Wizz Air delayed or lost baggage compensation

Baggage problems trip a lot of Wizz Air passengers up because they expect the familiar EU261 figures — EUR 250/400/600 or GBP 220/350/520. Those numbers are for delayed and cancelled flights. Baggage is a completely separate legal regime with its own rules, deadlines and cap. Getting the regime right is the difference between a paid claim and a rejected one.

Delay, damage and loss are covered by the Montreal Convention

The Montreal Convention 1999 governs an airline's liability for checked baggage on international flights, and Wizz Air applies it across its network. It splits baggage problems into three situations:

• Delayed baggage — your bag turns up late. The airline is liable for the reasonable costs you run up while you wait for it (Article 19).
• Damaged baggage — the bag or its contents arrive broken.
• Lost baggage — the bag never arrives. There is no fixed "lost" date in the Convention, but a bag that has not surfaced after about 21 days is normally treated as lost, at which point you can claim for its contents.

In every case, this is compensation for proven loss up to the cap — not an automatic payout. You are reimbursing yourself for what you can actually evidence, not collecting a flat statutory sum. That is the key mental shift from flight-delay compensation.

The single overall limit is roughly 1,519 SDR per passenger. SDR (Special Drawing Rights) is an IMF currency basket, so the sterling and euro equivalents drift with exchange rates — budget around GBP 1,600 or EUR 1,850, but the SDR figure is what governs. This 1,519 SDR ceiling has been in force since 28 December 2024; older guides quoting 1,131 or 1,288 SDR are out of date. The same cap covers delay, damage and loss combined for one passenger.

Step one at the airport: file a PIR before you leave

If your bag does not appear on the belt, or arrives damaged, go to the Wizz Air or ground-handler baggage desk in the arrivals hall before you leave the airport and file a Property Irregularity Report (PIR). This is the foundational piece of evidence. Without a PIR, the airline can argue you never reported the problem on arrival, and delay or damage claims become very hard to win.

Keep everything: the PIR reference number, your boarding pass, the bag tag receipt, and a photo of the damage or of the empty carousel. The PIR starts the trail — but it is not the formal claim. You still need to write to Wizz Air within the deadlines below.

The written deadlines that actually decide your claim

The Montreal Convention sets short, strict windows to put a written complaint to the airline. Miss them and the airline can refuse to pay, whatever the merits:

• Damaged bag: 7 days from the day you received it.
• Delayed bag: 21 days from the day the bag was finally delivered to you.
• Lost bag: once around 21 days have passed with no sign of the bag, treat it as lost and claim for the contents. Do this in writing too.

Submit through Wizz Air's baggage claim process, quote your PIR reference, and keep a copy of everything you send with the date. Then, separately, there is the two-year long-stop to actually sue: court proceedings must be started within two years of the date the aircraft arrived, or was scheduled to arrive. That two-year deadline is firm and is not extended by ongoing correspondence.

Delayed bag: how to evidence the essentials you buy

When your checked bag is delayed and you are away from home, the Convention lets you recover the reasonable cost of essentials you need in the meantime — think toiletries, a change of clothes, a phone charger. "Reasonable" is the operative word: replacing a modest weekend of basics is fine; buying a designer wardrobe is not, and the airline will push back.

To make an evidenced claim:

• Keep every receipt. Itemised till receipts are far stronger than a single card total.
• Buy proportionately. Essentials to tide you over, not upgrades. If you are three days from home you can reasonably replace more than if the bag is due back tomorrow.
• Note the timeline. When you landed, when the PIR was filed, when the bag came back. The gap justifies the spend.
• Photograph damaged items and keep any repair or replacement quotes.

If Wizz Air disputes an amount, well-organised itemised receipts and a clear timeline are what win. Because these costs count towards the 1,519 SDR cap alongside any loss claim, keep them proportionate.

Which Wizz entity — and which regulator?

For flight-delay and cancellation claims, the operating carrier matters and you escalate to the matching regulator — the UK Civil Aviation Authority for UK departures, or the relevant national enforcement body for EU/EEA departures. Wizz Air operates through separate entities such as Wizz Air Hungary, Wizz Air Malta, Wizz Air UK and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi. For baggage, though, your claim runs under the Montreal Convention against the carrier, and if it stalls the escalation route is generally the ordinary complaints and small-claims process rather than the EU261/UK261 enforcement bodies. Keep your correspondence trail clean either way.

If your flight was also delayed or cancelled, that is a separate claim under EU261 or UK261 — see our guide to Wizz Air delayed flight compensation and which regime applies, UK261 vs EU261. If the flight was cancelled and Wizz Air offered you credit, weigh that carefully against a cash refund in Wizz Air refund vs Wizz credit. The two claims run in parallel and do not cancel each other out.

FAQ

Is delayed baggage covered by EU261 or UK261?

No. EU261 and UK261 cover flight delays, cancellations and denied boarding. Delayed, damaged or lost baggage is governed by the Montreal Convention 1999, with its own deadlines and its own cap of about 1,519 SDR per passenger.

How much can I get for a lost Wizz Air bag?

Up to roughly 1,519 SDR per passenger (about EUR 1,850 / GBP 1,600, varying with exchange rates) for what you can prove you lost. It is compensation for proven value up to the cap, not a fixed payout, so an itemised inventory of the bag's contents helps enormously.

What if I didn't file a PIR at the airport?

It makes the claim much harder. File one as soon as possible if you can still return to the airport, and put your written complaint to Wizz Air immediately — within 7 days for damage and 21 days for delay. Missing the PIR is not always fatal, but it hands the airline an easy reason to reject.

When is a delayed bag treated as lost?

There is no fixed date in the Convention, but a bag missing for around 21 days is generally treated as lost, and you can then claim for its contents rather than only for interim essentials.

Can I claim for both a delayed flight and a delayed bag?

Yes. They are separate legal regimes. Use the Wizz Air compensation hub and the flight compensation calculator for the flight side, and follow the Montreal steps above for the bag.

Sources

• Montreal Convention 1999 (Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air): https://www.iata.org/en/programs/passenger/mci/
• UK Civil Aviation Authority — delays, cancellations and baggage: https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers/resolving-travel-problems/delays-cancellations/
• IATA baggage information for passengers: https://www.iata.org/en/programs/passenger/baggage/
• EU air passenger rights (Regulation (EC) 261/2004), for the separate flight-disruption regime: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32004R0261

Position as at 2026; the 2026 EU261 reform is a proposal and is not yet in force. This is general information, not legal advice.