Airline lost my bag: what to do in the first 24 hours

What do I do first when a bag does not arrive?

Go to the baggage desk in the arrivals hall and file a report before you leave the airport. That report generates a reference, usually called a PIR, a property irregularity report, and it is the number every later conversation, claim and email attaches to. Without it you are starting from nothing the next day, and some airlines will decline a claim that was never reported at the airport.

While you are there, do these five things in order:

1. Give the tag stub from your boarding pass wallet; it carries the bag's barcode number.
2. Describe the bag by make, colour, size, wheels and any marks, not just "black suitcase".
3. Say where you are staying tonight and for how long. Delivery goes to an address, not a person.
4. Ask which flight the system thinks the bag is on, and write the answer down.
5. Take a photograph of the report before you walk away.

Where do I report it if I have already left?

Use the airline's own baggage forms, not the airport's lost property service. A checked bag inside the tracing system is the airline's responsibility; airport lost property covers things dropped in the terminal. British Airways, for example, runs a dedicated page for reporting baggage problems, and every major carrier has an equivalent. Quote your PIR reference at the top of everything.

How long does a delayed bag usually take?

Most come back quickly. SITA, which operates the tracing system behind most airlines, put the two-day figure at 66 per cent in December 2025, two thirds of mishandled cases home within a weekend. Bags that went to the wrong country take longer, and bags whose label was destroyed take longest of all, because they have to be matched by description rather than by barcode.

Who pays for what I have to buy?

The airline, within limits, and only against receipts. Buy what you genuinely need for the days you are without the bag, toiletries, underwear, something to wear to the meeting, and keep every receipt, including the taxi if the bag is delivered somewhere awkward. Claims for delay are settled on proven expense, so a receipt-free shopping trip is an unpaid one. Check your travel insurance as well: many policies cover delayed baggage from a fixed number of hours, sometimes faster than the airline does.

What are the deadlines in the UK?

Three dates matter. A damaged bag is normally reported within seven days of collecting it. A delayed bag is claimed within 21 days of the day it is returned to you. And a bag that has not appeared after 21 days is generally treated as lost, which changes the claim from expenses to the value of the contents. Liability under the Montreal Convention, retained in UK law, is capped at 1,519 Special Drawing Rights per passenger, converted at the rate applying on the day, so an expensive bag is an insurance question rather than an airline one.

What if the bag never turns up?

Then the claim becomes a contents claim, and it is won on evidence: photographs, receipts, and a list written while you still remember. Make that list on day one rather than on day twenty, because the version you write now is worth more than the version you reconstruct later. Check whether your home insurance covers possessions away from home before you accept an airline's first offer.

How do I give the airline a location?

If you had a Find My tag in the bag, Apple's Share Item Location produces a temporary link that shows the item's position and nothing else you own, and it stops working when you end it. Hand that link to the baggage desk. MacRumors counted 36 airlines accepting one in January 2026, and SITA's December 2025 release attributed a 26 per cent improvement in how quickly a delayed case returns, together with a ninety per cent drop in bags that are never found.

How Locata Tag shortens the first day

The value of a Locata Tag in this sequence is narrow and real: it answers the one question the desk cannot. A tag in the case reports its position through passing Apple devices to the Find My app on your iPhone or iPad, so you can tell an agent that the bag is still at the airport you left, or sitting in the arrivals building you are standing in, rather than waiting for a system to catch up overnight.

It does not speed up the airline, it does not work with Android, and it will not report from inside a sealed container until the doors open. What it does is replace a shrug with a place and a time. The tag is IP67, runs up to two years on a CR2032 and rings at 80–100 dB inside about 60 m.

Boxes hold two, so the next trip has one in the hold bag and one in the cabin: start there.