How Do I Claim Compensation for a Delayed Checked Bag?

Step one: report it before you leave the airport

Go to the airline's baggage desk in the arrival hall while you are still inside it. Air India tells you to report the missing bag to its personnel in the arrival hall and file a Property Irregularity Report, keeping your copy. IndiGo asks passengers to report missing or damaged baggage to its staff at the arrival-hall desk. This is the foundation of everything that follows, because IndiGo warns that if you leave the baggage delivery area without reporting, you are deemed to have received your bag correctly and in good condition. Its Conditions of Carriage repeat that as a legal clause, and the Montreal Convention's Article 31 has the same principle: accepting your bag without complaint is treated as evidence it arrived fine. Report first, argue later.

The PIR is not the compensation claim

These two get confused constantly, and the confusion is expensive. The PIR is the incident report: it records that your bag did not arrive, when, and under which tag number, and it starts the tracing process. The compensation claim is a separate, written demand you send to the airline with an itemised list of what was in the bag and what it cost. Air India asks for claims substantiated with an itemised list including description, age, and proof of purchase or ownership. Filing a PIR at the airport does not file this claim for you. You want both, and copies of both.

The deadlines that actually matter

Where the Montreal Convention governs your flight, its Article 31 sets the written complaint windows:

• Damage to the bag or its contents: complain in writing at the latest within 7 days from the date you received the bag (Montreal Convention, Article 31).
• Delay: complain in writing at the latest within 21 days from the date the bag was placed at your disposal (Article 31 again).
• Every such complaint must be in writing and dispatched within the time. Miss the window and, the Convention says, no action lies against the carrier, save in the case of fraud.
• If it comes to court: IndiGo's Conditions of Carriage set a 2-year outer limit from arrival (or scheduled arrival) for bringing an action, subject to applicable law.

In practice: file the PIR at the airport, send the written claim as soon as you can itemise your loss, and do not wait for the airline to finish "tracing" first.

Buying essentials while the bag is missing

If the bag is delayed and you are away from home, you will need clothes and toiletries before it catches up. Keep every receipt. Air India states that reimbursement of essential expenses "may be considered, subject to applicable terms and conditions," via its customer support. Read that the way it is written: considered, subject to terms. It is not a promise, and none of the airline pages we checked guarantees a daily allowance. Ask, submit receipts, keep the amount sensible.

When "delayed" becomes "lost"

Two different 21-day rules get mixed up here, so keep them separate. The Montreal Convention's Article 17: if the carrier admits the loss, or the checked bag has not arrived within 21 days of the date it ought to have arrived, you are entitled to enforce your rights under the contract of carriage. Separately, Air India's own process: a bag is categorised as lost if it remains untraced 21 days after the PIR is filed. The two clocks are not the same; one runs from when the bag should have arrived, the other from when you filed the report. From there the conversation shifts from interim expenses to the value of the bag and its contents, which is where the caps below come in.

What compensation actually looks like

There is no fixed "delayed bag fee" an airline owes you automatically. Compensation covers losses you can document, and it is capped, with the cap depending on whether your flight was domestic or international.

• Domestic flights within India: liability is governed by the Carriage by Air Act, 1972 and MoCA notifications under it. IndiGo's Conditions of Carriage (clause 17.3) state that its liability for loss, damage, destruction or delay of checked baggage is limited to Rs 350 per kg, subject to a maximum of Rs 25,000 per passenger, unless you made a special declaration of value at check-in, citing MoCA Notification S.O. 3129(E) of 22 August 2019 under the Carriage by Air Act, 1972, as amended. Read that as IndiGo's published term, quoted from its own page; your own carrier's Conditions of Carriage state the limit it applies to your ticket, within the applicable law. The MoCA Passenger Charter of February 2019 still shows the older Rs 20,000 figure, so treat the charter's numbers as dated.
• International flights: where the Montreal Convention applies (broadly, international carriage between its 140-odd member states, per ICAO), the ordinary liability limit for destruction, loss, damage or delay of baggage is 1,519 SDR per passenger (about US$2,000), effective 28 December 2024. The Convention itself builds in exceptions: a special declaration of value at check-in, with any required supplement paid, raises the limit to the declared sum, and the limit does not protect a carrier whose own intentional or reckless misconduct caused the damage (both in Article 22). Two more cautions. First, the Convention's scope rules decide whether it applies to your itinerary at all. Second, 1,519 SDR is the default limit on liability, not an automatic payout: you claim and prove your actual losses up to that limit. The February 2019 MoCA charter quotes the older 1,131 SDR figure, which ICAO's 2024 revision superseded.

The valuables clause, and what it does not do

Air India and IndiGo both say they accept no liability for valuables, fragile or perishable items (cash, jewellery, electronics, documents, medicines) packed in checked baggage; IndiGo adds that you carry such items at your own risk. Treat that as what it is: a term in the airline's contract. It does not repeal the Carriage by Air Act or the Montreal Convention, and your statutory rights stand separately from any disclaimer. But the practical version is simpler and cheaper than the legal one: do not put valuables in checked baggage.

If the airline says no

The MoCA Passenger Charter lays out the escalation ladder. You can lodge a compensation claim at the help desks at arrival and departure stations, or electronically. If you are not satisfied with the airline's resolution, file a grievance on the AirSewa app or portal. Still not satisfied after the airline and AirSewa: you can complain to any statutory body or court set up under the relevant laws. Keep your PIR copy, written claim, receipts and every airline reply; that file is your escalation kit.

Sources

• Air India: lost and damaged baggage
• IndiGo: Conditions of Carriage
• IndiGo: lost and mishandled baggage
• ICAO: international air travel liability limits increase from 28 December 2024
• IATA: Montreal Convention 1999, full text
• Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India: Passenger Charter (February 2019)