Originally Posted by
fassy
The Montreal Convention says about the same:
Neither the Montreal Convention nor the EU passenger rights say anything different. But a lot of regulators add the following, e.g. the DOT:
It is hard to make the argument the airline owes you $1700 since your bag was delayed by 4 hours arriving the next flight. But if can show, you needed a suit for customer meeting... you can claim reasonable cost. I once did and got $600 from BA. Even though my bag arrive 10 hrs later on the next flight.
But airlines will fight you on that what is consider "reasonable, verifiable, and actual incidental expenses"
The DOT has higher max liability for domestic US, but goes by the Montreal convention for international. The key point is reasonable expenses for necessities for a delay, rather than pointing to maximum liability.
I am surprised BA did not send you to your travel insurance for 600USDor a suit.