The airline damaged your bike. Now what?

You're at oversize baggage claim and the bike box has a forklift-shaped hole in it. What you do in the next hour determines whether you recover anything at all. This is the playbook — and the legal caps that make your own insurance matter more than the airline's.

First: the caps are worse than you think

On international itineraries, the Montreal Convention caps airline liability for damaged baggage at roughly $1,900 per passenger (1,288 SDRs — it floats with exchange rates). Not per item, and not related to what your bike costs. Domestic US flights use a DOT cap of about $4,700, but airlines' contracts of carriage often disclaim liability for 'inadequately packed' sporting equipment — and they decide what inadequate means. A $7,000 bike flies with, at best, $1,900 of airline accountability.

The claim windows that kill most claims

• Visible damage (international): written complaint within 7 days of receiving the bag. Verbal doesn't count.
• Hidden damage discovered at the hotel: still the same 7-day clock from receipt.
• Delayed baggage: 21 days from when the bag was made available.
• Domestic: airline-specific, commonly 24 hours to 4 hours (!) for some carriers — check the contract of carriage while you're still at the airport.

The hour-by-hour playbook

1. At the carousel: photograph the box before opening it, from all sides, with airport signage visible.
2. Open it at the airport if damage is visible. Photograph the bike in the box, then unpacked.
3. File a PIR at the baggage service desk and keep the reference number and a copy.
4. Same day: submit the written claim through the airline's portal, attaching photos, the PIR, and your pre-trip packed photos (you took those, right?).
5. Get a written repair estimate from a bike shop within days — carbon inspection included if there's any impact.
6. File with your own insurer in parallel. Don't wait for the airline; your policy's notification deadline runs independently.

Where your own coverage fits

Because of the caps, the realistic recovery order on an expensive bike is: your bike policy (if transit damage is a named coverage) → the airline (up to the cap, slowly) → your credit card's baggage protection (small, but real). A bike-specific policy with transit coverage turns this from a months-long fight into one deductible. That's not a sales line; it's just what the caps do to the math.

The full international travel guide