What you need to know about flight delay compensation

• • Between April 2015 and March 2016, consumer group Which? estimates that 183,000 long haul and 729,000 short haul passengers were eligible for flight delay compensation.
  • “We know that tens of thousands of passengers on late-running flights aren’t claiming the compensation they’re due” says Alex Neill, Which? director of policy and campaigns.
  • Flight delay compensation experts, Flight Refunds, encourage passengers to “get in the know” right now.

The worst performing short-haul airlines according to Which? measured by percentage of flights delayed 3 hours or more

Consumer body Which? unveiled research showing that, between April 2015 and March 2016, 449,000 flights out of 1.9m failed to arrive on time. Director of policy and campaigns Alex Neill told the Telegraph, “arriving at the airport to discover your flight has been delayed is incredibly frustrating, and something thousands of holidaymakers will encounter”.

Under EC 261/2004, passengers are entitled to claim up to €600 flight delay compensation if their flight is delayed by 3 hours or more. Despite being law, many passengers are finding it difficult to claim the flight delay compensation from their airline that they are entitled to.

So, what is the law? If your flight has been delayed for more than two hours, the airline must provide you with food and drinks, access to phone calls, emails & telex services, and, if you’re delayed overnight, accommodation and the cost of the journeys to and from where you were put up for the night. Normally, the airline will give you vouchers for these at the airport. If no help is forthcoming, ask an airline representative. You can only claim for reasonable expenses so there’ll be no high-priced meals or alcoholic drinks you’ll be reimbursed for.

If the delay is 3 hours or more, you’re entitled, in most cases, to flight delay compensation. You won’t get flight delay compensation if the delay is caused by bad weather or a strike. The amount of flight delay compensation you receive depends on both the length of the delay and the distance of the flight.

What about longer than 5 hours? You don’t have to take the delayed flight anymore however if you do take the flight, you can still claim up to €600 flight delay compensation if the delay is the airline’s fault.

Flight delay compensation experts, Flight Refund, have launched an online flight delay compensation tool you can use to check if there’s a good chance for a successful claim – click here.