Airline Rulebook

Conditions of Carriage: What the Contract Actually Says

Every ticket incorporates a document you have almost certainly never opened. These are the parts that come up in real disputes.

Open notebook and reading glasses on a wooden desk

Priya Raghunathan · January 22, 2026 · 9 min read

When you buy a ticket you enter a contract of carriage. The fare rules cover price and flexibility. The conditions of carriage cover everything else: what the airline promises, what it disclaims, what happens when things go wrong, and what you agreed to by clicking a box.

The document is long because it has to cover every scenario across every route. In practice a small set of clauses generates almost all the disputes.

Article by article, the clauses that matter

Schedules are not guaranteed

Nearly every carrier states that times shown in timetables are not guaranteed and form no part of the contract. This is why a schedule change alone is not a breach. Statutory passenger rights regimes exist precisely because this clause would otherwise leave passengers with nothing.

Sequential use of coupons

Flight coupons must be used in the order printed. Skipping the first sector normally voids the rest of the ticket. This is the clause behind the industry's dislike of hidden city ticketing, where a passenger books beyond their real destination to get a cheaper fare and gets off at the connection.

Refusal to carry

The airline reserves the right to refuse carriage for safety, security, documentation, conduct, intoxication, or where a previous instance of misconduct is recorded. This clause is broad and courts generally uphold it, provided it is applied reasonably and without discrimination.

Baggage liability

Liability for lost, damaged or delayed baggage on international journeys is set by the Montreal Convention, not by the airline's own preference. The limit is expressed in Special Drawing Rights, currently 1,288 SDR per passenger, which is roughly 1,700 US dollars depending on the exchange rate.

Event	Deadline to notify	Governing rule
Damaged checked baggage	7 days from receipt	Montreal Convention Art. 31
Delayed baggage	21 days from delivery	Montreal Convention Art. 31
Lost baggage	Treated as lost after 21 days	Airline practice under Montreal
Passenger injury claim	2 years from arrival date	Montreal Convention Art. 35

Those deadlines are strict. A claim submitted on day eight for damage is, on a plain reading, out of time. File the property irregularity report at the airport before leaving the baggage hall, because that report is the evidence that the deadline was met.

Suitcase and backpack packed and standing ready by a doorway — Declaring a higher value at check in, for a fee, raises the liability ceiling above the convention limit.

Force majeure and extraordinary circumstances

The conditions typically excuse the airline from liability for events beyond its control: weather, air traffic control restrictions, strikes by third parties, political instability. European case law has narrowed this considerably. Technical faults inherent in normal operation are not extraordinary. Strikes by the airline's own staff are generally not extraordinary either, following the Court of Justice decision in Krüsemann.

Applicable law and jurisdiction

The clause naming the governing law matters when you sue. Under the Montreal Convention you may bring a claim in the carrier's domicile, its principal place of business, the place where the contract was made, or the destination. That gives most passengers a home jurisdiction option, which is more useful than the airline's preferred forum.

Neoclassical courthouse columns photographed from below — Small claims procedures in most European countries handle airline disputes without a lawyer, and the fees are modest.

How the documents stack

International treaty law, principally the Montreal Convention 1999, sits at the top for international carriage.
Regional regulation such as EU 261, UK 261, Canadian APPR and US DOT rules apply within their scope and cannot be contracted out of.
National consumer protection law applies where it is not displaced.
The airline's conditions of carriage fill the remaining space.
The specific fare rules attached to your ticket sit inside that, and are the most restrictive layer.

A clause in the conditions of carriage that contradicts a higher layer is unenforceable to that extent. This is why an airline cannot write away EU 261 compensation in its terms, and why any wording that appears to do so should be ignored.

Read the conditions of carriage once, for the airline you fly most. The second read for any other carrier takes ten minutes because the structure is almost identical.
AirSupportTeam editorial team

Where to find the document

Airline website footer, usually under Legal or Customer Service.
US carriers publish a Contract of Carriage, which is the same instrument under a different name and is required to be publicly accessible.
Interline journeys are governed by the operating carrier's conditions for each sector, which is why a two airline itinerary can have two different baggage rules.
Charter flights sold as part of a package are covered by the tour operator's terms as well, and package travel regulations add protections that scheduled tickets do not carry.

Frequently asked

Are the conditions of carriage negotiable?

No. They are standard form terms of adhesion. What is negotiable is how the airline applies discretion within them, which is why polite, specific requests sometimes succeed where the written rule says no.

Which airline's conditions apply on a codeshare?

The operating carrier's, for the sector it operates. The marketing carrier's conditions govern the sale. This split is the source of a great many baggage disputes on mixed itineraries.

Does the Montreal Convention apply to domestic flights?

Not directly. Domestic carriage is governed by national law, though many countries have adopted equivalent limits. Within the US, the airline's contract of carriage and DOT rules govern instead.

Can I claim consequential losses, such as a missed hotel booking?

Generally not from the airline. Liability is limited to the categories set out in the convention. This gap is exactly what travel insurance is designed to fill.