Delayed or lost baggage: what airlines owe you in 2026
The short answer: on international flights covered by the Montreal Convention, airline liability for delayed, damaged or lost checked baggage is capped at 1,519 SDR per passenger (≈ USD 2,072 at the IMF rate of 10 June 2026) — raised from 1,288 SDR on 28 December 2024 by the ICAO five-year review. Hard deadlines apply: written complaint within 7 days for damage, 21 days for delay, and court action within 2 years.
Sources: ICAO — Montreal Convention 1999 parties · IMF — SDR valuation
Last updated: 12 June 2026 · Data verified: 12 June 2026 against the ICAO list of parties and Montreal Convention Art. 22(2) as revised 28 Dec 2024; SDR/USD rate 10 June 2026 against the IMF daily valuation; EU261 amounts 11 June 2026 against Regulation (EC) 261/2004 Art. 7.
Which treaty covers your flight
Almost every international itinerary on a major airline is governed by the Montreal Convention 1999 — ratified by the vast majority of aviation states. The convention sets a uniform liability regime: the airline is liable for checked baggage from the moment it takes custody, and you do not need to prove negligence for loss or damage to checked bags.
A small number of routes between non-ratifying states still fall back to the Warsaw Convention 1929, which works completely differently: liability is computed per kilogram of checked baggage (≈ 17 SDR/kg), not per passenger — for a typical 23 kg bag that is roughly 391 SDR (≈ USD 533), about a quarter of the Montreal cap. The delayed baggage compensation checker resolves which regime applies to your specific route and computes the cap.
The 1,519 SDR cap, in real money
Montreal Convention Article 22(2) caps baggage liability in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) — the IMF's basket currency — so the cap drifts with exchange rates. The ICAO five-year inflation review that entered into force on 28 December 2024 raised the baggage cap from 1,288 to 1,519 SDR. Many older articles still cite 1,288 SDR (or even the pre-2019 1,131 figure); those numbers are out of date.
At the IMF daily valuation of 10 June 2026 (1 SDR ≈ USD 1.364):
| Regime | Cap | ≈ USD |
|---|---|---|
| Montreal Convention (per passenger) | 1,519 SDR | ≈ $2,072 |
| Warsaw Convention (per kg, 23 kg bag) | ~391 SDR | ≈ $533 |
Two things the cap is not: it is not automatic compensation (you must document actual loss — receipts, purchase records), and it is not per-bag (it is per passenger, however many bags you checked).
The deadlines that kill claims
Montreal Convention Article 31(2) sets short, strict complaint windows, and Article 35 caps litigation:
- Damaged baggage: written complaint within 7 days of receipt.
- Delayed baggage: written complaint within 21 days of the bag being made available to you.
- Lost baggage: a bag is treatable as lost once the airline admits it or after 21 days of non-delivery; no complaint window applies, but —
- Court action: within 2 years of arrival (or scheduled arrival), after which the right is extinguished.
The operational step that protects all of these: file a PIR (Property Irregularity Report) at the airport baggage desk before leaving the hall, and keep the reference. Airlines then route you to their claim portals — procedures differ (Air France takes online claims within the 21-day window with PIR + receipts uploaded; Ryanair enforces the 7-day damage window strictly). The checker carries per-airline claim URLs and procedure notes.
What you can actually claim
During a delay, the airline owes reasonable, documented interim expenses: toiletries, essential clothing, chargers — keep every receipt and claim within the 21-day window. For loss, you claim the documented value of contents plus the bag, up to the cap. For damage, repair or replacement value of the bag/contents.
What consistently gets rejected: undocumented valuations, luxury-item claims without proof of carriage, and anything filed after the Article 31 windows. High-value items (electronics, jewellery) generally belong in the cabin — and note that many airline conditions exclude or limit fragile/valuable items in checked bags.
If your loss exceeds the cap, two routes exist: a special declaration of interest filed at check-in (rarely used, fee-based, raises the cap to the declared sum), or travel insurance, which typically covers above-cap amounts and is claimed in parallel — see the insurance claim process guide for per-scenario documents and deadlines.
Don't confuse baggage liability with EU261
EU Regulation 261/2004 is a different regime for a different harm: standardised compensation when your flight is significantly delayed, cancelled, or you are denied boarding — €250 (≤1,500 km), €400 (1,500–3,500 km), or €600 (>3,500 km, reducible to €300 for moderate delays). It pays nothing for baggage; the Montreal Convention pays nothing for the flight delay itself beyond documented damage. The two claims stack when both things go wrong on the same trip. Check the flight side at flight-comp.bordertriptools.com.
Frequently asked questions
How much is 1,519 SDR in my currency?
The SDR is revalued daily by the IMF against a basket of currencies. At the 10 June 2026 valuation, 1 SDR ≈ USD 1.364, putting the Montreal cap at ≈ USD 2,072. The compensation checker applies a current conversion for you; for the authoritative rate on any date, use the IMF SDR valuation page.
The airline's app says my bag is on the next flight — do deadlines still run?
Yes. The 21-day delay window runs from when the bag is made available to you, and the 7-day damage window from when you receive it — tracking-app reassurance changes neither. File the PIR at the airport regardless of what the app promises, and submit the written claim with receipts inside the window even if the bag is already back.
Does travel insurance pay on top of the airline?
Typically yes, and it is the practical answer for losses above the 1,519 SDR cap or for excluded items. Insurers will require the PIR reference, the airline's settlement (or rejection) letter, and your receipts — the same paper trail the convention claim needs. Per-scenario document checklists and insurer deadlines live at insurance-claim.bordertriptools.com.
Is my carry-on covered too?
Under the Montreal Convention the airline is liable for unchecked baggage only where the damage results from its fault (for checked baggage, liability does not require proving fault). The same 1,519 SDR per-passenger ceiling spans both. In practice, carry-on claims are rare and harder to evidence — the regime is built around checked bags in the airline's custody.
What exactly is a PIR and can I skip it?
The Property Irregularity Report is the airport-desk record that your bag arrived late, damaged, or not at all — created before you leave the baggage hall, with a reference code. It is not itself the legal "written complaint", but virtually every airline's claim portal requires the PIR reference, and filing one contemporaneously is your proof the irregularity happened on arrival. Skipping it gives the airline an easy rejection. Find the desk before you exit; it takes ten minutes.
Related tools and guides
- Delayed baggage compensation checker — Montreal vs Warsaw, cap and conversion for your route.
- Flight delay compensation (EU261) checker — the €250–600 flight-side claim.
- Travel insurance claim process — documents and deadlines per scenario.
- International travel requirements 2026 — the full pre-departure checklist.