Flight questions and answers

Under EU regulation 261/2004 the amount is set by flight distance: €250 for flights up to 1 500 km, €400 for flights between 1 500 and 3 500 km, and €600 for longer flights. The amount is per passenger, not per booking, so a family of four can be entitled to four times the sum. Your ticket price does not affect the amount, a cheap ticket on a long delayed flight can be worth far more than the ticket itself. On top of compensation you may also have the right to a refund or replacement flight, and to meals and accommodation while you wait.

The rules cover every flight departing from an airport in the EU/EEA regardless of airline, and flights arriving in the EU/EEA when operated by an EU airline. The disruption must be one of: arrival more than three hours later than scheduled, a cancellation announced less than fourteen days before departure, or denied boarding because the flight was overbooked. A missed connection counts too, if the delay to your final destination was over three hours and the flights were on one booking. The airline can avoid paying if the cause was an extraordinary circumstance outside its control, such as severe weather, a security risk or an air traffic control strike, but technical faults and staff shortages usually do not count. We check all of this before suggesting a claim.

Almost nobody remembers which flights were delayed two years ago, and even fewer people keep the boarding passes. Your inbox does remember: every booking confirmation, check-in reminder and disruption notice is still there. Connecting your email lets us build the list of flights for you in seconds instead of you filling in forms from memory. The access is read-only, so we can never send, delete or change anything in your account. We look for airline and travel agency messages and ignore the rest, and you can disconnect the inbox at any time, after that we stop scanning immediately. Claims that are already approved and running continue, because they are legal cases on your behalf.

There is no sign-up fee, no monthly cost and no hidden charges. When a claim succeeds we keep 20% of the compensation and transfer the rest to you. If the airline refuses and the claim cannot be won, the case costs you nothing, we carry the work and the risk. The percentage is the same regardless of how difficult the case turns out to be, so you always know in advance what you will receive: 80% of the amount the airline pays out.

Once you approve a claim we file it immediately. Cooperative airlines often settle within two to six weeks. Others reject valid claims as a matter of routine, and then the case moves into follow-up and, if needed, escalation to the national enforcement body or a legal route, that can take several months. You do not need to do anything while this happens, and there is no extra cost if a case turns out to be slow. We keep you updated as the case moves, and you get paid as soon as the compensation reaches us.

We are the data controller for the information you give us and the flight data we find in your inbox, and we process it under the GDPR. We use it for one purpose only: identifying flights that may be eligible and pursuing the claims you approve. We share data with the airline concerned, and where necessary with enforcement bodies or legal representatives, because a claim cannot be made without it. We never sell your data or use it for advertising. You can ask for a copy of what we hold, have it corrected, or have it deleted once your cases are closed.

EU regulation 261/2004, usually just called EU 261, sets out what an airline owes you when your journey goes wrong. It covers three situations: a flight that arrives late, a flight that is cancelled, and being denied boarding because the flight was overbooked. The point of the rules is that you should never be left on your own at the airport: the airline has to look after you while you wait, get you to your destination or refund your ticket, and in many cases pay you compensation on top. The rights apply automatically, you do not have to have bought a special ticket or paid extra, and the airline cannot sign them away in its own terms and conditions.

You are covered if your flight departs from an airport in the EU or EEA, no matter which airline you flew with, or if it arrives in the EU/EEA from outside and the operating airline is an EU airline. After Brexit the UK introduced UK261, which mirrors the EU rules, so flights from the UK are protected in the same way. You also need a valid booking and to have shown up for check-in and boarding on time. If you travel entirely outside the EU with a non-European airline, EU 261 generally does not apply. Not sure? Connect your inbox and we will tell you which of your flights are covered.

The clock that counts is the one at your final destination. A flight that leaves four hours late but makes the time up in the air may give you nothing, while a modest departure delay that makes you miss a connection and land three hours late can be worth full compensation. Connections booked on one ticket are treated as one journey, so the delay is measured against your scheduled arrival at the last airport. Arrival is counted from when the aircraft doors open. Below three hours there is no compensation, but you can still be entitled to care at the airport and to reimbursement of necessary extra costs.

On a cancellation you choose between getting the ticket refunded, being rerouted to your destination as soon as possible, or travelling later on a date that suits you. If the cancellation is announced less than fourteen days before departure you are normally also entitled to compensation, unless the airline can show an extraordinary circumstance, or the rerouting it offered got you there at or close to the original arrival time. When the replacement flight lands only slightly later, roughly two hours on short routes, three on medium and four on long ones, the compensation can be reduced by half. If you are stranded mid-journey, you also have the right to be flown back to your original departure airport.

Airlines routinely sell more seats than the aircraft has. When too many passengers turn up, they first ask for volunteers to give up their seat in exchange for a negotiated benefit. If nobody volunteers and you are denied boarding involuntarily, you are entitled to compensation straight away, the delay to your arrival does not have to reach three hours, as well as a choice between a refund and rerouting, and care at the airport while you wait. If you accept a voluntary offer you agree to whatever the airline puts on the table instead, so consider it carefully before saying yes. Denied boarding for reasons that are your own responsibility, such as missing travel documents, is not covered.

Once a delay passes a couple of hours the airline has a duty of care, regardless of what caused the disruption and regardless of whether compensation is payable. That means food and drink appropriate to the waiting time, the means to make a phone call or send an email, and, if you are rebooked to the next day, hotel accommodation and transport between the airport and the hotel. If the airline provides nothing and you pay yourself, keep every receipt and claim the necessary and reasonable costs back afterwards. If the delay reaches five hours you can also choose to abandon the journey entirely and have the full ticket price refunded, plus a flight back to your original departure point if part of the trip is already behind you.

The airline can avoid paying compensation if the disruption was caused by something genuinely beyond its control and unavoidable even with all reasonable measures: severe weather, a security threat, air traffic control restrictions or strikes, or a sudden airport closure. Ordinary technical faults are not extraordinary, maintaining aircraft is part of running an airline, and neither are crew shortages, a strike by the airline's own staff, or the knock-on effects of the aircraft arriving late from a previous rotation. Airlines lean on the extraordinary-circumstances exception far more often than the case law allows, which is exactly why so many valid claims are rejected on first contact. We check the actual cause and push back when the excuse does not hold, and your duty-of-care rights apply either way.