Leif Adamec Rydenfalk
Your flight was late or cancelled
If you reached your final destination three hours or more late, or the airline cancelled with less than 14 days' notice, you may be owed a fixed sum per passenger on top of any refund. Airlines rarely offer it. You have to ask, in writing, and often twice.
This page covers EU rules (Regulation 261/2004) and the UK version that kept them after Brexit. In the US there is no fixed compensation, only a refund (see the end). This is what I'd do, in order. I'm not a lawyer, and if you'd rather not deal with it, send it to me.
Does your flight count?
It counts if the flight left from an airport in the EU, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland, on any airline, or if it flew into one of those on an EU airline. The UK rules work the same way for flights from the UK, or into the UK on a UK or EU airline.
What matters is when the doors opened at your final destination, not when you took off. A missed connection on one booking counts as one journey.
How much
| Up to 1,500 km | €250 per passenger (UK: £220). |
|---|---|
| 1,500 to 3,500 km, and all longer flights inside the EU | €400 (UK: £350). |
| Over 3,500 km | €600 (UK: £520). Cut in half if the delay at arrival was between 3 and 4 hours. |
Children with their own seat count as passengers. The money is on top of meals, drinks and a hotel the airline must give you while you wait. Kept the receipts? Claim those too.
What they say to avoid paying
- "Extraordinary circumstances." Weather, air traffic control limits and security alerts are real excuses. A technical fault from normal wear is not (EU Court, Wallentin-Hermann, C-549/07), and neither is a strike by the airline's own staff (C-195/17, C-28/20). Ask them to name the exact cause.
- "We offered a voucher." You can refuse it. You're entitled to money unless you agreed in writing to take a voucher.
- "It's too late to claim." The limit is set by each country's law: 10 years in Sweden, 6 in the UK, 3 in Germany. Most claims are well inside it.
- Silence. Give them a date, then go to the regulator or the ombudsman below.
How to claim, free
- Write to the airline through its own claim form or by email: booking reference, flight number, date, the arrival time, the amount you claim under EU261, and your bank details. Ask for an answer in 14 days.
- If they say no or nothing: in Sweden, Allmänna reklamationsnämnden (ARN), free. In the UK, the airline's ADR scheme or the CAA. Elsewhere in the EU, the national enforcement body for the country you flew from.
- Last step: small claims court. In the EU, the European Small Claims Procedure works across borders for up to €5,000.
Claims companies take 25 to 35 percent of the money. The steps above cost you nothing but the letters.
Flying in the US
No fixed compensation. Since 2024 the Department of Transportation rule says you get an automatic cash refund if the airline cancels or makes a significant change (3 hours late on a domestic flight, 6 hours international) and you choose not to travel. Ask for cash, not a credit. If they don't pay, a DOT complaint is free and online.
Or hand it to me
Send me the booking and what happened. I write the claim and every follow-up, you send them from your own email, and I stay on it until the money is paid or there's a final answer. You get a fixed price before I start.
