The airline pays first, card benefits and insurance pay the gap. Why you must open all of them at once, and what each one wants.
Three different pockets can pay for a lost or delayed bag: the airline, a baggage benefit on the credit card you bought the ticket with, and travel insurance (or, for a lost bag, a homeowners or renters policy). They are not alternatives. The airline is liable under the law, up to $2,081 per passenger on international trips and at least $4,700 per passenger on US domestic flights. Card benefits and insurance are almost always excess cover: they pay what the airline did not, they offset whatever the airline paid, and they want the airline's final letter before they settle.
The trap is timing. An airline claim can take two or three months. Most card benefit administrators want to be told within 20 to 60 days of the incident and want your proof within about 90 days. Travel insurers are similar. If you wait for the airline before calling, the window closes and the excess is gone. So the order is: open every claim now, settle them in sequence.
What the card benefit typically covers. A delay benefit that pays for essentials after 6 to 12 hours, often around $100 a day for up to five days; and a lost-bag benefit up to a few thousand dollars per passenger, with exclusions for jewellery, electronics and cash. The ticket must have been bought, at least in part, with that card. Call the number on the back; the benefits administrator is usually a separate company from the bank.
What travel insurance typically covers. Baggage delay after a set number of hours, and baggage loss up to the policy limit with per-item caps. Policies bought after the trip started do not count. Your own home policy often covers luggage away from home, minus the deductible, and it is worth a call if the loss is large.
What they all want. The airline's mishandled-bag report reference, your boarding passes and bag tags, the contents list with proof of value, receipts for what you bought while waiting, and the airline's final written position. BagBack keeps every one of those on your case, so completing the second and third claims is a matter of forwarding the pack.
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Open all three at once; they settle in this order. The airline first, because it is liable under the law and the others treat its payment as the primary recovery. The card benefit second, for the gap between what the airline paid and the benefit’s own limit, on production of the airline’s settlement letter. The travel or home insurer last, for what is still uncovered, with the same letter and the card benefit’s statement. Each one offsets the ones before it; none of them pays twice for the same item.
The airline pays its $2,081 limit. The card’s lost-luggage benefit, with a $3,000 per-passenger limit and a $500 electronics exclusion, pays the gap on the covered items: say $900 of the $1,319 remaining. Travel insurance with a $2,500 baggage limit and a $100 excess pays the rest of what is documented, $319, less the excess. The traveler ends up close to whole, but only because all three claims were opened in the first week and the airline’s letter was forwarded the day it arrived.
No. The airline’s liability is fixed by the rule and is not reduced because you have other cover. Some airlines ask whether you have insurance; the honest answer does not change what they owe. It is the insurers who offset the airline, never the other way round.
Not twice. The card pays only what the airline did not, and asks what the airline paid. Claim the full loss from the airline, then the shortfall from the card or insurer.
No. Tell the card benefit administrator and your insurer within days of the incident, get a claim number, and send the airline’s final letter when it arrives.
No. The airline’s liability is to you under the law. The card issuer may ask you to reimburse it from what the airline pays for the same purchases; read the benefit terms.