Under EU regulations, the compensation for qualifying flights beginning or landing in the EU is as follows.
• €250 compensation on flights up to 1,500 kilometres
• €400 compensation on flights of 1,500 to 3,500 kilometres
• €600 compensation on flights of over 3,500 kilometres
These amounts apply to all passengers in your party who pay for a ticket, including children.
We charge no up-front fees, nor do we charge if your case in not settled by the airline. If we obtain settlement from the airline, we will deduct our charges from the money received and send you the rest. The maximum we will charge for our service is 25% (+ VAT) of the compensation received plus a fixed £25.00 admin fee.
Based on CAA industry acknowledged figures and averages since 2010, over 6 million UK passengers are potential claimants. This is based on all the number of passengers on the flights which were either cancelled or delayed by 3 hours or more, which were not due to exceptional circumstances. The CAA has confirmed that the number of passengers travelling through UK airports in 2015 alone was over 239 million with an average of 126 passengers per plane.
Regulation (EC) 261/2004 stipulates that airlines should compensate passengers if a flight is heavily delayed or cancelled. They must also offer meals and refreshments, plus hotel accommodation as appropriate during your while you wait for a rearranged flight. The airline should cover costs the costs of transport between the hotel and airport and there are no time or monetary limits on the provision of this assistance required of the airlinewhat it costs the airlines to do this. If the airline does not provide assistance then keep your spending to a minimum and keep all receipts in order to claim reimbursement from the airline.
Claims for delayed, cancelled, overbooked, under-booked and missed connecting flights are explained further below.
Provided the ticket was purchased and paid for and was not free, each passenger can claim compensation. Please note that it is the passenger who is entitled to claim compensation, not the person who paid for the ticket.
If you are 18 or over, you can use our online process to manage the claims of your family, friends and fellow passengers. If however you are under 18 you will have to ask an adult to claim on your behalf. Please note that provided they paid for a child to travel, parents can claim the same rates of compensation for their children, even if a reduced or children’s fare was paid and even if the child did not have their own seat.
If your flight departed more than three hours late but landed under three hours late by making up lost time in air within the journey, then you are not entitled to compensation. But if the flight departed and arrived more than three hours late then you are entitled to claim.
We can pick up your claim at any stage, whether you have already written or spoken to the airline or the CAA. We hear from many customers who are told – incorrectly – by airlines that they had an invalid claim. Our flight database is updated in real time so you can put in your flight details and we will simply pick up your case, helping you to secure a correct and successful result.
Regulation EU 261 applies to all flights since 2005, but in English law there is a time limit of six years to claim, so we cannot go further back than flights in the last six years.
Each claim varies and it is impossible to give a 100% exact time scale on settlements. However, we have a high number of claims settled and paid in as little as just 1 week. Claiming through us is quicker than going direct to an airline and we have lots of customers who had a valid claim and wrote letters to the airlines, only to be rejected. Our legal team then subsequently wins these claims on their behalf!
Rest assured, we understand the quickest way to secure compensation and our legal team automatically issues court proceedings against an airline if required.
You can claim compensation if you had more than one flight on your booking, but arrived at your final destination over three hours late. You can claim even if the initial departing flight was delayed by less than three hours.
Airlines do not have to pay compensation if your delay was caused by “extraordinary circumstances”. Airlines refer to an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ as anything unexpected or outside of their control.
The definition of an extraordinary circumstance set out in the case of Friederik Wallentine-Hermann v Alitalia – Linee Aeree Italiane Spa is:
“A flight is not covered by the concept of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ within the meaning of that provision, unless that problem stems from events which, by their nature or origin, are not inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier concerned and are beyond its actual control.”
Examples given which may potentially (although not necessarily) be considered extraordinary circumstances include:-
• Strikes by airport and other staff that affect the airline
• Political instability
• Unexpected flight safety shortcomings
• Meteorological conditions incompatible with the safe operation of the flight concerned
• Security risks
If you received more than 14 days cancellation from the airline, you are not entitled to claim. However, if the cancellation was under 14 days prior to your original flight date, you could be owed up to £510 compensation, depending on your new flight date and time. You are owed compensation if:
You had 7 to 14 days’ - notice of cancellation and were given an alternate flight departing over two hours earlier or arriving over four hours later than your original flight. If you had under 7 days cancellation notice and were given a new flight departing over an hour earlier or arriving over two hours later than your original scheduled flight, or. You had under 7 days notice of cancellation and were given a new flight departing over an hour earlier or arriving over two hours later than your original scheduled flight.
