How much can I claim for lost luggage?

Airlines must pay up to $2,081 per passenger on international trips and up to $4,700 on US domestic trips. What that means for your bag, in plain English.

There are two ceilings, and which one applies depends on your ticket, not on the airline.

International trips (any flight on the ticket crossed a border): the Montreal Convention caps the airline’s liability at 1,519 Special Drawing Rights per passenger. SDRs are an IMF currency unit; at 1.37 US dollars each that is about $2,081. The cap was raised to this figure on 28 December 2024; many airline pages still print the old 1,288 SDR.

Trips within the United States: US Department of Transportation rules cap liability at $4,700 per passenger (effective 22 January 2025). Airlines may not set a lower limit, and they may not apply a blanket depreciation formula to what you paid.

The cap is a ceiling, not an offer. What you actually recover is what you can show: the contents of the bag at replacement cost, minus reasonable depreciation on older items, plus what you had to buy while the bag was missing. On an international trip the bag fee is refunded on top of the cap when the bag is late enough.

• Keep the cap in mind when you list contents: if your list comes to more than the cap, the airline will pay the cap, so there is no point arguing about the last few items.
• Items under a year old count at full value. Toiletries, medication and gifts count at full value regardless of age.
• If you paid with a credit card that carries baggage protection, or you have travel insurance, those cover the gap above the airline’s cap. The airline’s final letter is what they will ask for.

Work out your own claim → Free. Takes about ten minutes.