Wizz Air damaged baggage: PIR and how to claim

Short answer: Report the damage before you leave the baggage hall and get a Property Irregularity Report (PIR) from the Wizz Air or handling-agent desk. Photograph the bag and its contents, keep your tag stub and boarding pass, then submit a written claim to Wizz Air within 7 days of collecting the bag. Damaged baggage falls under the Montreal Convention 1999, not EU261/UK261. The airline's liability is capped at roughly 1,519 SDR per passenger (about EUR 1,850 / GBP 1,600, moving with exchange rates) and covers your proven loss — repair cost or the depreciated value of the item — not a fixed cash payout. You have 2 years to bring a court claim.

Baggage is a different regime from delay compensation

It is worth being clear from the start: a damaged suitcase has nothing to do with the EU261 or UK261 fixed compensation you may have read about. Those sums — EUR 250/400/600 or GBP 220/350/520 — are for long delays, cancellations and denied boarding. Baggage claims run under a separate international treaty, the Montreal Convention 1999, which sets its own rules, cap and deadlines. Do not expect a flat 250 or 600 figure for a broken case; you are claiming your actual, provable loss up to the treaty cap.

If your flight was also delayed or cancelled, that is a parallel claim you can pursue on its own — see our guide to Wizz Air delayed flight compensation. The two do not cancel each other out.

Step 1 — Get a PIR before you leave the airport

The single most important thing you can do is raise the problem before you exit the baggage reclaim area. Go to the Wizz Air baggage desk or the airport's ground-handling agent and ask them to file a Property Irregularity Report (PIR). You will be given a reference number — keep it.

Why it matters: once you walk out through customs, the airline can argue the damage happened after you took charge of the bag, and your claim becomes far harder to prove. A PIR filed on the spot is your timestamped evidence that the bag left Wizz Air's care already damaged.

At the desk, note the agent's name, take the PIR paperwork or a photo of it, and keep your baggage tag stub (the sticker from your boarding pass) and your boarding pass itself.

Step 2 — Photograph everything

Before any repair, before you empty the case, take clear photos:

• the damage itself (cracked shell, broken wheel, bent frame, torn fabric, split zip);
• the baggage tag still attached to the bag;
• the whole bag from several angles;
• any damaged or missing contents.

If you have a receipt or proof of the bag's age and value, dig it out — it helps establish depreciated value. Photos taken at the airport or immediately at home carry more weight than pictures produced weeks later.

Step 3 — Claim in writing within 7 days

Under Article 31 of the Montreal Convention, a complaint about damaged checked baggage must be made in writing to the carrier within 7 days of the date you received the bag. Miss that window and the airline is generally entitled to reject the claim outright, so treat 7 days as a hard deadline.

Submit through Wizz Air's official baggage claim channel (its website customer-relations/baggage form), quoting your PIR reference. Include:

• the PIR number and flight details;
• your photos;
• a short description of the damage;
• a repair quote or, if the bag is beyond repair, evidence of its original value and age.

Keep a copy of everything you send and the date you sent it. For delayed rather than damaged bags the written-notice window is different (21 days), and a bag missing around 21 days is generally treated as lost — see Wizz Air delayed and lost baggage for those situations.

How much can you get?

Montreal liability for baggage is capped at 1,519 SDR per passenger (Special Drawing Rights, the IMF unit). That is the figure in force since 28 December 2024 — roughly EUR 1,850 / GBP 1,600, though the exact sterling and euro value shifts with exchange rates. The cap is the ceiling, not the payout.

What you actually recover is your proven loss:

• Repair — if the case can be fixed, the reasonable repair cost, backed by a quote or invoice.
• Depreciated value — if it is a write-off, the current value of the bag taking age and wear into account, not the price of a brand-new premium replacement.

So a three-year-old suitcase that cost GBP 90 will be assessed at its used value, not GBP 90. Reasonableness and evidence are everything. If you want to sanity-check figures across the different regimes, the flight compensation calculator is aimed at EU261/UK261 delay sums rather than baggage, but it helps you keep the two apart.

Who you are claiming against

You claim against the operating carrier — the Wizz Air entity that actually flew you. Wizz Air operates through separate airlines: Wizz Air Hungary, Wizz Air Malta, Wizz Air UK and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi. For most UK departures that is Wizz Air UK (which holds a UK Air Operator's Certificate); for many continental routes it is Wizz Air Hungary or Malta. Your booking confirmation and boarding pass show which one operated the flight. It rarely changes the process, but it matters if a claim ends up in court or with a regulator.

If Wizz Air refuses or ignores you

Baggage complaints do not go to the EU261/UK261 enforcement route in the same way delay claims do, but you are not out of options. If Wizz Air rejects a well-evidenced claim or goes silent, you can:

• escalate in writing, restating the PIR reference and attaching all evidence;
• use an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme if Wizz Air is a member, or the airport's complaints channel;
• bring a court claim — in England and Wales the small claims track handles modest sums, and other jurisdictions have their equivalents.

You have 2 years from the date of arrival to start court proceedings under the Montreal Convention. That is an absolute long-stop: unlike the domestic time limits for delay compensation (around six years in England, Wales and Ireland, five in Scotland), the baggage deadline is short, so do not let it drift.

Keep add-ons separate

If you bought WIZZ Priority, a large cabin bag allowance, WIZZ Flex or WIZZ Discount Club membership, those are commercial products. Their refundability follows Wizz Air's own terms and has nothing to do with your Montreal baggage claim. A refund on an add-on is not compensation for a damaged case, and vice versa. If your dispute is really about money paid to Wizz rather than a damaged bag, see Wizz Air refund vs WIZZ credit.

FAQ

Can I still claim if I already left the airport without a PIR?

It is much harder, but not always hopeless. You should still write to Wizz Air within the 7-day window and send your photos. Without a PIR the airline can dispute where the damage occurred, so provide as much evidence as you can that the bag was intact when you checked it in and damaged on collection.

Does normal wear and tear count?

No. Minor scuffs, scratches and the ordinary marks of handling are generally excluded, as are pre-existing defects and, often, protruding parts like wheels and straps on soft bags. Genuine structural damage — a cracked shell, a sheared wheel assembly, a broken handle or frame — is what you claim for.

Is the payout the same as EU261 compensation?

No. Baggage damage is never the EUR 250/400/600 or GBP 220/350/520 delay figure. It is your proven loss under the Montreal Convention, up to the 1,519 SDR cap. To understand which delay regime would apply to a separate flight-disruption claim, read Wizz Air UK261 vs EU261: which applies.

What if the damage is to items inside the bag?

Damaged contents fall under the same Montreal cap and the same 7-day written-notice rule. Photograph the items, keep receipts where you have them, and include them in the same claim. Fragile or high-value items carry more risk of being disputed, so evidence matters even more.

How long does Wizz Air take to respond?

There is no single guaranteed turnaround for baggage claims. If weeks pass with no substantive reply, chase in writing, keep copies, and remember the two-year court deadline is running from your arrival date. The Wizz Air flight compensation hub links the related guides if you are juggling more than one issue.

Sources

• Montreal Convention 1999 (EUR-Lex, EU accession text))
• Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 (EUR-Lex)
• UK Civil Aviation Authority — baggage problems
• IATA — baggage passenger information

Position stated as at 2026; the 1,519 SDR baggage cap applies from 28 December 2024 and moves with exchange rates, and the proposed 2026 EU261 reform is only a proposal and not yet in force. This is general information, not legal advice.