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Was your flight delayed or canceled? if you wish compensation Or a refund, these are the rules of your passenger rights you need to know.
flight from U.K. and EU airports (and those in the wider European Economic Area) are subject to European rules.
They are designed to require airline Do the right thing for your passengers. They specify care and compensation You can anticipate when your flight will be canceled or severely delayed.
The rules also apply to EU and British airline flights departing from outside the EU. U.K..
Cancellations, or even delays of hours rather than minutes, can trigger an airline’s obligation to provide appropriate hotel rooms and meals. If the airline is liable, it will also owe hundreds of pounds in cash.
Conversely, when traveling on non-EU/UK airlines from abroad Europeyou may just chalk up a frustrating airline incident to an expensive experience and see if your travel insurance company can help.
These are the key questions and answers.
What happens to me if my flight is canceled or delayed in the UK and Europe?
You have no rights for delays of less than two hours (unless a short delay in the UK results in a missed connection and a late arrival at your final ticketed destination – see below).
For longer delays, airlines should provide refreshments after a designated time at their discretion. This applies regardless of the reason for the delay.
When the duty of care comes into effect depends on the distance of your flight:
- short flight (up to 1,500 km): refreshments provided after two hours
- Medium journey (1,500 to 3,500 km): 3 hours
- Long trip: four hours
Please note that if the airline believes that providing care will further delay the flight, it is not required to provide the service.
If delayed overnight, the airline is obligated to find and pay for a hotel room. In practice, carriers often say “it’s too difficult” and invite travelers to book it themselves and pick it up later.
While this practice is not entirely compliant with the rules, aviation authorities often turn a blind eye.
My flight from an airport outside the UK or EU has been cancelled. What rights do I have?
If you have booked a flight with a UK or EU airline, you have all of the above rights. On any other airline, you don’t – although in fact reputable airlines will provide meals and accommodation at their discretion.
Some travel insurance will help cover expenses that cannot be claimed elsewhere and may cover a small amount of flight delay compensation.
It’s no longer worth going. Can I cancel and get my money back?
If your flight is canceled and you decide not to travel, you should receive your refund within a week. Some airlines may offer vouchers. If there are benefits to using a voucher – like a 25% “boost” in value – and you know you’ll be flying with the same airline within a year, it might be a good decision. But easyJet, the UK’s largest budget airline, isn’t offering any perks – it insists on cash payments.
How do I qualify for a cash payment?
If you’re flying from a UK/EU airport or a UK/European airline and your flight is canceled – or your arrival is delayed by at least three hours – you’re presumed to be liable for hundreds of pounds in compensation.
Payment method depends on distance:
- For example, below 1,500 kilometers London Travel to Barcelona: £220 or €250
- 1,500-3,500km, e.g. Manchester –lisbon: 350 GBP or 400 EUR
- 3,500km+ e.g. Birmingham-Dubai: £520 or €600. If a long-haul flight arrives delayed by three to four hours, compensation halved
The only way for an airline to avoid paying is to prove that “extraordinary circumstances” are its responsibility.
Define “special circumstances”?
The rule provides only part of the answer: “political instability, meteorological conditions unsuitable for the operation of the flight in question, safety risks, unexpected flight safety deficiencies and strikes”.
Court cases have gradually refined the concept of “exceptional circumstances” to rule out technicalities. In other words: If a mechanical failure causes a delay, you should be compensated. The judge ruled that such problems were “inherent to the normal exercise of the airline’s activities”.
Formal strikes by employees within airlines are considered to be within the airline’s control, but strangely, “wildcat” strikes without union approval are not.
Crew illness is a gray area with no legal certainty.
Ryanair said: “Only a small number of claims are eligible for compensation. The majority of delays/cancellations are beyond Ryanair’s control.”
How do I make a claim?
Every airline should allow you to fill out online forms, but sometimes these can be hard to find. The pages of the major airlines are as follows:
Compensation must be paid by bank transfer (or check) unless the airline obtains the passenger’s prior signed consent to use the voucher to pay for future travel.
For example, if you accept a voucher that’s valid for a year, the airline might offer a 30% markup, so you can choose between £350 in cash or a flight worth £455.
What if I have a valid claim but it is denied?
One course of action is alternative dispute resolution, but independent There are serious reservations about some of the decisions of these arbiters.
Writing a letter before taking action – warning that if you don’t get a positive response within two weeks you will be claiming online – is worth trying as long as you follow through. For a £350 claim, the fee is £50, which will be refunded if the claim is successful.
Since UK citizens after Brexit will no longer be able to use the European small claims procedure, going through the claims handler may be the easiest option if you are seeking compensation on a flight from the EU. AirHelp is one such company, but be aware that the company will retain 35% to 50% of any payment (or more if court proceedings are involved).
My flight left an hour late, but I missed a tight connecting flight
If you arrive at your final ticketed destination three hours or more late, you can still be compensated as long as the airline is to blame.
For example, in 2018, I took the British Airways Fly from Heathrow to Moscow, then connect with Russian airline S7 to Volgograd. The plane left London an hour late due to an overload of engineering work. I missed my connecting flight in Moscow and arrived in Volgograd five hours later than planned.
BA paid the delay compensation without hesitation; the meal issue was easily resolved as S7 sent me to the business lounge to wait.
Notably, almost all airlines that primarily serve “hub” airports performed better than average in CAA’s 2023 delay data: Air France, Emirates, KLM, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways all performed well EasyJet and Ryanair Let the plane take off on time.
They have a strong incentive to be on time, with transfer times sometimes taking less than an hour, and the penalties for messing up are high.
Turkish Airlines is unique among large network airlines in having an average delay of 29 minutes, which is sure to affect a large number of connecting flights.
This article will be updated with the latest advice.
For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcast