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Your bag did not come out. What to do in the next hour
Do not leave the airport without a report and a file reference. The first hour decides most claims.
The single most common way people lose a baggage claim is by leaving the airport. Nearly every airline requires the first report to be made before you leave the baggage hall, and some give you as little as four hours after landing.
Find the airline’s baggage desk in the arrivals hall. If there is none, use the airline’s app or website to file a report while you are still at the airport.
Photograph your bag-tag sticker (on the boarding pass), your boarding pass, and, if the bag arrived damaged, the bag itself with the tag on.
Get the file reference: ten characters, airport code, airline code, five digits. Nothing else the airline gives you is worth as much.
Ask what the airline will pay for immediately: many hand out a small allowance or a toiletries kit on the spot.
Keep every receipt from that moment on.
This site has a first-hour checklist built for a phone in an arrivals hall, with your airline’s own reporting window counting down.
Report it now, online or by phone, and say when you landed. Some airlines accept later reports; a late report weakens the claim but rarely kills it if the bag never arrived.