American Airlines and American Eagle have devoted extensive resources and efforts to ensure our customers and their bags travel on the same flight. In the event your checked bags do not arrive on your flight, reasonable efforts will be made to ensure that the bag is returned to you within 24 hours. Since we cannot guarantee the delivery of baggage by another carrier, our goal to return bags within 24 hours applies only when we are the carrier taking you to your final destination. Returning your bags may take longer on international flights due to flight duration, frequency of flights, or Customs and Immigration procedures at the destination airport.
If you are unable to locate a checked bag upon arrival, you should notify an American Airlines/American Eagle baggage service agent prior to leaving the airport. At that time, you will be given a File Locator ID and a brochure explaining the baggage recovery process.
Please refer to your six-letter file locator in all conversation and correspondence regarding your delayed baggage.
Our automated baggage tracing system helps us locate baggage throughout the world. The information you provide about your luggage - such as style, color, and contents - will enable us to search quickly and thoroughly.
You may view the status of your delayed baggage on AA.com by providing your last name and a six-letter baggage file locator.
Our Baggage Service desk will contact you periodically to keep you informed of our progress in locating your baggage.
Overview Of The Baggage Recovery Process
In the unlikely event the airport does not locate your delayed baggage within the first 5 days, Central Baggage Service will take over the tracing effort.
The first step is to collect a complete list
of baggage contents from you via a Property
Questionnaire that is automatically mailed
to your permanent address within 10 days
of your date of travel. Or, you can access and print the
Property Questionnaire made available on the 6
th
day of delay on
AA.com/bagstatus.
Complete and return
the document along with all requested information
to our office within 30 days from the date
of loss so that we may begin the intensified
search. Incomplete or late Questionnaires
negatively impact our ability to find your
property. Retain a copy for your records.
Why do we ask for the additional detail? Since most bags are packed with clothing such as pants, shirts, undergarments, and shoes - providing specific details such as colors, sizes, brand names, and logos of the items you packed in your bag increases our ability to locate your property. Other items that aid us in identifying your property include book titles, medication, electronic items, gifts, souvenirs and food items.
Should we locate your bag, a Service Representative will contact you to arrange its return. Otherwise, your file will be forwarded to our Claims Department. A final resolution will be made in accordance with our Conditions of Carriage or International Convention and forwarded to you by regular U.S. mail. In the interim, please feel free to
contact us for updates on the status of our efforts.
Interim Expenses
When customer baggage is delayed, an American Airlines/American Eagle Baggage Service Representative may authorize reasonable interim expenses to purchase items necessary for immediate use.
To obtain reimbursement of authorized interim expenses, submit your six letter file locator, a copy of your ticket receipt and baggage claim checks, along with dated, itemized, verifiable receipts documenting the authorized expenditures to the following address within 30 days of authorization:
American Airlines, Interim Expense Reimbursement
P.O. Box 619613 MD 1322/HDQ
DFW Airport, TX 75261-9613
Reservations
