Delayed, cancelled or overbooked?
Claim up to £520.
Under UK and EU law the airline owes fixed compensation, per passenger, when it is responsible for a delay of 3 hours or more at arrival, a cancellation at under 14 days' notice (unless the replacement flight was close to the original times), or refusing you a seat you had booked. Checking is free. Hand it to the claim service we link to and it keeps 35% of the payout (50% if it takes legal action) and nothing if the claim fails, or claim it yourself for free.
From disrupted flight to compensation, without the paperwork.
Check the flight here, hand it over if you would rather not chase the airline yourself, and wait for the money. Or do it yourself with the free guide.
Check your flight
Airports, date and what went wrong. The check tells you the distance band and the amount per passenger, and whether the disruption is the kind the law pays for.
The claim service we link to chases the airline
If you hand the claim over, the company writes to the airline, answers the "extraordinary circumstances" reply with the case law, and takes it to court if the airline still refuses. You sign one form.
Get paid
The airline pays the claim service we link to, which keeps 35% of the payout (50% if it had to take legal action) and transfers the rest to you. No win, no fee. Claim directly from the airline and you keep 100%.
Am I actually entitled to compensation?
UK261 (the UK's version of EU Regulation 261/2004) covers more than most passengers realise, and excludes less than the airlines claim.
✓ You can claim
Situations that qualify for £220 to £520 per passenger. Guides: delays, cancellations, denied boarding.
- Flight arrived 3 hours or more late at your final destination
- Flight cancelled less than 14 days before departure, unless the replacement flight was close to the original times
- Denied boarding because the flight was overbooked, and you had not volunteered
- Missed connection on one booking because the first flight was late
- The cause was a technical fault (other than a hidden manufacturing defect), crew sickness, a crew shortage or the airline's own staff striking
- A knock-on delay from the airline's earlier problem that day
✕ Usually not covered
"Extraordinary circumstances" the airline can prove, and flights outside the rules.
- Severe weather (the airline must show it affected your flight)
- Air traffic control restrictions or an air traffic control strike
- Airport closures, runway problems, security incidents
- Strikes by airport or ground-handling staff the airline does not employ
- Bird strikes and hidden manufacturing defects
- A delay of under 3 hours at arrival, or a cancellation you were told about 14 days or more ahead
- A flight outside both regulations, for example a US airline flying New York to London
Airlines call things "extraordinary" that are not. The difference is £220 to £520 per passenger, so get a second opinion before you accept a refusal.
How much compensation per passenger?
UK261 pays a fixed amount per passenger set by the distance of the flight, not by the price of your ticket. Everyone with a paid seat gets the same, children included.
UK261 covers flights leaving a UK airport on any airline, flights arriving in the UK on a UK or EU airline, and flights arriving in the EU on a UK airline. EU261 covers flights leaving an EU airport and flights arriving in the EU on an EU airline. A family of four on a cancelled Orlando flight may be owed £2,080 (4 × £520), unless the replacement flight was close to the original times or the airline proves an extraordinary circumstance. If a cancelled or overbooked flight is replaced by one that gets you there within 2, 3 or 4 hours of the original time (by band), the amount is halved to £110, £175 or £260. Source: the CAA's guidance on delays and cancellations.
Claim against your specific airline
Every airline has its own claim form, login rules and dispute body. Each guide gives the direct route, what the airline tends to say, and where the case goes if it says no.
Delayed at a specific UK airport?
The rules are the same at every UK airport: any flight leaving one is covered, whichever airline operates it. Pick yours to start the free check.
£520 is a holiday paid for
Illustrative examples of typical claim outcomes. The names, quotes and flight numbers are illustrative. "Paid" is what is left after a claim company's 35% fee; claim it yourself and you keep the full amount.
"BA claimed 'extraordinary circumstances' for a 4-hour delay that was actually a mechanical fault on their own 777. The claim company pushed back with the CAA's own data. Paid in nine weeks."
LHR→MCO
"Family trip to Alicante, Ryanair cancelled the outbound 2 days before. Got the refund straight away but didn't realise we could claim £350 each on top. Total £1,400 claimed, £910 back after the fee — paid for half the next holiday."
LBA→ALC
"6-hour delay on BA out of Dubai on the way home. Didn't think it would qualify because Dubai isn't in the UK or EU — but because it was a UK airline landing at Heathrow, it does. Paid in 5 weeks."
DXB→LHR
Why use a claim company rather than doing it yourself?
You can claim directly with the airline for free, and many claims succeed on the first form. But when an airline says "we're treating this as extraordinary circumstances", goes silent for 8 weeks, or asks for documents it never mentioned, many passengers give up, which suits the airline.
A claim company exists for the claims that need a second push. It knows the case law (technical faults, crew sickness and the airline's own strikes are not extraordinary), it writes the letters, and it carries the cost and the risk of court if the airline still refuses. The service we link to keeps 35% of the payout, or 50% if it takes legal action, and nothing if the claim fails; other companies charge from 20% to just over 50%.
Part of the CompareFlights network. FlightCare explains the law from the regulation, the CAA's guidance and the court decisions, and shows you both routes: doing it yourself and what each claim company keeps.
What you get
- Free check — distance band and amount per passenger, no account, no card
- No upfront fee — the service we link to keeps 35% of the payout if the claim succeeds (50% if it takes legal action), £0 if it fails
- Court action if it comes to that — the company can issue proceedings if the airline refuses (50% fee in total)
- Paid by bank transfer — the balance goes straight to you
- 6 years to claim — flights back to late 2020 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Always optional — the airline's own form is free and we show you how
Questions we hear most
Checked against the regulation, the CAA's guidance and the court decisions on 26 October 2026; fees and links re-checked on 27 October 2026.
How long do I have to claim?
Six years from the date of the flight in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, five years in Scotland. A flight from early 2021 is still claimable in England today. If you use the dispute scheme you must go within 12 months of the airline's final reply.
Does the compensation depend on my ticket price?
No. It is a fixed amount set by the flight distance: £220, £350 or £520 per passenger under UK261. A £19.99 Ryanair seat to Dublin and a £400 one both pay £220. Refunds of the fare are separate and additional when a flight is cancelled.
I took the voucher or the refund. Can I still claim?
Yes. A refund or re-routing is your entitlement for the cancelled flight itself; compensation is for the disruption. Accepting one does not waive the other: the regulation says these rights cannot be limited or waived, so a voucher or refund does not remove the compensation. Volunteering to give up your seat on an overbooked flight does waive the fixed compensation, because you negotiated your own deal.
What does "no win, no fee" actually cost?
The claim service we link to keeps 35% of the compensation when the claim succeeds, 50% if it has to take legal action, and nothing if the claim fails; other companies charge from 20% to just over 50%. On a £520 claim you keep £338, or £260 after legal action. Claim directly from the airline and you keep the whole £520. What each claim company keeps.
Do I need a claim company?
No. The airline's form is free, the dispute scheme is free, and the court route costs a fee from £35 that you may recover. A company is a convenience: it keeps from about 20% to just over 50% of the money, depending on the company, in return for doing the chasing and carrying the court risk. If the airline has already refused with a weak reason, that is the moment a company earns its fee.
Does it apply to package holidays?
Yes. The flight part of a package is covered the same way. You claim from the operating airline, not the tour operator. TUI's flights are claimed on TUI's own form, Jet2holidays flights on Jet2's.
Can I claim for a flight that was years ago?
Yes, within the time limit: 6 years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 5 in Scotland. Old claims are harder because boarding passes and emails go missing, so gather what you have. The airline still has to prove any extraordinary circumstance it relies on.
What about flights before Brexit?
Flights before 1 January 2021 fall under EU261; as of October 2026 only flights from late October 2020 onwards are still inside the six-year limit. From a flight date in 2021 onwards, UK261 covers the flights described above (departures from UK airports, arrivals in the UK on a UK or EU airline, arrivals in the EU on a UK airline) with the amounts in pounds above.