United’s commitment:

In the unlikely event that we mishandle your luggage and our extensive search does not recover your belongings, United will reimburse the owner up to a maximum of U.S. $3,000 per customer for travel wholly between points in the U.S. and 1,000 Special Drawing Rights (approximately $1,489) per customer for international travel.

What this means for you:

We will conduct a thorough search for your luggage, which includes checking with other airlines. If we are unable to locate and return your belongings to you within 60 days of your original claim, United will reimburse you up to a maximum of U.S. $3,000 per customer for travel wholly between points in the U.S. and 1,000 Special Drawing Rights (approximately $1,489) per customer for international travel.

Some items are not eligible for reimbursement, including but not limited to:

Fragile items, spoilage of perishables, loss/damage/delay of money, jewelry, cameras, electronic/video/photographic equipment, computer equipment, heirlooms, antiques, artwork, silverware, precious metals, negotiable papers/securities, commercial effects, irreplaceable books, publications, manuscripts, business documents or other irreplaceable items and/or any item where a liability release was signed by the customer.

Finally, reimbursements are subject to limits, customer efforts to minimize damage and claim verification. If you will be checking bags with items that have values exceeding the stated limit, you can purchase additional insurance when checking your baggage.

Helpful suggestions:

Be sure to attach a luggage tag that clearly displays your name, address and contact information in case your bag is misplaced.   In addition, we suggest you place this same information, or a copy of your itinerary, inside the bags.  Unclaimed bags without tags will be opened and searched for any evidence of ownership, so be sure to include this information inside your bags as well and check it periodically to ensure accuracy.