Flight compensation checker
A long delay can be worth up to €600 or £520 per passenger — and the companies offering to claim it take a quarter to a third of your money for a letter that takes ten minutes. Enter the flight, get the honest answer either way, and send the letter yourself. Free, no commission, ever.
Three different rights, constantly confused
A disrupted flight carries up to three separate entitlements, and airlines benefit from the confusion between them. Compensation is the fixed cash amount for the disruption itself. Care — meals, phone calls, a hotel if you're stranded overnight — is owed during the wait even when compensation is not, and it is the most commonly forfeited right in the whole regime. A refund of the unused ticket is a third thing again, and for cancellations it is always your choice regardless of the cause. This tool answers all three separately, because a page that blurs them is how people accept a meal voucher in place of £520.
The honest no is the point. Roughly half of disruptions come with a genuine extraordinary-circumstances defence — weather being the big one — and a checker that tells everyone they're owed €600 is a lead form, not a tool. When the answer here is no, it says so, and then tells you what you're still owed instead of leaving you at a dead end.
Amounts restate Regulation (EC) 261/2004, its UK retained version, Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulations and US DOT rules — each result names its regulation, article and source. Figures last checked 2026-08-25; re-checked quarterly with an eye on case law, which is where this area actually moves. Guidance for claiming, not legal advice.
Flight compensation — common questions
How much compensation do I get for a delayed flight?
Under the EU and UK rules, it depends on distance, not on the fare: €250 / £220 up to 1,500 km, €400 / £350 up to 3,500 km, and €600 / £520 beyond that — per passenger, however cheap the ticket was. The delay is measured at arrival at your final destination, and compensation starts at 3 hours. Canada pays CAD 400–1,000 by delay length on large carriers. The US pays nothing for delays at all, which surprises almost everyone.
Is my delay measured at departure or arrival?
Arrival — specifically the moment a door opens at your final destination. A flight that leaves five hours late and lands two and a half hours late owes nothing; one that leaves an hour late and misses a connection, landing you four hours late at the final stop on the same booking, owes the full amount. This is the single most common misunderstanding in the whole regime.
What counts as extraordinary circumstances?
Weather, air traffic control restrictions, security incidents and bird strikes generally do — the airline doesn't owe compensation for those, though it still owes you meals and a hotel. Routine technical faults generally do NOT count: the European courts settled that years ago, and airlines still cite them anyway. Strikes by the airline's own staff are genuinely contested territory — recent judgments have gone against the airlines, so claim and expect a first refusal.
Do I need a claim company, and what do they charge?
No, and typically 25–35% of your money — sometimes more once legal fees are added. The claim is a short letter quoting the regulation, the flight and the amount, which this tool writes for you. If the airline refuses, the national enforcement body takes escalations free of charge. Claim companies do real work for people who would otherwise never claim, but for most cases the letter takes ten minutes.
How long do I have to claim flight compensation?
Far longer than most people think — the limit comes from national law, not the regulation. Six years in England and Wales, five in Scotland and France, three in Germany. Canada's APPR gives one year. A claim from a trip two years ago is usually still very much alive, and the airline will not volunteer that.
Am I owed compensation for a cancelled flight?
If you were told less than 14 days before departure, usually yes — the same distance-based amounts as delays, unless the airline both rerouted you close to the original times or proves extraordinary circumstances. With 14 or more days' notice there is no compensation, but a full refund or rerouting is always your choice, whatever the cause and whatever the notice.
What am I owed if a flight is delayed in the United States?
For the delay itself: nothing — no US law requires compensation for delays, on any airline. What does exist: an automatic cash refund if the flight is cancelled or significantly changed and you don't travel, real cash compensation for involuntary denied boarding (up to $2,150), and each airline's own customer-service commitments for controllable delays, which the DOT publishes in a comparison dashboard.
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