Your airline owes you compensation if your flight was delayed more than 3 hours, cancelled, or you were denied boarding through no fault of your own. We check your eligibility free — if we can't claim, you pay nothing.
The whole process is designed so you spend less than ten minutes of your time on it. Everything else, we handle.
Airline, flight number, date and what went wrong. Our eligibility engine checks against the airline's published on-time data, the weather on the day, and the 2,000+ previous cases in the database.
If you're eligible, our partner Compensair files the claim with the airline. We know every airline's delay-tactics manual — missing documents, "extraordinary circumstances" defaults, radio silence. When they're used, we escalate.
Most valid claims settle in 8–12 weeks. Compensair transfers the compensation directly to your bank account, minus the 25%+VAT fee — only charged if the claim succeeds. No win, no fee, no small print.
UK261 (inherited from EU Regulation 261/2004) covers a lot more than most passengers realise — and excludes less than the airlines claim.
Common situations that qualify for 250–600 EUR compensation.
"Extraordinary circumstances" — genuinely outside the airline's control.
Airlines frequently misclassify in-control disruption as "extraordinary" to avoid paying. The difference is worth £220–£520 per passenger — always get a second opinion before accepting a rejection.
UK261 pays a fixed amount per passenger based on flight distance. Everyone on the flight gets the same — adults, children, and infants in their own seat.
Amounts are per passenger. A family of four on a delayed flight to Orlando is entitled to £2,080 total. Values shown are current 2026 conversions from the statutory EUR amounts (€250 / €400 / €600); the airline pays in the local currency of your booking.
Every airline has different response times, defensive tactics and escalation paths. Pick yours for a dedicated claim workflow — or just use the free eligibility check above.
Each airport has recurring disruption patterns. If you're claiming about a Heathrow T5 incident, a Gatwick runway closure or a Manchester baggage-system failure, we already know the ground truth — and what the airline is likely to argue.
Illustrative examples based on typical claim outcomes handled by Compensair. Amounts shown are after Compensair's 25%+VAT fee. Actual results may vary.
"BA claimed 'extraordinary circumstances' for a 4-hour delay that was actually a mechanical fault on their own 777. FlightCare pushed back with the CAA's own data. Paid in nine weeks."
"Family trip to Alicante, Ryanair cancelled the outbound 2 days before. Got the refund straight away but didn't realise we could claim £220 each on top. Total £880 back — paid for half the next holiday."
"6-hour delay on Emirates out of Dubai on the way home. Didn't think it would qualify because Emirates isn't EU — but because we were landing at Heathrow on a UK connection, it does. Paid in 5 weeks."
You can claim directly with the airline for free. Many people try and a lot of claims succeed on the first letter. But when an airline says "we're treating this as extraordinary circumstances", or goes silent for 8 weeks, or asks for documentation they didn't mention, most passengers give up — which is exactly the outcome the airline is engineering.
FlightCare exists for the 40–50% of claims that need a second push. Our partner Compensair has the data (every airline's delay history, known operational patterns, regulatory precedents in each jurisdiction) and the leverage (threat of small-claims-court escalation) that gets claims paid when self-service hits a wall.
Part of the CompareFlights network, established 2009. The CompareFlights group has tracked flight data, route schedules and airline operations for over 16 years — that network intelligence is what FlightCare brings to compensation claims.
Updated monthly. Last refreshed 22 April 2026 with the latest 2025 CAA enforcement data.
Under UK261 and EU261, you can claim £220 for short-haul flights up to 1,500 km, £350 for medium-haul 1,500–3,500 km, and £520 for long-haul over 3,500 km — provided the delay is more than 3 hours at arrival, the delay was within the airline's control, and the flight was operated by an EU/UK airline or departed from an EU/UK airport.
Amounts are per passenger — a family of four on a delayed long-haul flight is entitled to a combined £2,080.
Not necessarily. You can claim if: (a) your flight departed from a UK or EU airport, regardless of the airline; or (b) your flight landed in the UK or EU on a UK/EU airline (e.g. British Airways flying New York → Heathrow qualifies, but Delta flying the same route does not).
Pre-Brexit, UK flights were covered under EU261 and cases are still being processed under that framework for flights before 1 January 2021.
For cancellations, you are entitled to a refund or re-routing PLUS compensation of £220–£520 depending on distance, if you were told less than 14 days before the flight. Airlines do not have to pay the compensation if "extraordinary circumstances" apply (weather, strikes by third parties, political instability) — but crew shortages, mechanical issues and commercial decisions are not extraordinary and are fully claimable.
In England and Wales you have 6 years from the date of the disrupted flight. In Scotland the limit is 5 years. The clock runs from the day of the disruption, not the day you learned of your rights. Claims for flights as old as late 2018 are still currently being accepted under the pre-Brexit framework.
FlightCare's partner Compensair takes 25% plus VAT of the successful claim (so typically 30% all-in). On a £520 long-haul claim, you keep approximately £364. If the claim is unsuccessful, you pay nothing — all administrative, legal and bank transfer costs are absorbed by Compensair. There is no catch and no subscription.
Yes — and if you're confident in dealing with airline customer service, small claims court procedure and translating non-English correspondence for non-UK airlines, it costs nothing.
Claim services exist because airlines routinely reject or ignore valid claims, and most claimants give up; a specialist's case-by-case knowledge of airline delay-tactics and legal escalation procedures is what actually gets claims paid.
In 2024–2025 CAA data and our own tracking, Ryanair, Wizz Air and TUI take the longest to resolve simple claims, often requiring legal escalation. British Airways and easyJet are comparatively responsive but frequently misclassify in-control disruption as "extraordinary circumstances". Long-haul carriers like Emirates, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines are generally quick to pay valid claims.
FlightCare provides eligibility screening and content; the claim itself is handled by our partner Compensair, a regulated claim-management service registered in the EU and operating in all 27 member states plus the UK. Compensair is a licensed claim handler and is supervised under the relevant national regulator in each jurisdiction.
Compensair handles all legal escalation at no additional cost to you. In the UK this is typically via the small claims track (up to £10,000). In most of Europe, the procedure is similar. You don't attend court — Compensair or their local solicitor represents the claim. Win rate at legal escalation is over 95% for valid UK261 claims.
Yes — the compensation rules apply to the flight portion of a package holiday regardless of the tour operator. You claim against the operating airline, not the holiday company. Separately, package-holiday protection (ATOL, ABTA) covers the rest of the booking for insolvency and contract breaches.
Yes — if it was within the limitation period (6 years in England & Wales, 5 years in Scotland). Old claims are often harder because documentation goes missing, but airlines must retain delay data for significantly longer and the burden is on them to prove an exception. Bookings from 2019–2020 are still fully claimable.
Accepting a voucher does not waive your compensation rights unless you explicitly signed a waiver in writing (which airlines do not typically present). The voucher is the refund for the cost of the unused ticket — it is separate from the statutory compensation payment for the disruption itself. You can still claim the £220/£350/£520.
If your flight was delayed, cancelled or overbooked in the last 6 years, start the free eligibility check — our partner Compensair handles everything from here.
Start free eligibility check → No card · no signup to check · no win, no fee