Do one thing before you leave the airport: file a mishandled-baggage report at the airline's baggage service office in the arrivals hall, and keep the reference number. Almost every remedy below - the fee refund, the interim-expenses claim, the liability payout - runs off that report, and walking out of the terminal without it is the single most expensive mistake people make. Most bags are not lost at all; they are delayed, and the overwhelming majority turn up within a few days. The paperwork is what makes the difference between that being an inconvenience and being a cost.
This page is about US-governed flights and the international rules that sit on top of them. It explains the three states a missing bag can be in, what you can claim in each, the two liability ceilings that cap everything, and - at the end - the two cheap things that make the next trip materially different.
Delayed, lost, or damaged: they are not the same claim
Delayed is the usual case: the bag missed your flight and is on a later one. The airline will deliver it, usually within a day or two. Lost is a status the airline declares, not a stopwatch you start - US carriers generally treat a bag as lost somewhere between five and fourteen days after the report, and each publishes its own threshold. Once declared lost, the claim moves from "deliver my bag" to "pay me for its contents". Damaged is a separate process with far shorter deadlines - our cracked luggage guide covers it, and the short version is that some carriers require damage to be reported within hours of arrival.
The checked-bag fee refund you are probably owed
This is the most commonly missed money in the whole process. Under the US Department of Transportation rule that took effect in 2024, a passenger who files a mishandled-baggage report is entitled to a refund of the checked-bag fee if the bag is not delivered within 12 hours of a domestic flight arriving at the gate, or within 15 to 30 hours of an international arrival depending on the length of the flight. Refunds must be issued within seven business days for a credit-card purchase and twenty calendar days for other payment methods.
Two things follow from that. It is another reason the report has to be filed - no report, no refund entitlement. And the clock runs from gate arrival, so note the time you landed.
Interim expenses while the bag is missing
Airlines are expected to cover reasonable, verifiable interim expenses for a passenger away from home without their bag - toiletries, a change of clothes, items you genuinely need before the bag arrives. Policies vary and some carriers publish a per-day figure, so ask the baggage service desk what theirs is rather than assuming. Keep every receipt, buy at the level you would normally buy at rather than replacing your wardrobe, and submit the receipts with the file reference. These are reimbursements against your eventual claim, not a separate windfall, and an airline can deduct them from a final payout.
The two ceilings on what you can be paid
US domestic flights: $4,700 per passenger. Federal rule 14 CFR 254.4 provides that an air carrier "shall not limit its liability for provable direct or consequential damages resulting from the disappearance of, damage to, or delay in delivery of a passenger's personal property, including baggage, in its custody to an amount less than $4,700 for each passenger". That is a floor on the airline's liability, not a payment you are owed - you are reimbursed for what you can prove you lost, up to that cap, and depreciation applies.
International flights: 1,519 SDR per passenger. International carriage is governed by the Montreal Convention, whose limits are reviewed every five years. The baggage limit under Article 22(2) rose to 1,519 Special Drawing Rights with effect from 28 December 2024, up from 1,288 SDR - an increase of roughly 18%. The SDR is an IMF unit whose dollar value floats daily, so the figure in dollars changes; look up the current SDR rate rather than trusting a number printed on a blog.
Both ceilings exclude a great deal. Airlines routinely decline claims for cash, jewellery, electronics, documents, medication and other high-value items in checked bags, which is precisely why those things belong in your cabin bag - see what not to pack for the inverse list, and carry-on vs checked bag for the split.
What to do, in order
1. Go to the baggage service office before leaving the arrivals hall and file the report. Get the file reference in writing. 2. Give them a delivery address and a phone number that works in the country you are in. 3. Note the gate-arrival time for the 12-hour fee-refund clock. 4. Buy only what you need, and keep receipts. 5. Check the airline's online tracker daily and keep a written log of every contact. 6. If the bag is declared lost, submit an itemised claim with evidence of value - photos, receipts, card statements. 7. Check your travel insurance and the travel protections on the credit card you bought the ticket with; these often cover what the airline excludes, and they usually require the airline's report as evidence.
What makes the next trip different
Two cheap things change the experience materially, and neither is luggage. A Bluetooth tracker in the bag turns "the airline does not know where it is" into "it is still at the origin airport", which is information you can hand to the baggage desk - Apple's Share Item Location feature exists specifically so you can send a tracker's location to an airline. A proper luggage tag with current contact details is how a found bag gets back to you when the airline's own tag has been torn off, which is a common failure mode - our best luggage tags roundup ranks that category on the attachment, the privacy of what is printed on the face, and whether the ID survives a wet baggage cart. The three picks below are the site's own registry entries that answer exactly that, with the scores they earned on their own roundups.
How long before a bag is officially lost?
There is no single legal number. US carriers generally declare a bag lost somewhere between five and fourteen days after the mishandled-baggage report, and each publishes its own threshold in its contract of carriage - which is the document to read if a carrier is being vague. Until that declaration, the bag is "delayed" and the airline's obligation is to deliver it; after it, the claim becomes a reimbursement.
What to photograph before you fly
This is the five minutes that pays for itself. Photograph the outside of the packed bag so you can describe it precisely - colour, brand, distinguishing marks. Photograph the contents laid out, which is the evidence an itemised claim needs and which almost nobody has. Keep receipts or card statements for anything individually expensive. And photograph the bag tag the airline attaches at check-in: the ten-digit number on it is what the baggage system actually searches on.
Why the valuables rule is not pedantry
Every exclusion list in this business looks the same: cash, jewellery, electronics, documents, keys, medication, irreplaceable items. The two liability ceilings on this page do not apply to those, because the carrier has excluded them from the contract rather than capped them. The practical rule is the one our carry-on vs checked bag guide sets out: anything whose loss would end the trip travels in the cabin. Pack a change of clothes in there too - it is the difference between a delayed bag being an annoyance and being a shopping trip.
Trackers in checked bags are legal
A recurring worry with no basis. The FAA's packing rules restrict lithium batteries in checked baggage, but the limits are 0.3 g of lithium metal for a non-rechargeable cell, and a typical CR2032 coin cell used in these trackers contains a small fraction of that - the Energizer datasheet for the CR2032 gives 235 mAh at 3.0 V, roughly 0.7 Wh. Every mainstream Bluetooth tracker clears the rule comfortably. Our checked luggage rules guide has the battery limits in full, and the luggage tracker roundup ranks the field on network reach rather than hardware.
