How to claim for delayed flights
Flight delay compensation claims have been given a massive boost as two airlines that were attempting to block payouts have now been defeated by the courts. This means huge scores of cases that were on hold are now unblocked, opening the floodgates for compensation. Our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has been at the forefront of this campaign and he is here to talk us through your rights.
If your flight was cancelled or delayed for three hours or more since 2008, EU reg 261/2004 means you may be entitled to up to £470 per person. Two big airlines have been fighting this in court, but their, hopefully final, challenge has been blocked. Here's what you need to know...
Flight delay compensation – what are the rules?
To claim for a delayed flight you need to meet certain rules. Here’s a summary of the key rules:
You can claim for delays now or dating back to 2008 (or even 2005 in some cases).
You must've arrived more than three hours late. You can get an indication of how late an old flight was using the FlightStats website.
Any flight from an EU airport counts, or to an EU airport but only if on an EU airline.
Compensation's fixed (in euros), based solely on delay and journey length. So a short haul flight like London to Paris, for example, delayed by three hours+ is about £200 per person, while a long haul flight with a four hour+ delay is about £470 per person.
It must be the airline's fault - so bad weather doesn't count.
Some airlines offer vouchers as compensation. You're entitled to cash. Ask for it.
You don’t need to pay to claim. There are free template letters available online, which you can use.
How to make a claim
To make a claim you first need to write to the airline explaining the delay and asking for compensation. If refused, you can take your case to the CAA or its European equivalent (which one depends on where you flew from) to ask whether it thinks you’re entitled to compensation. Sadly, its decision isn’t binding on airlines but it is strong proof that you’ve got a valid claim. For full step-by-step help on reclaiming see: Martins’ Flight Delay Compensation guide & template letters.
What happened to the Jet2 and Thomson court cases?
Thomson had gone to court to argue people could only claim for incidents going back two years, Jet2 that people couldn't claim for unforeseeable technical problems. A huge numbers of cases were on hold awaiting the outcome. Both county courts and the Court of Appeal had already ruled against both airlines, but the airlines didn’t give up – they took their cases to the UK’s highest court, the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court has just denied their right to appeal, so it’s case closed and an appeal to the European Court of Justice is unlikely.
My claim was put on hold. What should I do?
Many claims were put on hold pending the outcome of Jet2 and Thomson’s court battles, but now that’s over here’s what you should do:
Yet to claim? There's no issue, so claim as normal as described above.
Claim on hold? Ask the airline to re-open it. Some will do so automatically, but nudge anyway.
Claim been rejected by the airline? Ask the airline to reconsider and follow the same claiming process as outlined above.
Claim already rejected by the court? If it was more than 21 days ago it's a done deal - case closed we're afraid.
Won’t all this push up the price of tickets?
It’s possible this could push up the price of tickets. This is a legal right for flat compensation, which is certainly tough on budget airlines where you pay £10 for a flight but are due £100s in compensation.
So I suggest you think carefully about the legal v moral balance. If you sat for 24 hours in a hot uncomfortable airport with distressed kids and missed a day of work, go for it. If you sat in the airport bar for three hours and one minute having a whale of a time then took a £1 flight – perhaps don’t do it.