Who Is Liable for Damaged Luggage: Airline, Insurer, or Manufacturer?

Your suitcase comes back from the carousel cracked, missing a wheel, or with the handle hanging off, and the first question isn't how much you can claim. It's who you're even supposed to claim from.

Three parties could plausibly be responsible: the airline that carried it, the insurer you paid for cover, or the manufacturer who made it. Most people guess wrong at least once, usually by contacting the suitcase brand first, which is rarely the right starting point.

Here's a clear way to work out who's actually liable, and why.

The Short Answer

If your bag was damaged while checked in and in the airline's care, the airline is liable, almost always, regardless of how the case is built or which brand made it. Travel insurance is a fallback, not the first port of call. The manufacturer is only relevant if the case failed on its own, through a manufacturing defect, not because it was dropped, crushed, or mishandled by baggage handlers.

That single distinction, defect versus damage, is where most of the confusion comes from, so it's worth unpacking properly.

The Airline: Liable for Damage in Their Care

Under the Montreal Convention, which applies to international flights including those to and from the UK, airlines are legally responsible for checked baggage from the moment it's handed over at check-in until it's returned to you. If it's cracked, crushed, torn or has a wheel torn off during that window, that's damage caused in transit, and liability sits with the airline.

This is true no matter how well-built the suitcase was. A premium hard-shell case surviving years of travel and then arriving with a snapped wheel after one rough handling event isn't a manufacturing failure, it's mishandling, and the airline is responsible for it.

Compensation is capped at roughly 1,288 SDR per passenger, which currently converts to somewhere around £1,300 to £1,600 depending on exchange rates. For the full step-by-step process of reporting and claiming, see our main guide: Airline Damaged Your Luggage? What to Do and How to Claim Compensation

The Insurer: A Fallback, Not the First Call

Travel insurance often does cover damaged luggage, but most policies explicitly expect you to claim from the airline first when the damage happened in the airline's care. Insurers treat the airline as the primary payer, and will typically deduct anything the airline pays from your settlement.

Insurance becomes the right route when the airline's cap doesn't cover the full loss, when you've missed the airline's 7-day written notice window, or when the damage happened outside the airline's custody entirely, such as on a hotel transfer. We've compared the two routes in detail here: Does Travel Insurance Cover Damaged Luggage?

The Manufacturer: Only for Defects, Not Damage

This is the point that trips people up most. A suitcase manufacturer's warranty covers defects in materials or workmanship, meaning the case failed because of how it was made, not because of something that happened to it in transit.

What a Manufacturer Warranty Typically Covers

• A zip that fails under normal use shortly after purchase, with no external damage
• A wheel that comes loose due to a manufacturing fault, not an impact
• Seams that split without the case having been dropped, crushed or struck

What It Does Not Cover

• A cracked shell from being dropped or crushed by baggage handling equipment
• A wheel snapped off in a specific impact, rather than failing spontaneously
• A handle bent or broken because the case was thrown or stacked heavily on a belt loader
• Any damage that clearly correlates with a specific flight or journey

In other words: if the case broke on its own, that's the manufacturer's problem. If something happened to it, that's the airline's. Airlines and even manufacturers themselves will sometimes point a frustrated customer toward the other party — a professional assessment is useful here too, because it can state clearly whether damage is consistent with handling versus a material or workmanship fault.

A Quick Decision Framework

• Damage appeared after a specific flight, and wasn't there before → claim from the airline first.
• Airline's payout doesn't cover the full cost, or the damage happened outside their care → claim from your travel insurer.
• The case failed on its own with no flight or impact involved → contact the manufacturer about the warranty.
• Not sure which applies → get an independent assessment before contacting anyone; it will usually make the cause clear.

If the airline pushes back or rejects your claim outright, that doesn't necessarily mean the manufacturer is suddenly responsible instead — many rejections are simply wrong, and worth challenging. See: Can Airlines Refuse to Pay for Damaged Luggage?

Final Thoughts

The party liable for your damaged luggage almost always comes down to one question: did something happen to the case, or did the case fail on its own? Something happening to it, dropped, crushed, torn during handling, points to the airline. Failing on its own points to the manufacturer. Insurance sits behind both as a backup when the primary route falls short.

Getting this right first saves weeks of being redirected between three different companies, none of whom want to be first to say yes.

BaggageRepairs.com is a professional luggage repair and assessment service. We carry out physical repairs at our UK workshop and provide independent online damage evaluations for customers worldwide, used in airline compensation claims, insurance submissions, and dispute resolution.