Can you get a refund for canceled or delayed flights? informed about your rights

flights from UK And airports in the EU (as well as in the wider EEA), are subject to European air passengers’ rights rules.

They were designed to help airlines do the right thing for their passengers. They specify care and compensation You can expect this when your flight is canceled or heavily delayed.

These rules also apply to flights on EU and British airlines departing from outside the EU and the UK.

Cancellation, or even delay of hours rather than minutes, may trigger an obligation for the airline to provide hotel rooms and meals appropriately. If the airline is found guilty, it may also have to pay hundreds of pounds in cash.

Conversely, when flying from outside on a non-EU/UK carrier EuropeAll you need to do is turn a frustrating aviation episode into an expensive experience, and see if your travel insurer can help.

These are the main questions and answers.

In the UK and Europe, what can I expect if my flight is canceled or delayed?

For delays of less than two hours, you have no rights (unless a short delay in the UK results in a missed connection and a very late arrival at your last ticketed destination – see below).

For longer delays, the airline should provide proper refreshments after a specified period. This applies regardless of the reason for the delay.

The time at which the duty of care begins depends on the distance you are flying:

Note that if the airline believes that providing care would further delay the flight, it does not require delivery.

If the delay extends to overnight, the airline is obliged to find and pay for the hotel room. In practice, carriers often say, “too hard”, and invite the passenger to make their own booking and retrieve it later.

Although this practice does not fully comply with the regulations, aviation authorities still turn a blind eye to it.

My flight from an airport outside the UK or EU has been cancelled. What am I entitled to?

If you have booked on a UK or EU airline, you have the full rights as above. On any other airline, you have none – although in practice a reputable airline will provide food and accommodation reasonably well.

Some travel insurance policies will help cover expenses that cannot be claimed elsewhere, and may pay a nominal amount of flight delay compensation.

It is no longer worth going. Can I cancel and get my money back?

If your flight is cancelled, and you decide not to travel, you should get the money back within a week. Some airlines may offer a voucher instead. If there’s a benefit in taking a voucher – say a 25 percent “uplift” in value – and you know you’ll be using the same airline within a year, it may be a good decision. But easyJet, Britain’s biggest budget airline, doesn’t offer any benefits – it’s strapped for cash.

How do I qualify for cash payments?

If you’re flying into a UK/EU airport or on a British/European airline and your flight is canceled – or your arrival is delayed by at least three hours – you’ll be owed hundreds of pounds in compensation.

Payment depends on distance:

The only way the airline can avoid payment is to demonstrate that “extraordinary circumstances” were responsible.

Define ‘exceptional circumstances’?

The regulations provide only partial answers: “political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight in question, safety risks, unexpected flight safety deficiencies and attacks”.

Court cases have gradually refined the concept of “exceptional circumstances” to address technical problems. In other words: If there is a delay due to a mechanical failure, you will have to pay compensation. A judge ruled that such issues “are inherent in the normal practice of the air carrier’s activity”.

Official strikes by the airline’s own employees are considered to be under the control of the carrier, but strangely, “wildcat” walkouts not approved by a trade union are not.

Crew disease is a gray area, with no legal certainty.

Ryanair says: “Only a small number of claims will be eligible for compensation. The majority of delays/cancellations are beyond Ryanair’s control.”

How do I claim?

Every airline should enable you to fill out forms online, but these are sometimes difficult to track down. Here are the pages for the major airlines:

Compensation must be paid by bank transfer (or cheque), except if the airline receives the passenger’s prior signed agreement to pay with a voucher for future travel.

For example, an airline may offer a 30 per cent rise if you accept a voucher valid for a year – so choose between £350 cash or £455-worth of flights.

What if I have a legitimate claim but it is denied?

One course of action is alternative dispute resolution, but Independent There are serious objections to some of the decisions of these arbitrators.

Writing a letter before action – warning that if you don’t get a positive response within two weeks you will go to Money Claim Online – is worth the effort, as long as you follow through. The fee for a claim of £350 is £50, which is refunded if you win.

Since Brexit UK citizens no longer have access to the European small claims process, it may be easiest to go through a claims handler if you are pursuing compensation on a flight originating in the EU. One such firm is AirHelp, but be aware that the company will keep 35 to 50 percent of any payout (a higher amount if court action is involved).

My flight was delayed by an hour, but I missed the tight connectivity

If you arrive at your last ticketed destination three hours or more late, you are still in line for compensation – unless the reason lies with the airline.

For example, in 2018, I flew British Airways From Heathrow to Moscow with onward connections to Volgograd on Russian airline S7. The plane was delayed by an hour in departure from London due to excessive engineering work. I missed the connection in Moscow and arrived in Volgograd five hours behind schedule.

BA paid delay compensation without any hassle; The food issue was easily resolved as the S7 sent me to the business lounge to wait.

It is notable that in the CAA delay data for 2023, almost all airlines largely feeding “hub” airports performed better than average: Air France, Emirates, KLM, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways all outperformed. easyJet And Ryanair To depart the planes on time.

They have a strong incentive for punctuality, with connection sometimes taking less than an hour and fines for disturbances being very high.

Turkish Airlines is unique among large network carriers with an average delay of 29 minutes, affecting a large number of transfers.

This section is kept up to date with the latest advice.

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