If your flight has been delayed by at least three hours or cancelled then you have the right to compensation under European law.
Under EU Regulation 261/2004, passengers are entitled to up to €600 (£509) in compensation when their flight lands at their destination more than three hours late.
In extraordinary circumstances, such as with bad weather, airlines do not have to pay compensation, although they still have a duty of care to the passenger.
If the flight is delayed overnight, they have to arrange accommodation and transfers.
For shorter delays, but in excess of three hours, they have to provide food, refreshments and even the use of a phone or email.
When would you not receive compensation on cancelled flights?
If the carrier offers you an alternative flight with a similar schedule, the compensation may be reduced by up to 50 per cent.
With cancelled flights, you won’t receive compensation if:
· the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances for example due to bad weather, or
· you were informed two weeks before the scheduled flight date, or
· you were offered an alternative for the same route with a similar schedule to the original one.
In the event of re-routing, you will not be entitled to compensation if the arrival time does not exceed the scheduled arrival time of the flight originally booked:
(a) by two hours, in respect of all flights of 1500 kilometers or less; or
(b) by three hours, in respect of all intra-Community flights of more than 1500 kilometres and for all other flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres; or
(c) by four hours, in respect of all flights not falling under (a) or (b),
the operating air carrier may reduce the compensation provided for by 50 per cent.
How does compensation work for delayed flights?
Under EU rules, airlines must pay compensation for cancelled or heavily delayed flights, but how much you’re entitled to depends on the flight you booked and the amount of time you’ve been delayed by.
The flight must have departed from an EU airport, operating by any airline, or it must be arriving into an EU airport and be operated by an EU airline. The ‘EU airport’ also includes the following countries; Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
It also needs to have been at least three hours late arriving at your destination to be eligible for compensation and the ruling that outlines these rights is Regulation (EC) 261/2004
The amounts available start from €250 (£212) for flights of less than 1,500km long which are delayed by at least three hours and go up to €600 (£509) for flights of more than 3,500km between an EU and non-EU airport, delayed by at least four hours.
What exactly are my rights?
Regulation (EC) 261/2004 requires that airlines compensate passengers if their flight is cancelled or heavily delayed.
They must also offer you meals, refreshments and hotel accommodation as appropriate whilst you wait for a rearranged flight.
They should also cover any transport costs between the hotel and the airport. There are no time or monetary limits on the provision of this assistance.
If your airline does not provide assistance, keep your spending to a minimum, make sure you get receipts and claim reimbursement from your airline when you get home.
How to claim compensation for a delay
Passengers can claim by telling the airline their flight number, names of passengers and the reason for the delay (we have included template letters at the end of this guide).
If you can’t remember how long the delay was, the website Flightstats.com is free to use and will show you how long a flight has been delayed for, although it won’t state what the delay was for.
If the claim is rejected, but you believe it’s valid you can escalate it to the ombudsman or the relevant regulator (this will depend on the airline). If you still don’t get the answer you believe is right it is possible to take the airline to the small claims court.
Can my airline turn down my claim?
Airlines don’t have to accept every claim and they can turn them down if ‘extraordinary circumstances’ apply. However if this is the case, the airline still has a duty of care to passengers.
The rules state that airlines must provide passengers with accommodation, meals and refreshments and transport between the airport and accommodation. Airlines are breaking the rules if they shirk this obligation.
If your airline turns down your claim under extraordinary circumstances you can challenge this if you do not believe it to be true. Write back to the explaining why this is not the case and explain that you will take the matter up with the Civil Aviation Authority if it is not settled properly.
Rules: You should be able to claim compensation for flight delays dating back six years.
A classic example is airlines claiming technical faults as extraordinary circumstances. However, this can be challenged.
The problem is that many airlines are still trying to wriggle out of such claims. This is because the regulation gives no definition of exactly what extraordinary circumstances are, but does give some examples.
It says: ‘As under the Montreal Convention, obligations on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.
‘Such circumstances may, in particular, occur in cases of political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier.’
The crucial part of this is that it says ‘which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken’.
This means that you can challenge the technical faults defence on the basis that an airline should have reasonable expectation that things can go wrong on an aircraft and should have contingency plans in place, ie replacement parts or access to them where it operates.
If your flight is delayed by more than three hours you should be able to claim from your airline
If your airline tries to claim extraordinary circumstances, challenge them to explain exactly what they were and why they could not have been reasonably avoided. The onus is on them to prove this.
How far back can I claim?
Regulation (EC) 261 does not set a time limit on how far back claims can go, instead stating that this should be determined by the laws in respective EU countries.
In the UK, the statute of limitations law is six years, so by this logic an airline should consider claims for delays dating back six years from the time the claim is submitted.
What will happen when I ask for compensation?
If you are not given the assistance that you are due, you will need to make a claim against the airline.
You will need receipts and proof of expenses and they must be reasonable.
It is always unclear what airlines will do when faced with claims. Some may try and refuse to pay and stave off claims.
If this happens passengers need to use the courts to force payment.
The best way to do this is through the small claims track of the county court.
What can’t I claim?
Your expenses should be reasonable such as a hotel similar to the standard of the one you were staying in or a simple meal.
Living it large and then trying to charge it to the airline is unlikely to work.
You are also unlikely to find airlines paying for the expense of you abandoning your flight and navigating your way home yourself.
Although, if you have taken the simplest and best-value route you may be covered and if you had been advised to get yourself home and that you would be reimbursed by the airline, then you should state this and claim.