do first if the airline loses my luggage?

Go to the airline's baggage service office in the arrivals hall and file a report before you leave the airport. Get the file reference number in writing, give a local address and phone number, and photograph the report. Filing in person, before leaving, is what most airline contracts require and what every later claim depends on.

How long before luggage is officially declared lost?

Most airlines don't declare a bag lost until several weeks have passed, commonly 21 days or more, and some use a longer window. Until then it's treated as delayed and actively traced. The great majority of delayed bags are returned within 24 to 48 hours, which is why the airline keeps searching rather than settling.

Will the airline pay for clothes while my bag is delayed?

Many airlines reimburse reasonable essential purchases during a delay, but you must keep itemized receipts and the purchases have to be genuinely necessary. Ask the baggage desk what their daily limit is and note the answer. Your credit card or travel insurance may cover what the airline declines.

How much compensation do I get for lost luggage?

Compensation is capped by a liability limit that differs for US domestic travel, set by the Department of Transportation, and international travel under the Montreal Convention. Both are revised periodically. In practice you're paid the depreciated value of documented contents up to that ceiling, not replacement cost, and many categories such as jewelry, electronics, and cash are excluded.

Can I put an AirTag or tracker in my checked bag?

Yes. Trackers are permitted in checked baggage under normal use, and several airlines now accept shared tracker locations when tracing a bag. A tracker is the fastest way to turn a vague search into a specific location. Check your airline's current guidance if you have any doubt.

What if my bag arrives damaged instead of missing?

Report it before you leave the airport if you can. Airlines commonly require damage to be reported within 24 hours on domestic travel, and the Montreal Convention sets 7 days from receipt for international travel. Photograph the damage, keep the bag tag, and don't repair anything before the airline has inspected it.

Does my credit card cover delayed baggage?

Many travel cards do, typically starting after a set delay of six or twelve hours, provided the trip was paid for with that card. Coverage is often secondary, so you claim from the airline first and the card covers the remainder. Notification deadlines are short, so contact the benefit administrator within days, not weeks.

How do I prove what was in my lost suitcase?

A photograph of the open, packed bag taken before you closed it is the strongest evidence there is, backed up by receipts for anything expensive. Airlines ask for an itemized contents list with approximate values and purchase dates. Be accurate. Inflated lists get examined item by item and slow the settlement down.