In this guide8 sections
Most of these take seconds. Five are worth taking before you leave home and two at check-in. A few more only matter if the trip goes wrong.
What photos should you take before a flight?
Before you leave home
1. Your suitcase, open, once you’ve packed
Take one clear photo of the open suitcase when you’ve finished packing. You don’t need to photograph every sock: the point is a record of what went in, especially anything distinctive.
If a bag is lost, the airline will ask what was in it, possibly days later. A photo is easier than a memory. Canada’s air passenger regulator recommends it (opens in a new tab): take a photo of your bags and make a list of what’s in them before you fly.
2. Your suitcase from the outside
Close the suitcase and take two or three quick photos: the front, the back, and one side showing the wheels and handle. Between them they should show:
- its colour, size and shape
- the wheels and handles
- any stickers, straps, ribbons or marks that make it yours
- the condition of the shell or fabric, scuffs and all
The same photos help in two ways. If the bag doesn’t arrive, you can show the baggage desk exactly what they’re looking for, instead of describing “a medium black suitcase”. If it comes back cracked, torn or missing a wheel, you can set its condition before check-in against its condition at baggage reclaim, which is why you photograph a damaged bag before leaving the airport.
Take them at home or before you reach the bag-drop desk. Once the suitcase is on the belt, it’s too late.
3. Anything valuable you have to check in
Most valuables are better in your hand luggage: passports, medicine, keys, cash and electronics. Power banks and spare lithium batteries belong there anyway, within the size limits your airline sets. If you fly with European airlines, check what your cabin bag and personal item can hold before you decide what goes where.
If something valuable does have to go in the checked bag, photograph it on its own before you pack it, with the model and serial number if it has one, and keep the receipt or order confirmation somewhere you can find it. A suitcase photo can show that an item was packed, but not what it cost. In the US, the Department of Transportation says airlines may ask for receipts (opens in a new tab) for valuable items in a lost bag.
4. Your passport’s photo page
A copy of your passport can’t replace it at a border. Its value is the details: the number, the issue and expiry dates and the photo page, which you’ll need if the passport is lost or stolen while you’re away and you apply for a replacement.
What a consulate accepts depends on your nationality. For US citizens replacing a passport abroad, for example, the State Department lists a photocopy of the lost passport (opens in a new tab) as one way to prove citizenship. Check what your own country asks for.
Two rules make the copy useful:
- Keep it apart from the original, so one lost or stolen bag doesn’t take both: a private cloud folder you can open from another phone, a paper copy in a different bag, or both.
- Keep it out of shared albums and chats. The photo page holds sensitive identity information, so treat the copy almost as carefully as the passport itself.
5. Your visa or travel authorisation, if you need one
If your destination needs a visa or an electronic travel authorisation, save a screenshot or PDF of the approval with its reference number.
Many authorisations are electronic and linked to your passport. Canada’s eTA, for example, is tied to the passport you applied with (opens in a new tab): you don’t need to print anything, and airline staff check it by scanning that passport. A screenshot doesn’t replace that check. What it gives you is:
- the reference number, if you need to check the status or contact the issuing office
- a record that it was approved, and when
- which passport it’s linked to, which matters if you have two, or renewed yours after applying
Optional: your suitcase on the scale
Your own scale won’t override the airline’s: at the airport, the check-in scale decides what your bag weighs. The photo is a reference for you. If you leave at 19.6 kg on a 20 kg allowance, you know there’s little room for anything you add before check-in, and you have a benchmark when you repack for the return journey.
At check-in
6. Your boarding pass
Once you’ve checked in, add the boarding pass to your phone’s wallet or take a screenshot. Don’t count on the airline’s app loading at the gate on airport Wi-Fi.
Keep it after the flight, particularly if a bag goes missing or the flight is disrupted. Baggage desks ask for it, and so do airlines when you claim.
Never post the full boarding pass online. Its barcode can hold your name, your booking reference and your frequent-flyer number, and with a name and booking reference someone can often open your booking on the airline’s website. Turkish Airlines tells passengers (opens in a new tab) not to share photos of boarding passes on social media or anywhere public. Covering the barcode isn’t enough if the booking reference is printed next to it.
7. The receipt for your checked bag
When the airline checks your suitcase, it gives you a small receipt, usually a sticker on your boarding pass or passport cover. Photograph it straight away and make sure you can read:
- the bag tag number
- the destination airport
- the flight details, if they’re shown
- the barcode
Along with your boarding pass and ID, the bag tag is what the baggage desk asks for when a suitcase is missing. At Turin Airport (opens in a new tab), for example, the lost-baggage office asks for exactly those three things, and tells passengers to keep the tag with their copy of the report. Receipt stickers fall off and get thrown away with paper boarding passes, so the photo is often the only copy left.
If you check more than one bag, photograph each receipt next to its suitcase at the desk, so you know which number belongs to which bag.
If something goes wrong
These only matter if the trip goes wrong. Take them at the time, while you’re still at the airport or the receipt is in your hand.
Your suitcase, if it comes off the belt damaged
Photograph it before you leave the baggage hall:
- the whole suitcase, so the damage can be matched to your bag
- close-ups of the damage
- the bag tag still attached
- anything inside that was damaged
Next to your photos from before check-in, these show the bag before and after the flight.
I’ve needed these myself. When my suitcase came back damaged, I photographed it, and the photos helped when I claimed from the airline afterwards.
Then report it before you leave the reclaim area. At Italian airports, the civil aviation authority, ENAC, tells passengers (opens in a new tab) to report damage to the lost-and-found office before leaving baggage reclaim and fill in a Property Irregularity Report, often called a PIR. Keep your copy with the bag tag and your boarding pass.
The report at the airport isn’t the claim itself. On flights covered by the Montreal Convention, which includes most international flights, you have to complain to the airline in writing within 7 days of getting a damaged bag back, and within 21 days of getting a delayed one, according to EU (opens in a new tab) and Canadian (opens in a new tab) passenger-rights guidance. Send your photos with that complaint.
Receipts for what you pay for
If a flight is delayed or cancelled, or your bag doesn’t arrive, you may end up paying for things the airline should cover. Photograph each receipt when you get it; paper receipts fade and get lost. That means receipts for:
- meals and drinks while you wait
- a hotel, and transport to and from it
- toiletries and clothes you buy because your bag is delayed
Under EU rules, if the airline doesn’t provide meals, refreshments or a hotel when it has to, Your Europe (opens in a new tab) says it should pay you back for expenses that were necessary, reasonable and appropriate, and tells passengers to keep all receipts. For a delayed bag, what the airline pays back depends on its own rules, so ask at the baggage desk when you report it. Turin Airport lists receipts for essentials bought while waiting among the papers to keep.
The airline’s message and the departures board
Save the airline’s email, app notification or text about the delay or cancellation, and take one photo of the board showing the flight number, the scheduled time and the status. The airline’s own records decide the official flight status. The photo is a record of what passengers were being told at that moment.
What the photos can and can’t do
They make a claim easier to document, but they don’t guarantee you’ll be paid. Airlines and insurers can still ask for receipts, the bag tag, the airport report and other evidence.
| Photo | Helps with | Doesn’t prove |
|---|---|---|
| Packed suitcase | Listing what was in a lost bag | What it was worth |
| Suitcase from the outside | Describing a missing bag; its condition before check-in | Anything about what’s inside |
| Valuables | Identifying an item, with its serial number | What you paid: keep the receipt |
| Passport copy | The details for a replacement | Anything at a border: it isn’t a travel document |
| Travel authorisation | The reference number, and which passport it’s on | That the airline’s check will find it |
| Boarding pass | Rebooking, baggage reports and claims | What happened to the flight |
| Bag receipt | The tag number the baggage desk needs | What was in the bag |
| Damaged suitcase | Showing the damage when you got the bag back | A claim on its own: you still need the airport report |
| Receipts | What you spent, and when | That the airline has to pay it back |
| Departures board | What passengers were told, and when | The official flight status |
We checked the passenger-rights details in this guide against guidance from ICAO, the EU, Italy’s ENAC, the Canadian Transportation Agency and the US government on 28 September 2026.
Keep these photos private
These are a private backup, not holiday content. Keep them off social media and out of shared albums and group chats:
- Passport: your name, date of birth, document number and photo.
- Boarding pass and booking confirmation: your booking reference, which is often all anyone needs to open the booking, and a barcode that can hold more.
- Bag receipt: your tag number and flight.
- Visa or travel authorisation: your reference number and passport details.
Once you’re home with all your bags and any claim is settled, delete the boarding passes and bag receipts. Keep the passport copy only somewhere private.
The checklist
Frequently asked questions
When can I treat a delayed bag as lost?
On flights covered by the Montreal Convention, which includes most international flights: once the airline admits the bag is lost, or if it still hasn’t arrived 21 days after it should have. From then you can claim the rights that apply to lost baggage. Until then the airline may keep calling it delayed while it searches, so keep the reference from your airport report and check progress with the airline.
How much will an airline pay for a lost or damaged bag?
On flights covered by the Montreal Convention, the airline’s liability for lost, damaged or delayed baggage is capped at 1,519 Special Drawing Rights per passenger, a unit whose value in euros or dollars moves with exchange rates. Within that cap you usually have to show what things were worth, so receipts or order confirmations help. If a checked bag holds more than the cap, you can declare a higher value when you check it in, sometimes for a fee. Flights within one country can have different limits.
Sources: ICAO (opens in a new tab), US Department of Transportation (opens in a new tab), Your Europe (opens in a new tab)
Am I allowed to take photos inside an airport?
In the public areas, generally yes. At US security checkpoints the TSA doesn’t prohibit photos as long as you don’t hold up screening or photograph screens hidden from public view, though local rules can still apply. Elsewhere it depends on the airport and the country, and passport control is often off limits, so look for signs. The photos in this guide are all taken at home, at check-in, in the terminal or in the baggage hall.
Source: TSA (opens in a new tab)
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