Lost Luggage: What to Do, Step by Step

The carousel empties out. Everyone else grabs a bag and heads for the exit, and yours never shows. Before you panic or start refreshing a flight-tracking app, know this: the next ten minutes at the airport matter more than anything you do once you get home.

Report it before you leave the airport

Go straight to the baggage service desk before you clear arrivals. It is the counter near the carousels, usually staffed even at odd hours, where an agent opens a Property Irregularity Report, called a PIR. Do this now. Some airlines let you file online later, but that slows the search and gives you a weaker claim if the bag stays missing.

Bring what the agent needs and take a copy of what they give you:

• The baggage tag receipt, stapled to your boarding pass at check-in. The tag number is how the system searches for your bag.

• A copy of the PIR number. Write it down separately from any paperwork the agent hands you, in case a page goes missing.

• A local phone number and delivery address, not just an email. If your bag turns up in two days, someone needs to reach you fast.

Ask where the bag should go if found: hotel, rental, home address. Confirm the agent has the right one before you walk away.

What the Montreal Convention actually protects

On international flights, your claim falls under the Montreal Convention, the treaty most countries have signed that caps what an airline owes for baggage. The limit is 1,519 Special Drawing Rights per passenger, a currency basket the IMF manages that shifts slightly against the dollar every day. As of 2026 that works out to roughly 2,000 US dollars.

That figure is higher than most travelers assume, and it covers loss, damage, and delay combined, not each separately. It is still a ceiling, though, not a blank check. Airlines can and do argue about what counts as a reasonable value, so receipts and a rough packing list help if you ever need to prove what was inside. If your checked bag carries a camera body, jewelry, or anything worth more than the limit, that value sits outside standard coverage unless you declared it and paid a fee at check-in. Flights that stay entirely within the US run under a separate US rule instead, a $4,700 per passenger cap set by the Department of Transportation and adjusted every two years.

Get cash for what you need right now

While your bag is missing but not yet declared lost, most airlines owe you interim expenses: money for the clothes, toiletries, and basics you need until it shows up. This is the part almost nobody uses. Agents rarely mention it, and plenty of travelers who are entitled to it never ask.

• Ask for it directly at the baggage desk, by name if you can: "interim expenses" or "essential items allowance."

• Some airlines pay a cash advance on the spot; others reimburse later against receipts you submit online.

• Keep every receipt, even small ones. A toothbrush and a change of underwear count. A new wardrobe does not.

• "Reasonable" is judged against your situation, so a week stuck somewhere costs more than an overnight delay, and airlines generally accept that math.

The 21-day mark

If your bag has not turned up after 21 days, most airlines treat it as officially lost and let you file a full claim for its value, up to the liability limit. Some declare it lost sooner if the tracing search comes back empty, so keep checking rather than waiting out three full weeks in silence.

Once a bag is declared lost, the interim-expense clock stops. You move into a different process instead: an itemized list of what was packed, an estimated value for each item, and receipts where you still have them. A quick phone photo of your open suitcase before you zip it closed, taken out of habit rather than worry, turns this step from a guessing game into a five-minute form.

Protect yourself before it happens again

None of this beats not losing the bag in the first place. A tracker like an AirTag or a Tile clipped inside the lining tells you within minutes whether your luggage made the connection, long before you are standing at an empty carousel wondering. Anything you truly cannot replace on the road belongs in your cabin bag instead of checked: medication, chargers, one change of clothes. Our breakdown of what to pack in your personal item covers exactly what earns a spot within reach.

The carry-on versus checked luggage call matters even more on tight connections, where a short layover is exactly when bags get left behind on the tarmac. Building all of this into your routine, instead of improvising the night before a flight, is what a proper pre-trip checklist is for.

Lost luggage is stressful, but it rarely has to be a dead end. File the PIR before you leave the airport, ask for interim expenses instead of waiting to be offered them, and mark day 21 on your calendar if the bag is still missing. Do that, and a bad travel day stays a paperwork problem instead of a financial one.