Get Up to €1,920 Back.
Delayed, damaged, or lost baggage on Air France? Under the Montreal Convention, you could be owed up to €1,920 in compensation. We handle everything — you just submit your details.
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What Air France baggage compensation covers, and the deadlines that decide your claim
Air France baggage compensation can reach approximately £1,600 (€1,800) per passenger, and you don’t need to prove the airline did anything wrong to claim it. Under the Montreal Convention, Air France is liable for a missing, delayed or damaged bag regardless of fault, up to the compensation limit.
What decides the outcome of most claims is whether you reported the problem in time, gathered the right evidence, and claimed before the deadline passed, but these deadlines are stricter and easier to miss than most passengers realise.
Key takeaways
- The most you can claim from Air France for baggage mishandling is approximately £1,600 (€1,800) per passenger under the Montreal Convention. This figure is based on Special Drawing Rights, an IMF unit of account, so the compensation maximum fluctuates slightly with the exchange rates.
- Report your missing or damaged bag straight away by completing a Property Irregularity Report (PIR), either online within 7 days of arrival or at the Air France baggage desk before you leave the airport.
- A delayed bag becomes officially lost after 21 days, which is when you can claim for its full value rather than just your essential purchases.
- Damaged baggage has a tighter deadline: You must report it and submit your written claim within 7 days of getting the bag back.
- Air France lets you buy declared-value cover at check-in, which is the only way to claim above the standard cap of approximately £1,600 (€1,800).
- You have up to 2 years from your bag’s arrival date to bring a claim under the Montreal Convention.
How much Air France baggage compensation can you claim
Delayed baggage: Claim for essential purchases made while your bag was missing up to £1,600 (€1,800)
For a delayed bag, Air France reimburses essential purchases made while you were waiting for it to arrive, things like basic toiletries and replacement clothing. When they assess your claim, Air France looks at how long your trip was, the climate at your destination, how long the delay ran, and whether what you bought was genuinely necessary. To protect yourself, keep every receipt for every purchase. A bank statement showing a round figure isn’t proof of what you actually bought, so if you submit this, the airline will probably challenge you.
Lost or damaged baggage: the value of the bag itself and its contents
For a lost or damaged bag, you’re compensated for the proven value of your belongings, up to a cap of approximately £1,600 (€1,800). This will be an assessed value, based on what the items were worth at the time your baggage was lost or damaged, not what you originally paid for them.
High-value items and declared-value cover
If a single high-value item, a laptop or a camera, makes up most of your loss, check Air France’s conditions of carriage. Airlines often write extra restrictions for electronics and other fragile or valuable items into their own conditions of carriage, separate from the general Montreal Convention cap.
In practice, that means Air France can apply a narrower allowance to those specific items even when your total claim would otherwise sit within the £1,600 (€1,800) limit, so don’t assume a lost laptop or camera is automatically covered up to the full cap.
Your rights when Air France loses or damages your bag
Your rights come from the Montreal Convention, the international treaty that covers checked baggage on international flights. The rules state that Air France must locate or repair your bag, reimburse what you spent because your bag was unavailable to you, and compensate you for loss or damage up to the set compensation limit.
That limit is 1,519 Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), which is an IMF unit of account that is approximately £1,600 (€1,800) per passenger. Because SDRs are converted at the exchange rate on the payment date, treat every figure in this guide as approximate.
How long do you have to report & claim for delayed, lost or damaged Air France baggage
The deadlines for reports and claims depend on which situation you’re in. You have 21 days to file a claim for a delayed bag, and 2 years for one classed as officially lost. You have just 7 days to claim if your checked belongings were damaged.
Situation | When it applies | Deadline to report | Deadline to claim | What you can claim |
Delayed | Bag hasn’t arrived, under 21 days | As soon as you notice, at the airport or online | 21 days from getting your bag back | Essential purchases made while waiting |
Lost | Bag still missing after 21 days | Already reported as delayed | 2 years from the date you arrived | Full value of the bag and its contents, up to approximately £1,600 (€1,800) |
Damaged | Bag returned broken or with contents damaged | Before you leave the baggage hall | 7 days from getting the bag back | Cost to repair or replace the damaged items, up to approximately £1,600 (€1,800) |
What happens once Air France declares your bag lost
If your checked baggage hasn’t been found after 21 days, Air France officially reclassifies it as lost. That’s the point where you can claim its full value rather than just what you spent on essentials.
Take these steps to make sure your claim is successful
- Get the lost status confirmed in writing. Ask Air France to confirm in writing that your bag has been declared lost, and keep every piece of correspondence.
- Finish your inventory. List everything that was in the bag as precisely as you can. If you photographed the contents of your bag while you were packing, use those photos in your claim.
- Gather proof of purchase for higher-value items. You don’t need a receipt for everything, but the more evidence you have, the harder your claim is to dispute.
- Submit your formal claim, including your PIR number, your inventory and your supporting evidence, through Air France’s baggage claim portal or in writing. AirAdvisor can also submit and manage this claim for you.
- Keep a record of every call, email and submission. If Air France misses a deadline or disputes the claim later, this is your strongest evidence.
You have up to 2 years to bring a claim
You have up to 2 years from the date you arrived at your destination to submit a claim under Article 35 of the Montreal Convention, even if you’ve already had one response from Air France that you weren’t happy with. That’s far longer than most passengers assume, and it’s worth knowing if an early claim gets denied, and you want time to gather better evidence before trying again.
How to claim for a damaged Air France bag
Article 31 of the Montreal Convention states that you have 7 days from the moment your bag is returned to report the damage and submit your written claim. If you miss that window, Air France can reject the claim outright, no matter how obvious the damage is.
Take these steps to strengthen your damaged baggage claim:
- Photograph the damage before you leave the airport. Timestamped photos carry far more weight than photos taken at home the next day. Get multiple angles, and include your baggage tag in at least one shot so the photos are clearly linked to your bag.
- File a PIR at the baggage desk before you leave. This isn’t your compensation claim. It’s the report that makes a claim possible, so don’t skip it even if you plan to file the written claim later.
- Submit your written claim within 7 days of arrival. Include your PIR reference, your photographs, and as much detail about the flight and the damage as you can.
Can you claim for cabin baggage?
Air France is only liable for a damaged or lost cabin bag if the airline was at fault, so you’d need to prove that the problem was caused by Air France or its staff rather than by normal wear or your own handling. The same compensation cap of approximately £1,600 (€1,800) technically applies to cabin baggage, though most cabin baggage claims are for much smaller amounts.
Can you claim travel insurance on top of Air France compensation?
Yes, though not for the same loss twice. Claim from Air France first under the Montreal Convention. Travel insurance is usually secondary cover, topping up anything the airline’s payout doesn’t cover, within your policy’s own limits. Check your policy before you claim, since electronics, jewellery and cash often carry separate, lower limits or exclusions. Our guide to travel insurance versus airline compensation covers how the two work together in more detail.
What if Air France rejects or lowballs your claim?
Ask for a written explanation first because this will tell you whether the claim was refused for a missing document, a missed deadline, or a dispute over value. Many of these issues can be fixed with more evidence. If that doesn’t change the outcome, AirAdvisor can take over the claim at any stage, from the very start or partway through a dispute you’ve already begun yourself.
Need help with an Air France baggage compensation claim? Just enter your basic flight details to begin.Start your claim
If your Air France bag hasn’t arrived, here’s what to do
As soon as you realise your bag is missing, you have two ways to report it, and which one you can use depends on your arrival airport.
- File your Property Irregularity Report (PIR). If you’re still at the airport, go to the Air France or KLM baggage desk before you leave and file a PIR there. If you’ve already left, or you’d rather not queue, you can declare the missing bag online through the Air France website or app, but only within 7 days of your flight’s arrival, and only if your arrival airport allows online declarations. Some airports don’t, so check before you rely on this route.
- Keep your claim number. Whichever way you report it, you’ll get a claim number. Photograph it and note it down separately from the paper copy, since you’ll need it to track your bag and to file your eventual claim.
- Hold onto every travel document. Baggage tags, boarding passes and receipts all support your claim later. Don’t throw any of it away.
- Share your AirTag if you have one. Turn on Lost Mode in the Find My app, enable “Share item location,” and paste the generated link into Air France’s online missing baggage form when you give consent. Location sharing expires automatically after 7 days, so stop it yourself once your bag turns up.
- Track the search. Use Air France’s online baggage tracker with your claim number to follow progress.
- If nothing turns up within 72 hours, Air France will ask you to complete a detailed inventory of the bag’s contents through its online baggage search tool, listing each item and its value. Be thorough. A vague or underestimated inventory is one of the most common reasons a payout comes in lower than it should.
- Once your bag is delivered, you have 21 days to claim for your essential purchases. Submit the claim online with your receipts attached.
What if the delay happens on your way home?
If your bag is delayed on the way home rather than the way out, Air France may argue you already have what you need at home and push back on essentials claims. Submit your receipts anyway. Your right to claim for the delay itself doesn’t change, though the essentials portion may be disputed or reduced.
Our team can pick up your Air France baggage claim at any stage, from filing the first report to chasing a rejected one. All you have to do is submit your details.
How does Air France compare on baggage reliability
AirAdvisor’s Baggage Reliability Score ranked 7 of Europe’s biggest airlines on baggage handling, and Air France came last, scoring 2.2 out of 7. More Air France passengers search for baggage help, file claims, and mention luggage problems in reviews than passengers of any other airline in the study.
That’s a specific weakness rather than an overall reputation problem. Air France ranks 9th in the world on the Skytrax list, so the airline scores well on quality generally. Baggage handling is the exception, and it lines up with what we’ve seen writing about the best and worst baggage reclaim areas in the world: it’s the one area where you’re more likely to need to push for what you’re owed than you would with most other European carriers.
Tools and resources for your Air France baggage claim
- Air France’s online missing baggage form to file your PIR and track a claim
- Montreal Convention baggage compensation for the full detail on how the treaty’s liability limits work
- Delayed, damaged and lost baggage compensation if your bag problem involves a different airline
- Air France compensation for delayed and cancelled flights if the flight itself, not just the baggage, was disrupted
FAQs
Does Air France compensate for delayed luggage?
Yes, under the Montreal Convention, regardless of what caused the delay. You can claim back essential purchases while you wait, and if the bag is still missing after 21 days, you can claim its full value up to approximately £1,600 (€1,800).
How do you claim compensation from Air France for baggage?
File a Property Irregularity Report first, either online within 7 days of arrival or at the baggage desk before you leave the airport, then submit your claim with receipts or a full inventory through Air France’s online claim form. AirAdvisor can also take the claim on for you at any stage.
How long does Air France typically take to deliver a delayed bag?
Most delayed bags turn up within a few days once they’re located, but there’s no fixed guarantee. Air France’s own process only sets firm milestones at 72 hours (when it asks for a detailed inventory) and 21 days (when a still-missing bag is declared lost), so treat those as the checkpoints that matter rather than a delivery promise.
What if I didn’t file a PIR at the airport before I left?
You’re not out of options. You can still declare the missing bag online through Air France’s website or app, but only within 7 days of your flight’s arrival, and only if your arrival airport accepts online declarations. Some airports don’t, in which case you’d need to contact Air France’s baggage team directly instead.
Can Air France limit what it pays me if I didn’t declare the value of my baggage?
Yes, up to the standard cap of approximately £1,600 (€1,800). The only way to claim above that is to buy declared-value cover from Air France at check-in, which lets you set a higher value for your belongings in advance. Without it, even genuinely more valuable contents are capped at the standard limit.
How do I track my Air France baggage claim online?
Use Air France’s online baggage tracker with the claim number you were given when you filed your PIR, whether that was through the online form or from an agent at the airport. The tracker updates in real time as the search progresses.
My bag arrived on a later flight than me. Can I still claim?
Yes, though Air France may push back if you’d already reached home before the bag turned up, arguing that you had access to your belongings at your permanent residence. Submit your receipts for any essential purchases regardless. The dispute is over the essentials portion of the claim, not your underlying right to report and claim for the delay.
Am I covered if Air France loses my bag on a leg operated by a different airline?
Generally yes, if Air France issued your ticket and the journey was booked as a single itinerary, but which airline actually handles your claim can depend on where the bag went missing and who was operating that specific leg. Report it to whichever airline’s baggage desk you’re at when you discover the problem, and keep your full itinerary to hand since you may need to show which carrier was responsible for that leg.
Are electronics like laptops and cameras covered the same as everything else in my bag?
They’re covered under the same Montreal Convention cap, but airlines’ own conditions of carriage often limit liability further for high-value electronics carried in checked baggage. If a laptop or camera makes up a large share of what you’re claiming, check Air France’s conditions of carriage, and consider declared-value cover at check-in if the item is worth more than the standard cap would cover.
Will I get the full replacement price for a lost or damaged item, or something less?
Compensation is based on the item’s assessed value at the time it was lost or damaged, not its original purchase price. Expect some allowance for wear and use to be factored in, particularly on items that weren’t new.
Does the 2-year deadline to claim apply even if Air France already rejected my claim once?
Yes. Article 35 of the Montreal Convention gives you 2 years from your arrival date to bring a claim, and an earlier rejection doesn’t close that window. If your first claim was turned down for a fixable reason, such as missing evidence, you can strengthen it and try again within that period.
Can I claim for a bag that was damaged but the airline says it’s just normal wear and tear?
You can still submit the claim, but you’ll need your timestamped airport photos and PIR to show the damage happened in Air France’s care rather than through ordinary use. This is exactly why photographing the damage before you leave the baggage hall matters more than almost any other single step.
Author:
Joanna TeljeurJob/Position: Senior Editor & Content Lead
Joanna Teljeur is a senior editor and writer with 15+ years of experience in editorial leadership, journalism, and content development, specialising in consumer rights, aviation law, and public-interest reporting. Her work focuses on transforming complex regulatory and legal topics into clear, accurate, and accessible content for international audiences.
Delayed or lost luggage?
Compensation can be as much as £1,600 (€1,920) if your checked bags were mishandled.
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