Delayed and damaged baggage

If you can’t find your baggage at the airport terminal, the first step is to go to the baggage services desk. You can normally find the desk in the Arrivals hall near to the baggage claim area.

When you’re there, you will need to fill out a report. This report will have a unique reference number, which helps us to trace your baggage as quickly and efficiently as possible. The more information you can give us about your baggage – the colour, make, identifying marks and more – the better.

Enter your reference number into our online baggage tracker. We’ll give you a number you can call to track your baggage, which you can also use to change your details or delivery address if necessary.

Once you’ve completed the report, you don’t need to do anything else. We’re working hard to reunite you with your bags and will be in touch when we find them.

We work hard to reunite you with your baggage, and the majority of delayed items are returned to passengers within three days.

If you haven’t received your baggage within three days, you’ll need to fill in a Baggage Inventory form(opens pdf in a new tab). This will allow us to update your file with more details to help us find your baggage, and will be given to you at the airport when you report your delayed bags.

To begin this process, you’ll need to send the following documents to the email address on the form:

• your completed Baggage Inventory form
• a copy of your photo ID
• copies of receipts for any clothes you’ve bought as a result of your baggage being delayed, if you have them. Or the receipts for any items in the bag (such as a receipt for a wedding dress)
• your excess baggage receipt, if you carried extra baggage outside of our standard allowance

At this stage we recommend you register a claim on your travel insurance too.

Once we’ve found your baggage and it’s been cleared by customs, we aim to return your items within four hours (distance permitting), and we’ll be in touch immediately to arrange a delivery time that suits you.

If you travelled internationally, you might need to complete a local customs declaration form. In addition within some countries, local laws mean we can’t forward your bag to you, and you’ll need to collect it from the airport. If this is the case for your luggage we’ll let you know when you make your claim.

If your baggage arrives damaged, we’ll help you at the airport’s baggage services office. They will ask you to fill in a report.

Follow the same process above if you find items missing from your bags.

If you’re on a flight out of the USA, the Transport Security Administration (TSA) may have removed items from your bag deemed to be contraband or dangerous. You can register a claim with the TSA(Opens an external website in a new tab) to check whether this has happened.

If you left the airport without filling in a report for any of the above scenarios, please call us at your local Emirates office (Opens link in a new tab) as soon as possible.

If you’ve lost a piece of your property on board one of our aircraft, please contact the lost property office at the airport where your flight landed. You can also check our complete list of airports serving Emirates flights to find out the contact details of the airport where you landed. The customer service agents there will be able to help you.

Many bags look alike, so it’s important to avoid anyone picking up your bags by mistake. Make your baggage stand out by personalising it with tags, stickers or ribbons.

Always tie an identification tag to each checked item with your name, address and contact details. We can give you a tag at the check-in counter if you don’t already have one.

We recommend you don’t leave valuables in your checked-in bags. That could include jewellery, computers and electronic devices, keys, important documents (including passports) and medication or medical equipment that can’t be replaced quickly.

Please also make sure your baggage is sufficiently robust, well packed and secured. It will need to withstand the normal rigours of air travel without getting damaged.

You can read through all of our baggage FAQs for more information, or check our popular related FAQs:

• Do I have to collect delayed baggage from the airport? 
• What should I do if my bag has been received but held by customs? 
• How does Emirates find delayed baggage?
• Why haven’t I received my baggage yet?
• What do I do if my bags went missing on a flight operated by another airline?

You can also read our conditions of carriage(Opens in a new tab), including our baggage liability section. And check what you can bring in and out of Dubai through Customs(Opens an external website in a new tab).