Lost Luggage Compensation: What the Airline Owes When Your Bag Is Declared Lost

Most delayed bags come back. The belt stops, you file a report, and a day or two later a courier turns up at the door with a suitcase that has seen more of the world than you have. This post is about the other outcome: the bag that does not come back, and the point at which a "delayed" case quietly becomes a lost one.

That point changes what you are claiming, how much the airline can be made to pay, and which deadlines matter. Most people only find out how it works once they are in the middle of it, tired and a suitcase short. Read it now instead, while the bag is still in the cupboard.

The short answer

• On an international flight covered by the Montreal Convention, a checked bag that has not arrived 21 days after it should have is treated as lost, and you can claim for it as lost. The airline can also admit the loss sooner.
• The airline's liability for baggage is capped at 1,519 Special Drawing Rights per passenger, the figure in force since 28 December 2024. It is a ceiling, not a fixed payout.
• You are paid for what you can show you lost. Receipts, photos and a written inventory decide the claim.
• If what you are checking in is worth more than the cap, the Convention lets you make a special declaration of interest at check-in, which may involve paying a supplementary sum.
• The right to go to court ends two years after arrival, or after the date the flight should have arrived.

When "delayed" becomes "lost"

The rule sits in Article 17 of the Montreal Convention. In plain terms: if the airline admits the checked bag is lost, or if the bag has not arrived by the end of twenty-one days after the date it ought to have arrived, you are entitled to enforce your rights against the airline as though it were lost.

Two things follow from that. First, you do not have to wait for the airline to say the word "lost". Once the 21 days have passed, the claim is yours to make. Second, the airline may declare it lost earlier than that, sometimes after its own tracing has run out. Either way, the question stops being "where is my bag?" and becomes "what was in it, and what was it worth?"

Singapore has given the Convention force of law through the Carriage by Air (Montreal Convention, 1999) Act. Whether it governs your particular trip depends on the places of departure and destination on your ticket, so if you are unsure, check with the airline which rules it is applying when you open the claim.

Two different 21-day figures

This is where people get caught out. The Convention has another 21-day figure, in Article 31: a complaint about a delayed bag must be made in writing within twenty-one days of the bag being placed at your disposal. A complaint about a damaged bag has a shorter window, seven days from receiving it.

These are different clocks for different situations, and it is easy to confuse them when you are stressed. The practical answer is the same for all of them: put everything in writing early. Keep the Property Irregularity Report reference from the airport, send the airline a written claim as soon as you can, and keep a copy of what you sent and the date you sent it. We walk through the airport desk and the first written claim in delayed or lost baggage: the first 24 hours. Nobody has ever lost a claim by being too early.

What the cap actually means

Article 22 limits the airline's liability for destruction, loss, damage or delay of baggage. Singapore's Revision of Limits of Liability Order 2024 sets that limit at 1,519 Special Drawing Rights per passenger from 28 December 2024. Three things about that number matter more than the number itself.

It is in Special Drawing Rights, not dollars. The SDR is a unit of account set by the International Monetary Fund, and its value in Singapore dollars moves every day. The airline will convert it when it settles. Do not plan around a dollar figure somebody quoted online.

It is per passenger, not per bag. If you checked in two suitcases, the same single cap covers both of them and everything in them. That is one quiet argument for splitting luggage between travellers: it does not raise anyone's cap, but it means one missing bag rarely takes one person's entire wardrobe with it.

It is a ceiling, not an entitlement. The airline does not owe you the cap because your bag is gone. It owes you what you can show you lost, up to the cap. A traveller who can prove a modest loss gets a modest settlement; a traveller who lost more than the cap gets the cap and no more, unless one of the exceptions applies.

The declaration almost nobody makes

The same article gives you a way to go above the cap. If, when you hand the bag over at check-in, you make a special declaration of interest in delivery at destination and pay a supplementary sum if the airline requires one, the airline becomes liable up to the declared amount. It can still argue that the sum is more than your actual interest in delivery.

Few leisure travellers ever ask for it. Whether your airline offers it and what it charges is its own policy, so ask at the counter or read its conditions of carriage before the trip. For most people the better answer is simpler: do not put anything in the hold that you could not bear to lose at a capped value. That is the whole argument of what should never go in checked luggage, and a lost-bag claim is where it proves itself.

Building the claim: what you will be asked for

A lost-bag claim is an inventory with evidence attached. The people handling it did not see your bag and do not know what was in it. What you send them is all they have. Expect to provide some version of the following.

• Your Property Irregularity Report reference from the airport, and your boarding pass and bag tag stub. The stub is the only proof you checked that bag on that flight. Keep it with your passport, not in the bin at the hotel.
• An itemised list of what was in the bag: each item, roughly when you bought it and roughly what it cost. Write it within a day or two of landing, while you still remember. Reconstructing a suitcase from memory a month later is miserable and unconvincing.
• Receipts where you have them, including for the suitcase itself. Order confirmation emails count. Search your inbox for the brand name before you give up on a receipt.
• Photos. A photo of the bag at the check-in counter, and any photos of your packed case, are worth more than any description. It takes ten seconds before every trip.
• Receipts for anything you bought during the delay, such as toiletries or a change of clothes, if you have not already claimed them.

Expect questions about how old things were. Expect the airline to look at what your belongings were worth when they went missing rather than what it costs to buy them new today, which usually means older items are valued lower. That is exactly why dates of purchase matter on the list.

What the airline is not liable for

Two limits in the Convention are worth knowing before you write the claim.

For checked baggage, the airline is not liable to the extent the damage resulted from the inherent defect, quality or vice of the baggage. That matters less for a bag that vanished than for one that turned up split open, but it is the reason a case that was already failing before the trip makes a weak claim.

For unchecked baggage, meaning your cabin bag and personal items, the airline is liable only if the loss or damage resulted from its fault or the fault of its staff or agents. Something you left in the seat pocket is, in most cases, your problem.

Travel insurance, and the order to claim in

Most travel policies are written to pay what the airline does not, and many insurers will ask what the airline paid, or to see its written refusal, before they settle. So the airline claim usually comes first, and the insurance claim follows with the airline's answer attached. Notify your insurer early anyway; policies have their own notice periods. We cover the policy side in travel insurance and your luggage, and if the bag arrived but arrived broken, the process is different and faster: see how to claim for damaged luggage.

If the airline goes quiet, or says no

Keep writing, keep dates and keep copies. Reply to every request for information promptly, because a claim that stalls on your side gives the airline a reason to close it. If you receive a settlement offer, read what it says happens if the bag is later found. A bag can still turn up after a claim has been settled, and you want to know in advance whether you keep it, return it or repay part of the settlement.

Under Article 35, the right to damages is extinguished if court action is not brought within two years of arrival at the destination, or of the date the aircraft ought to have arrived. That is a long window, but claims that drift for a year are the ones that end up hitting it. If the airline's own process is getting you nowhere, do not let it run the clock down quietly.

Five minutes before your next flight

• Photograph the outside of your bag, and the inside once it is packed.
• Keep valuables, medication, documents and electronics in the cabin.
• Put a copy of your itinerary and a contact number inside the bag, not only on the tag.
• Keep the bag tag stub with your passport until the bag is home.
• If what you are checking in is worth more than you would be comfortable claiming at a capped value, either carry it on or ask the airline about a declaration of interest.

A lost bag is rare, but it is the one travel problem where a little preparation turns a nightmare into paperwork. If you are replacing a case that never came back, both of ours are in the Vox Journey shop. Stuck on a claim and want a second pair of eyes on what to send? Message us on WhatsApp.