Claim Flight Delay Compensation under EU or UK Law

Can you claim compensation for delayed flight outside of the UK/EU?

The answer is a big YES.

It doesn’t matter if you have citizenship of any other country than UK or EU.

Flight Delay Compensation Rule is valid for all the passengers who departed from the airport in the UK/EU or arrived in the UK/EU with an UK/EU airline.

And we add more benefit to passengers outside of UK or EU. No VAT is applicable when you enforce your rights through ClaimFlights.

To summarise:

How far back can I claim compensation for delayed flight?

In the UK (England, Wales, and Northern Ireland), you can claim for flights delayed back up to 6 years. Whereas, in Scotland, you can go back up to 5 years.

What are your rights for delayed flights?

If there’s a delay at departure, you are eligible for “Right to Care”. The airlines must offer:

For 5 Hours Flight Delays

Plus, compensation of up to £520 (previously under EU law, 600€), if you reached your final destination later than 3 hours.

Plane delayed over 5 hours

For flight delays of more than 5 hours, in addition to free meals, drinks, two phone calls and access to emails, you should be re-routed to the earliest available flight.

And in case you are not willing to travel, you can ask for a refund of flight ticket cost. Whereas, if you travelled and reached the destination later than 3 hours, you are eligible for compensation.

We just mentioned that airlines are reluctant to return your money. So, you need to be a little clever to get it.

And there are some easy ways to do that. Have confirmation of the delayed flight in writing. If possible, collect evidence for your claim.

Do airlines have to compensate for flight delays on package holidays?

European Union Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004 provides protection for tour packages, travel packages, vacation packages, and holiday packages.

Your travel destination can be anywhere in the world. But the package must be purchased within the EU countries.

Your travel itinerary should clearly state the original and final destinations, route and transport facility.

Before the trip, the tour operator should inform you about the time, the location of any stopovers and flight connections.

The tour operator is responsible solely for any breach of the terms and conditions. Airlines might amend the price if they have mentioned it in their terms.

The tour organiser shall file the compensation claim on the passenger’s behalf. Your tour operator should ask for reimbursement, and you should get the full refund of the ticket cost within 7 days.

Repayment can be in cash, check or electronic bank transfer.

Another form of compensation for flight delay would be to re-route you to your final destination. The airline should arrange the earliest available flight for you. Alternatively, you can choose as per your convenience, or according to your travel plans.

How to claim compensation for delayed flight?

With ClaimFlights, it’s very simple.

Enter flight information, i.e. flight number and date of travel, into our free compensation calculator. Then, enter the reason behind your flight problem in our online compensation checker tool.

Within 2 minutes you will find the amount that you can demand from the airline.

What to do next?

Proceed with your claim with us

Our claiming process is very easy. You just need to provide us with your flight information, which doesn’t take more than 2 minutes of your time.

We have historic flight delay info

We have access to a lot of information about different airlines. Thus you receive compensation within the right time.

Provide us your flight details

Provide us with your flight details. After entering your flight information, mention the reason and details of your problem.

ClaimFlights 3 Steps Claiming Process

If the plane is delayed over 3 hours, you can request money back up to 600 Euros. It’s even valid for connecting flights if booked under the same leg. You could not claim compensation if the lateness were caused due to circumstances beyond the control of the airline company.

What happens if you missed your flight connection due to delay

If you miss your connecting flight due to a delay or cancellation, you may ask for a return ticket and get flight refund for the part of the journey not covered.

Whereas, if you reached your final destination later than three hours, you are entitled to claim compensation.

Before filing the claim, make sure that the airline cannot prove it was due to extraordinary circumstances.

Look at it this way; it is you versus the airline. They would prefer not to compensate you. But their flight delay messed up your plans.

So, think of it as building a court case. They need to be ‘found guilty’. Ok, enough of court language.

You get the point. The airline will reject the compensation claim in extraordinary circumstances. So, make sure that the air carrier was responsible. In most cases, it is not that difficult to establish.

In order to claim compensation for missed connection due to delays or cancellations under EC 261, it is necessary for the passenger to book the entire journey under one ticket or one booking reference.

Your rights on flight delays and cancellations

Flight Compensation Rights under EU 261 Regulation

According to EC 261/2004 rule, passengers are entitled to financial compensation of up to 600€ for delayed flights of more than 3 hours, cancelled flights without prior notice, and denied boarding due to overbooking.

Airlines are not liable to compensate for the inconvenience caused due to exceptional circumstances (like the strike, bad weather, or an Act of God), which seems to be fair.

There are different kinds of delays. There are short ones that cause some frustration. Then there are long ones that cause agitation. The law tries to treat passengers according to the length of the delay.

If the delay is of more than 2 hours, airlines should provide free meals, refreshments, two phone calls and access to emails or fax. Hotel accommodation and transport facility (between airport and hotel) should be the airline’s responsibility for an overnight delay.

If the airlines do not provide these services, ask them. It’s your right, as long as you have a valid ticket.

Hotel, travel, and meals are not cheap. Under EU law, the airlines should pay for these, not you.

Here is how this works. The airline should give you vouchers for food, hotel, etc. If they don’t, go ahead and ask someone who works for the airline.

If they still don’t help you, get creative. Pay the bills but keep the receipts. Then show these when filing the claim. But be reasonable with expenses.

It is worth mentioning; Airlines are not obligated to pay for fancy things. If you handover receipts for alcohol, luxury hotels or expensive meals, you won’t get back any money.

Here is excellent news. Even for adverse weather conditions if the other airlines were operational, you still may have the right to these services. Now you know why it pays to know your rights.

European air passengers also have travel rights under the Montreal Convention and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Am I eligible to Compensation due to bad weather

Airlines can deny any compensation payment due to extraordinary bad weather. The situation might, however, be very different if the harsh weather conditions at any particular airport are constant or to be expected and other airlines are allowed to fly.

Constant “normal bad weather” at the airport is not considered to be an extraordinary situation that would justify the cancellation or delay of flights.

This is due to the fact that the airline has to take normal, and therefore foreseeable, weather conditions into account when scheduling flights i.e. when deciding whether or not to allow aircraft to fly to and from certain airports.

You should be aware of your rights to claim for flight delays under bad weather conditions.

What are ‘extraordinary circumstances’? Can you claim for flight delays due to it?

Extraordinary circumstances are the conditions – beyond the control of airlines – that can cause disruption, despite taking reasonable preventive measures.

Some examples of exceptional circumstances are:

• Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, extremely bad weather, Tsunami, etc.
• Crew member’s strike causing all the airplanes with other airlines to fly late.
• Unseen technical problems, like a bird hitting the plane engine.
• The destined country is into political unrest.

Extraordinary circumstances’ are considered ‘Act of God’, which absolve the airlines from paying monetary compensation. However, you may still claim compensation if other airlines were able to operate under the same conditions.

UK Air Passenger Rights for flight compensation after Brexit

After the Brexit the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union the rules are same for the UK citizen based on EU regulations EC 261 and for all the UK flight delay the compensation prices will be the same i.e. £520 (under EU law 600€).

If the passenger is traveling from the UK or EU airpot with any airline the passengers have the right to claim under UK/EU law.

What is the Montreal Convention?

The Montreal Convention is a set of rules for compensation for travel disruptions. This includes flight delays, cancellations and boarding benials. The Montreal Convention states that an airline is responsible for any damage caused by delayed carriage of passengers.

International passengers can claim compensation under the Montreal Convention for any damage they suffer due to travel disruptions or luggage issues.

Don’t delay, claim for your flight today!

ClaimFlights follows the “No Win No Fee” policy. You do not pay us any fee until we ‘win’ compensation for you.

Our team of experts knows how to get the airlines’ attention when they ignore passengers’ requests.

Our charges are less than the other claim companies. Our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled to claim with us.

We have a proven track record; 95% who claim through us win compensation.

You only pay 25% of the receivable amount plus VAT, which is much lesser than the other claim companies. While processing claims, we send you regular updates of your case.

Transparency is key!