Passenger rights
When a flight is delayed, cancelled or overbooked, the airline owes you more than most people claim. Here is what, when, and how to ask for it.
Does this apply to your flight?
These rules cover flights departing from the UK on any airline, and flights arriving in the UK on a UK or EU airline. Departures from the EU are covered by the near-identical EU rules. A flight from, say, Delhi to London on a non-UK, non-EU carrier is generally outside them — though the airline's own conditions of carriage may still owe you something.
If your flight is delayed
Two separate things can be owed: care while you wait, and compensation afterwards. Care is owed regardless of whose fault the delay is. Compensation is not.
Care, once the delay passes a threshold
The threshold depends on how far you are flying — 2 hours for short flights, 3 for medium, 4 for long-haul. Past it, the airline must provide:
- Food and drink appropriate to the wait, usually as vouchers;
- A means of communication — in practice, phone or internet access;
- Accommodation and transfers to it if you are delayed overnight.
Airlines do not always volunteer this, particularly when a whole airport is disrupted. Ask. If nobody is at the desk, buy what is reasonable, keep every receipt, and claim it back — reasonable means a meal and a modest hotel, not a long lunch and a suite.
After five hours you can simply stop
Once a delay reaches five hours you are entitled to abandon the journey and get a refund of the unused parts of the ticket, including a flight back to your original departure point if you are part-way through a connection. If you take that refund, you have chosen not to travel, so no compensation is due on top.
Compensation for arriving late
If you arrive at your final destination three or more hours later than scheduled, fixed compensation may be due — see the amounts below. It is based on arrival delay, not departure delay, so a late take-off that is made up in the air does not qualify.
The exception is “extraordinary circumstances”: events genuinely outside the airline's control, such as severe weather, air traffic control restrictions, security alerts or a bird strike. Crew shortages, most technical faults and overbooking are not extraordinary, whatever the airline says first.
If your flight is cancelled
You choose between two things, and the airline does not get to choose for you:
- A full refund of the unused parts of your ticket, or
- Re-routing to your destination — at the earliest opportunity, or on a later date that suits you.
“At the earliest opportunity” is not limited to that airline's own next available seat. If a different carrier can get you there materially sooner, you can reasonably ask to be put on it. Airlines rarely offer this unprompted.
While you wait for a re-route, the same duty of care applies — meals, communication, and a hotel if it is overnight.
Be careful with vouchers
Accepting a travel voucher instead of a cash refund can end your right to the cash. If you are offered one, you are allowed to say no and ask for money. Call us before you accept anything — 020 4621 8999.
Compensation for a cancellation
Compensation depends on how much notice you were given:
- 14 days or more — no compensation due.
- 7 to 13 days — due, unless the replacement leaves no more than 2 hours earlier and arrives less than 4 hours later.
- Less than 7 days — due, unless the replacement leaves no more than 1 hour earlier and arrives less than 2 hours later.
As with delays, extraordinary circumstances remove the compensation but never the refund, the re-route or the duty of care.
How much compensation
Fixed amounts set by the regulation, based on flight distance rather than what you paid. A £60 fare and a £900 fare on the same route attract the same figure.
| Flight distance | Arrival delay | Amount per passenger |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km | 3 hours or more | £220 |
| 1,500–3,500 km | 3 hours or more | £350 |
| Over 3,500 km | 3 to 4 hours | £520 reduced by 50% to £260 |
| Over 3,500 km | 4 hours or more | £520 |
Children in their own seat are entitled to the same amount as an adult. Infants travelling on a lap without a seat generally are not.
Amounts are those set in the retained UK regulation. Claims under EU rules are denominated in euros (€250 / €400 / €600) at broadly equivalent levels.
If you are denied boarding
Overbooking is a commercial decision, so it is never an extraordinary circumstance. If the airline asks for volunteers to give up seats, you can negotiate — and whatever you agree, you keep your right to a refund or re-route.
If you are bumped involuntarily, you are owed compensation at the rates above, plus a refund or re-routing, plus care while you wait. Ask for it in writing at the airport before you leave.
None of this applies if you are refused boarding for a reason of your own — arriving after check-in closed, or without the right passport or visa. That is why the documents page matters.
Damaged, delayed or lost baggage
Baggage is governed by the Montreal Convention rather than by UK261, and the deadlines are short and strictly enforced:
- Damaged — report it within 7 days of receiving the bag.
- Delayed — report it within 21 days of the bag being returned to you.
- Lost — a bag is normally treated as lost after 21 days.
Report it at the airport before leaving and get a property irregularity report (PIR) reference. Liability is capped at roughly £1,300 per passenger, which is frequently less than the contents are worth — another reason for travel insurance.
How to claim
Collect the evidence
Boarding passes, booking reference, and the reason the airline gave you — take a photo of any notice board or email. Keep every receipt.
Claim from the airline
Always the airline, never the agent — they operated the flight. Use their own claim form; it routes to the right team.
Give them 8 weeks
That is the window before you can escalate. Chase in writing so there is a record.
Escalate if refused
To an ADR scheme or the CAA — see below. Do this rather than giving up; refusals are often overturned.
You do not need a claims company. They take a substantial cut of an amount you can claim yourself with the airline's own form, and the airline is not obliged to treat their letter more seriously than yours.
If you get nowhere
After eight weeks, or if you get a final refusal you think is wrong, escalate:
- An ADR scheme — many UK airlines belong to an approved alternative dispute resolution body, which will look at the case independently. The airline must tell you which one it uses.
- The Civil Aviation Authority — for airlines not in an ADR scheme, the CAA runs a passenger advice and complaints service.
If the booking was made through us and you are struggling to get a straight answer, tell us. We cannot pay the compensation — only the airline can — but we can often find the right route into a carrier we deal with daily. Use customer care or call 020 4621 8999.
General information, not legal advice
This page explains how the rules generally work. It is not legal advice and does not cover every case — the thresholds, exceptions and amounts can turn on the specific facts of your flight. For an authoritative view, check the Civil Aviation Authority or take independent advice.
Flight disrupted and not sure what you are owed?
Call before you accept a voucher or sign anything.