On an international trip, the airline’s liability for a lost bag is capped at 1,519 Special Drawing Rights (SDR) per passenger, about $2,060 at the IMF rate on 10 November 2026 (Montreal Convention, Article 22(2), as revised from 28 December 2024; IMF: 1 SDR = US$1.3559). On a trip within the United States, the airline may not limit its liability below $4,700 per passenger (14 CFR 254.4, in force since 22 January 2025). Either figure is a ceiling on what you can be paid, not an offer: you recover what you can show you lost, up to it.
Which limit applies depends on your ticket, not on the airline. If any flight on the ticket crossed a border, it is the Montreal Convention, including a domestic connection on the same ticket. If every flight stayed inside the United States, it is the DOT rule.
The limit 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.
International trip, bag lost. You land in London on 1 March 2026 and the bag does not come off the belt. Day 21 after the date it should have arrived is 22 March 2026: from then the bag can be claimed as lost, if the airline has not already said so. The 2-year limit for a court action runs to 1 March 2028. Wait for neither: send the written claim with your itemized list as soon as you have it, and say in it that the contents are claimed as lost if the bag is not delivered by 22 March.
US domestic trip, bag lost. There is no federal deadline for filing. The airline’s contract of carriage sets one, and it is often days, not weeks. The airline pages list each airline’s own windows, checked against its pages.
Next: check your own number, free. BagBack’s estimate works out which limit applies to your trip, the replacement total and your deadlines, before anything is signed.
Take a bag lost on a flight from New York to London. Inside: a two-year-old laptop bought for $1,200 that costs $1,300 to replace, a suit and two shirts bought for $640 six months ago, running shoes at $140, a toiletries kit at $85, headphones at $300, and the suitcase itself, three years old, $280. At replacement cost the contents come to about $2,745. The airline’s limit on that trip is $2,060 per passenger at the IMF rate on 10 November 2026, so the claim asks for $2,060, plus $251 of clothes and toiletries bought while waiting, plus the $75 bag fee refunded on top. The airline cannot use the cap to swallow the bag fee, and it cannot use depreciation to get below what you can document.
The same bag lost on a flight from Dallas to Boston sits under the DOT rule instead: the airline must pay at least up to $4,700 per passenger, so the whole $2,745 is inside the limit and the claim asks for all of it.
Per passenger. Two bags on one ticket share one limit; two passengers on one booking each have their own, even if everything was packed in one suitcase. A family of four on an international trip has four limits of $2,060, and the claim should list whose things were whose so the airline cannot settle the whole family against one.
It will try. Neither the Montreal Convention nor the DOT rule sets a depreciation table, and the DOT has told US airlines that arbitrary formulas and category exclusions are unfair practices. Claim replacement cost item by item. Where an item is old enough that a deduction is hard to refuse, the four-year-old suitcase, say, know the least you should accept for it before the airline names a number. Toiletries, medication and anything under a year old count at full value.
Most people cannot prove all of it, and the rules do not require receipts for everything. Bank statements, order histories, photographs of the packed bag or of you wearing the clothes, and a consistent itemized list carry weight. What loses claims is a round-number guess with no list behind it. Build the list first, then attach whatever evidence exists for the big items.
From the same rule tables the claim letter uses: the 1,519 SDR limit, the DOT minimum since 22 January 2025, and the bag-fee refund clocks. The estimate converts SDR at 1.3559 US dollars per SDR (the IMF rate on 10 November 2026), about $2,060, and the letter states the rate it used and its date; the IMF rate moves daily, which is why this page gives the figure with its date. Enter the trip and the contents and the estimate shows the cap, the replacement total, the floor you should not go under, and the deadlines, before anything is signed.
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.
Up to 1,519 SDR per passenger on an international trip, about $2,060 at the IMF rate on 10 November 2026, under Article 22(2) of the Montreal Convention as revised from 28 December 2024; and at least up to $4,700 per passenger on a US domestic trip, under 14 CFR 254.4. You recover what you can show you lost, up to the limit.
Per passenger, whatever the number of bags on the ticket.
Only if your documented loss is less than the cap. The cap limits what they must pay, not what they may offer; you set the number with your itemized list.
On an international trip, when the airline admits it is lost or 21 days after the date it should have arrived (Montreal Convention, Article 17(3)). On a US domestic trip, the airline’s own rules decide.