If my luggage is lost or delayed, what are my rights?The Montreal Convention deals with lost or delayed luggage. Under this Convention, the maximum liability of the airline in the event of lost or delayed luggage is limited to 1,000 Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) per passenger. The value of a SDR will vary each day and is linked to exchange rates. To give an idea of its value, 1 euro equaled approximately 0.85 SDR on 6th May 2010.

This limit of 1,000 SDRs was confirmed in a decision of the Court of Justice of the EU on 6th May, Walz v Clickair SA, in which the Court declared that this limit of 1,000SDRs (1134.71 euros) must be interpreted as including both material and non-material damage.

If your luggage is delayed for less than twenty-one days, it is important to be aware that there are no set regulations stating the compensation payments for delayed luggage. Most airlines take the view that once your bag has turned up you will have future use of the contents and refuse to make any compensation payments.

Some airlines offer immediate one-off cash payments at a set amount to cover emergency purchases until the delayed bag is delivered. Others will pay a set amount per day, up to a maximum number of days.

Other airlines do not make immediate cash payments, but prefer to reimburse a passenger’s expenditure on essential purchases and will often therefore insist on seeing receipts.

If your bag has still not been returned to you more than 21 days after your flight, the airline should treat it as lost and settle your claim on that basis.

Example

Ann flew from Dublin to La Rochelle with the girls for a five day break. Unfortunately, her luggage did not appear on the carousel in the baggage hall and she was advised by the airline that they would try to trace it and would return it to her at the earliest opportunity. Ann spent the five days waiting for her luggage to be returned but did not receive it while in France. It was eventually returned to her home seven days after it had first disappeared. She submitted a claim in the sum of 500 euros which she considered to be reasonable to cover necessary expenditure while in France. The airline offered 30 euros to settle the claim on the basis that the luggage had simply been delayed and was not missing.

It is important for Ann to be aware that while the Montreal Convention provides that the maximum claim she can make is for 1,000SDRs, there is no guarantee that she will be successful if she takes a claim against the airline before the Small Claims Court for the difference between her claim and the payment offered by the airline, as there are no clear rules on liability for delayed baggage.

What if the luggage is lost?The Montreal Convention requires airlines to treat a bag as lost after twenty-one days. In assessing your claim, an airline may request an inventory of the items that were in the missing bag, and may also ask for original receipts. The maximum liability of the airline will be 1,000SDRs.