Iberia delayed your bag: how to claim
Updated
General information, not legal advice. The outcome depends on the facts of your case.
You landed with Iberia, often after a connection in Madrid, and your bag didn't. The rules are the same as for any EU airline: the Montreal Convention, not EU261. That means no fixed sum, but Iberia has to pay your necessary costs, and the deadlines are short.
What Iberia owes you
- A delayed bag: the damage the delay caused you, such as necessary purchases (article 19). Iberia can only escape by showing it took all reasonable measures to avoid the delay, or that this was impossible.
- A lost bag: if the bag hasn't arrived 21 days after it should have, it counts as lost (article 17(3)) and you can claim its contents.
- A damaged bag: the airline is liable for damage to a checked bag without you having to prove fault (article 17(2)).
- Limit: 1,519 SDR per passenger, about €1,836, for all of this together (article 22(2)). It is a maximum. You are paid what you can show.
Your deadlines
Counted from the dates you enter. Claim as early as you can. You don't have to wait for the bag.
- Delay: a written claim within 21 days of getting the bag back.
- Damage: a written complaint within 7 days of getting the bag.
- Court: 2 years from the day the flight arrived.
Iberia was the airline in the case where the EU Court said a delay claim can be sent before the bag is returned (C-292/24, 5 June 2025). So send it now. The 21 days are the last chance, not the start.
How to claim from Iberia
- Get a PIR at the airport. The baggage desk opens a Property Irregularity Report with a reference number. Without it, Spain's aviation authority AESA warns, it will be very hard to prove what happened.
- Keep the receipts for what you buy while you wait.
- Write to Iberia. Use the claim channel on Iberia's website or write to its customer service. Give the PIR number, the flight, a list of what you bought with prices, and attach the receipts. Ask for payment to your bank account within a set time, for example 30 days.
- Keep a dated copy of what you sent.
Iberia can refuse purchases it finds unnecessary, and complaints about Iberia on Spanish consumer forums show refusals even with receipts. A clear list, item by item, makes that harder.
Finnair to Madrid, Iberia onward: who do you claim from?
A common case: Helsinki to Madrid with Finnair, then Madrid to Lisbon with Iberia, and the bag stays in Madrid.
- One booking: under article 36(3) you can claim from the first airline (Finnair), the last one (Iberia) or the one on whose flight the delay happened. They are liable together.
- Separate bookings: claim from the airline of the booking your bag travelled on, here Iberia.
If you live in Finland and it was one booking, claiming from Finnair can be simpler: it is a Finnish airline, so the Finnish consumer disputes board (KRIL) can take the case directly if Finnair refuses. A baggage claim on its own must then be in Finnish or Swedish. Claiming from Iberia means going through the European Consumer Centre first.
Families: one limit each
If your things were in your partner's suitcase, you can still claim for them. The EU Court said so in another Iberia case (C-410/11 Espada Sánchez, 2012): the limit is per passenger, even when the bag was checked in under someone else's name.
If Iberia says no
- AESA does not take baggage claims. Its binding complaint procedure covers denied boarding, delays, cancellations and downgrading, not bags. For a late flight, see how to claim flight compensation.
- You live outside Spain: the European Consumer Centre in your country helps free of charge with a claim against a Spanish airline.
- Your own country's board may also take it: ARN in Sweden (150 kr fee, lower limit 1,000 kr for travel), Transportklagenemnda in Norway (free), KRIL in Finland, AviationADR or CEDR in the UK, and the Schlichtungsstelle Reise & Verkehr or the Federal Office of Justice in Germany. In Denmark, Trafikstyrelsen does not handle bags. The Nordic complaint boards page explains how each Nordic body works.
- Court: in Spain, baggage claims go to the commercial court (Juzgado de lo Mercantil), within 2 years.
What you can claim
Necessary purchases while you wait: toiletries, underwear, a change of clothes, a charger. Keep costs reasonable. On the return trip, when you are home with your own things, compensation is rarely justified.
No receipt? List each item with the date and price, and add a card statement, an order email or a photo.
If you also have travel insurance, you can claim from both, but you can't be paid twice for the same cost.
FAQ
Does Iberia pay a fixed amount per day?
The law has no daily amount. A sum per day is airline policy. You can claim your actual necessary costs up to the limit.
Iberia says the PIR is not a claim. Is that right?
The EU Court has accepted a complaint recorded in the airline's own system as written notice (C-258/16). Send your own written claim anyway, within the deadline, and the argument goes away.