When a checked bag is delayed, the airline owes the reasonable costs the delay caused you, such as clothes, toiletries and a charger: up to 1,519 SDR per passenger (about $2,060 at the IMF rate on 10 November 2026) on an international trip (Montreal Convention, Articles 19 and 22(2)), and with no limit below $4,700 per passenger on a US domestic trip (14 CFR 254.4). It must also refund the checked-bag fee if the bag was not delivered within 12 hours of arrival on a domestic trip, or 15 or 30 hours on an international one, once you have filed a report (14 CFR 260.2 and 260.5). On an international trip the written claim must reach the airline within 21 days of the day you get the bag back (Article 31(2)).
A delayed bag is a claim in its own right, even if it turns up. The airline owes you the reasonable things you had to buy because the bag was not there: clothes, toiletries, a phone charger, medication, whatever you needed to get through the days without it.
Keep every receipt. “Reasonable” means what a sensible person would buy in your situation, not a new wardrobe; but airlines may not cap it at a flat daily amount or pay half for clothing on the theory that you keep the clothes. The US DOT has fined airlines for both (Delta, 2010; Lufthansa, 2011).
The bag fee comes back too. Under the DOT’s 2024 refund rule the airline must refund the checked-bag fee when a bag is delayed more than 12 hours on a domestic flight, 15 hours on an international flight of up to 12 hours, or 30 hours on a longer international flight. The refund is due without a separate request once you have filed a Mishandled Baggage Report, the report you make at the airport; if it has not come, the letter this site builds asks for it.
Deadlines. On an international trip the written claim for a delayed bag must reach the airline within 21 days of the day the bag was delivered to you. That clock does not start until you have the bag, so a bag that is still missing has no deadline running yet, but do not wait for it: file the interim-expense claim as soon as you have receipts and add to it later.
International trip. You fly New York to London, about seven hours nonstop, and land on 2 March 2026 at 09:00. The bag reaches your hotel on 4 March at 18:00, 57 hours later. That is past the 15-hour mark for a flight of 12 hours or less, so the bag fee is refunded once you have filed the report. The written claim for your costs must reach the airline by 25 March 2026, 21 days after the bag was delivered. Had the bag still been missing on 23 March, 21 days after the date it should have arrived, it could have been claimed as lost instead.
US domestic trip. You fly Dallas to Boston and land on 2 March 2026 at 14:00. The bag is delivered the next morning at 08:00, 18 hours later. That is past the 12-hour mark, so the bag fee comes back. There is no federal deadline for the expense claim; the airline’s contract of carriage sets one, often short, so check your airline’s page and send the claim within days.
Next: check your own number, free. BagBack’s estimate works out what your delay claim comes to and your deadlines, before anything is signed.
What you need to get through the days until the bag arrives, in the place you are in. On a beach holiday that is swimwear and sunscreen; at a winter conference it is a shirt, underwear, a charger and something warm. The test is whether a sensible person in your position would have bought it, not whether the airline’s call centre approves of it. Say what the trip was for in the claim; a suit bought for a wedding you flew in for is reasonable, and the letter should say why.
A typical claim for a bag that arrives on day three: two changes of clothes at $180, toiletries at $42, a phone charger at $29, and a taxi to the airport to collect the bag at $38, about $290 in all, plus the bag fee if the delay passed the threshold for the flight. On an international trip the whole amount sits comfortably under the $2,060 limit; on a domestic flight it sits under $4,700. Delay claims are the easiest money in baggage and the most often abandoned, because the bag came back and people feel the matter is closed. It is not: the receipts are yours to claim.
Not on a flight to, from or within the United States. Airlines like to quote a daily allowance, sometimes $50 or $75, and to pay half for clothing on the theory that you keep the clothes. The DOT has treated both as unfair and deceptive practices and has fined carriers for them. Claim the receipted amount and, if the airline answers with a per-day figure, say in one sentence that the rule does not allow one.
On an international trip, after 21 days from the date it should have arrived, or earlier if the airline admits it is gone. Many airlines declare a bag lost sooner under their own rules; some after five days. Once it is lost the claim changes shape: the contents up to the cap, not only the interim purchases. File the delay claim now anyway and say in it that the contents will be claimed if the bag is not delivered by the day the rule sets.
Then there are two claims in one letter: the interim purchases for the days without it, and either the repair or replacement of the bag or the missing items at replacement cost. Photograph the bag as it arrived, with the tag on, before you unpack it.
This article is general information about baggage claim rules, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for your airline’s contract of carriage or advice from a lawyer about your specific claim.
The reasonable costs the delay caused you, with receipts: up to 1,519 SDR per passenger (about $2,060 on 10 November 2026) on an international trip under the Montreal Convention, and with no limit below $4,700 per passenger on a US domestic trip under 14 CFR 254.4. Plus the bag-fee refund if the bag was more than 12 hours late on a domestic trip, or 15 or 30 hours on an international one.
On an international trip, 21 days from the day the bag is delivered to you (Montreal Convention, Article 31(2)); miss it and the airline can refuse the claim. On a US domestic trip there is no federal deadline; the airline’s contract of carriage sets one.
No. The purchases were made because of the airline’s failure; they are your loss to claim, not a loan.
Yes: the interim purchases, and the bag fee if the delay passed the threshold for your flight.