If you’re EU or UK flight is delayed more than three hours, or your flight is cancelled within two weeks of departure, EU Regulation EC No 261/2004 means you could be entitled to claim compensation. Note, we aren’t a claim site, this is just an article to help you navigate rule EC261.
There are plenty of rules surrounding this and so we’ll try and explain the most important of these here.
First rule: A 2014 Supreme Court decision means that airlines have to pay unless the cause was extraordinary circumstances and completely outside their control; extreme weather, volcano, air traffic strike etc.
Second rule: The compensation is in addition to anything the airline do for you, such as food vouchers and/or hotel accommodation. However, you can’t claim if you volunteer to take a later flight in exchange for cash, points or other benefits – this might happen if a flight is overbooked and the airline asks for volunteers.
Third rule: The three-hour delay applies to time of arrival and not departure. You’ll need to visit www.flightstats.com to check the status of your flight.
Fourth rule: If you missed a connecting flight, because the first flight was delayed (can be less than three hours) and took a later flight that resulted in you arriving over three hours late, you can claim as long as you bought a single ticket, for example, London to Prague, via Amsterdam. If you have two separate tickets (LON-AMS and AMS-PRG), even with the same airline, you can’t claim.
Fifth rule: Only applies to EU/UK-regulated flights. So if you’re flight was delayed more than three hours, or cancelled, when departing from an EU country, or the UK, then you can claim. But if you were departing from a non-EU/UK country, you can only claim if the airline is EU/UK-regulated – for example British Airways, but not American Airlines.
Six rule: The amount of compensation depends on the distance flown. Generally if you were flying within Europe, you’ll be in the less than 1500km bracket, long haul the 3500km bracket – but there is also a 1500 – 3500km bracket. If you aren’t sure you can check the distance on www.webflyer.com/travel/mileage_calculator/
Compensation for Delays or Cancellations
Flights of 1500km or less: €250 (UK £220)
Flights between 1501 – 3500km: €400 (UK £350)
Flights over 3500km: €600 (UK £520).
How do I Claim?
There are multiple websites that offer to claim compensation on your behalf, but they all take a hefty commission. Use them only if the airline ignores or refuses your claim.
Use the links to the claim forms of many EU/UK-regulated airlines below (correct as of December 2024). The airline operating the flight is responsible for compensating you, not the airline that sold you the ticket.
Ensure that you provide the following details:
- Flight number, date, time, departure airport, arrival airport – amount of delay, or that it was cancelled.
- Passenger names – each passenger in your party is entitled to compensation.
- Amount of compensation claimed.
- It also doesn’t hurt to mention that you are claiming compensation under EU Regulation EC No 261/2004.
Please note we’re not lawyers and can’t be held responsible for any errors in this article.
Links to Compensation Pages
TravelBugAdvisor.com 