Etihad Airways delayed or lost baggage: your claim step by step
The single most important thing to do when your Etihad Airways bag doesn't arrive is report it at the airport before you leave — a Property Irregularity Report filed there and then is the foundation of any later claim, and trying to file one after you've already gone home is considerably harder. Everything else in the process, from interim expense reimbursement to the point where a delayed bag is treated as genuinely lost, builds on that first report.
Free eligibility check
Check your case in the form
Enter your route, date and type of disruption. We will check whether your case qualifies for a claim under EU 261/2004 or UK261.
What happened to your flight?
Claim up to €600 for a delayed or cancelled flight.
Choose the situation that applies to your flight:
File the Property Irregularity Report immediately
Go to the Baggage Services desk in the arrivals area before leaving the airport and report the missing bag there. This generates a Property Irregularity Report, or PIR, with a reference number you should keep safe — it is the single most important piece of evidence in the entire claim, and without one, Etihad generally treats the bag as having been received, making any later claim far harder to establish. Etihad's own guidance asks passengers to also contact Baggage Services within 48 hours of a delayed bag if any follow-up is needed beyond the initial report.
Tracking your bag after the report
Once a PIR is filed, Etihad can usually track the bag through the global baggage-tracing system used across the industry and will normally attempt to deliver it to your address once located, at no cost to you. Keep checking in using your PIR reference number if you haven't heard anything within a day or two, rather than waiting passively for Etihad to contact you first.
Claiming reasonable expenses while your bag is missing
While a checked bag is delayed, you can generally claim reasonable, necessary expenses incurred as a direct result — replacement toiletries, a change of clothes appropriate to your circumstances, and similar essentials. Keep every receipt from the moment the delay begins. What counts as reasonable scales with how long the bag is missing and the nature of your trip: a modest amount for an overnight delay before a bag turns up is easily justified, while an extensive shopping trip on day one, before it's even clear the delay will be prolonged, risks only partial reimbursement.
When does a delayed bag become a lost bag?
There is no single universal cut-off, but in practice a bag still missing after around twenty-one days is generally treated as lost rather than merely delayed, which shifts the claim from expense reimbursement toward compensation for the value of the bag's contents. This twenty-one-day point lines up with the Montreal Convention's own deadline for a written claim over baggage delay, discussed below, which is a useful marker even though the "delayed versus lost" distinction itself is a practical, not a fixed legal, threshold.
The Montreal Convention's own written-claim deadlines
Separate from Etihad's own practical guidance, the Montreal Convention sets its own legal deadlines for a written notice of claim: twenty-one days from the date the bag was placed at your disposal, for a delay claim, and an overall two-year limitation period within which any Montreal Convention claim must ultimately be brought. These are the outer legal deadlines that apply regardless of what Etihad's own customer-service timelines suggest — do not treat a longer informal reply window from Etihad as extending your actual legal deadline to file a written notice.
Claiming for a bag confirmed lost
Once a bag is confirmed lost, your claim shifts to compensation for its contents, valued reasonably and supported by whatever evidence you can provide — receipts, photographs of the packed items if you have them, or a clear, itemised list with realistic values if receipts genuinely aren't available. Liability for lost baggage under the Montreal Convention is capped at a fixed amount expressed in Special Drawing Rights per passenger, so extremely high-value items are worth declaring specially or insuring separately rather than relying on standard baggage liability alone.
What if your bag turns up after you've already claimed for it as lost?
Tell Etihad immediately if a bag you already claimed for as lost is subsequently located and delivered to you. Depending on how far your claim had progressed, this may convert it back into a delayed-bag claim for interim expenses only, rather than a full loss claim — acting promptly and honestly here keeps the process straightforward rather than creating a dispute later.
A worked example
A passenger arrives in Rome on an Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi to find their checked bag did not make the connection. They file a PIR at the Baggage Services desk before leaving the airport and buy a change of clothes and toiletries that evening, keeping every receipt. The bag is located and delivered two days later. The passenger submits their receipts for the interim expenses, which Etihad reimburses as a delayed-baggage claim, and no further action is needed since the bag was never confirmed lost.
FAQ
What's the first thing I should do if my Etihad bag doesn't arrive?
Go to the Baggage Services desk in arrivals before leaving the airport and file a Property Irregularity Report. This is the foundation of any later claim.
Can I claim expenses while I wait for my delayed bag?
Yes, reasonable and necessary expenses like replacement clothing and toiletries, supported by receipts, scaled to how long the delay has actually lasted.
When does a delayed bag officially become a lost bag?
There's no single fixed cut-off, but around twenty-one days missing is the practical point where a claim generally shifts from delay-expense reimbursement toward loss compensation.
What's the legal deadline for a written baggage-delay claim under the Montreal Convention?
Twenty-one days from when the bag was placed at your disposal, with an overall two-year limitation period for any Montreal Convention claim.
What if my "lost" bag is found after I've already submitted a loss claim?
Tell Etihad immediately — this may convert your claim back to a delayed-bag expense claim rather than a full loss claim, depending on how far it had already progressed.
For damage rather than a missing bag
If your bag arrived but was damaged, a different, shorter written-notice deadline applies — see the damaged baggage guide for the specific process and timing that covers physical damage rather than delay or loss.
Delayed baggage on a connecting itinerary
If your bag went missing partway through a multi-leg Etihad journey rather than on the final sector, file the PIR at your final arrival airport regardless of where in the itinerary the bag was actually lost. Etihad's baggage-tracing process works from your final destination backward through the itinerary, so there is no need to identify precisely which leg caused the problem before reporting it.