EU261 explained

Who is covered

You are covered if your flight departed from an EU or EEA airport — on any airline in the world — or if it arrived in the EU or EEA on an EU-licensed airline. Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the EU's outermost regions count. The UK runs its own copy of the rules, UK261, with amounts in pounds.

What you can be owed

• €250 — flights of 1,500 km or less.
• €400 — flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km, and all flights within the EU over 1,500 km.
• €600 — flights over 3,500 km that are not within the EU.

On the longest flights, if you arrived between three and four hours late, the airline may halve the amount to €300. Distance is measured great-circle between your first departure and final destination, not per leg.

The three-hour rule

Compensation for a delay turns on when the aircraft doors opened at your final destination — not when you left. Three hours or more late is the threshold. A connecting flight missed because the first leg ran late counts towards the same total, as long as both legs were on one booking.

Cancellations

A cancellation with 14 days or more notice means no compensation. Less notice than that, and compensation is due unless the airline rerouted you within tight timing windows. Separately, you can always choose between a full refund and a replacement flight — that right exists no matter the reason.

Extraordinary circumstances

The airline does not have to pay when the cause was genuinely outside its control: severe weather, air traffic control strikes, political instability, security risks, a bird strike, or a hidden manufacturing defect. Courts have repeatedly held that routine technical faults, crew sickness, crew rostering problems and the airline's own staff strikes are not extraordinary — which is why the reason on your delay notice matters so much.

The right to care

Even when no cash compensation is due, long waits trigger the right to meals and refreshments, two phone calls or emails, and a hotel plus transfers for an overnight delay. If the airline left you to fend for yourself, keep the receipts and claim them back.

How to claim, step by step

The process is the same whether you were delayed, cancelled, or denied boarding. There is no charge to submit a claim, and you do not need a lawyer to do it. Here is the full path from start to finish.

• 1. Gather your evidence. You need your flight number, the date, and the airports you flew between. Keep your boarding pass or booking confirmation, any delay or cancellation notice the airline sent, and receipts for meals or hotels. If the airline gave you a reason in writing — on a notice board, by email, or at the desk — photograph or save it. The reason decides whether the airline can refuse.
• 2. Check whether your flight qualifies. Enter your flight details in the free checker on this site. It compares your route, the length of the delay, and the stated reason against the EU261 rules, and tells you in plain language whether you may be owed compensation and roughly how much. This takes under two minutes and costs nothing.
• 3. Generate your claim letter. If the checker says you may be entitled, the site drafts the claim letter for you — addressed to the airline, citing EU261 and the relevant amount, and written in the tone airlines expect. You can edit any part of it before sending.
• 4. Send the claim to the airline. The letter tells you exactly where to send it. Most airlines accept claims through a web form on their own site; some ask for an email. You submit it yourself, so the airline pays you directly — no middleman takes a cut.
• 5. Wait for the airline's reply. Airlines are supposed to acknowledge a claim within a few weeks. In practice many take longer. The site's dashboard tracks the status of each claim — Submitted, Waiting for airline, Airline responded — and reminds you when it is time to follow up.
• 6. Read the airline's response. When the airline replies, upload the response here. The site reads what the airline said — accepted, rejected, extraordinary circumstances claimed, more information requested — and explains in plain English what it means and what to do next.
• 7. Follow up if needed. If the airline refused or asked for more details, the site drafts a tailored reply for you. You edit it, copy it, and send it to the airline yourself. Many claims that are rejected at first are paid after a single, well-worded follow-up.

You keep every euro the airline pays — the compensation goes straight to you. The only limit is time: you generally have between two and six years to claim, depending on the country whose courts would hear it, so it pays to start early rather than wait.