EU261 compensation: how much you can claim and whether your flight qualifies

The four conditions

Most refused claims fail on the first or the third condition, not on the amount. Check them in order.

1. The flight is inside EU261’s scope

Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 covers every flight that departs from an airport in the EU, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein — on any airline, including American, Gulf or Asian carriers — and every flight that arrives at one of those airports on an EU/EEA-licensed airline. Madrid to Lima on Iberia is covered in both directions; Madrid to Lima on LATAM is covered outbound only. Flights between two non-EU countries are outside it, as is a flight into the EU on a non-EU airline. The full scope rules, including the outermost regions, are on the EU261 page; UK departures fall under UK261 instead.

2. A qualifying disruption

• Delay — you arrived at your final destination 3 hours or more after the scheduled time. Departure delay is irrelevant. How the 3 hours are counted.
• Cancellation — you were told less than 14 days before departure, and the replacement flight did not fall inside the legal windows. Cancellation rules.
• Denied boarding — you had a confirmed booking, checked in on time and were refused against your will. What counts as denied boarding.

3. No extraordinary circumstance

For delays and cancellations the airline can escape the fixed amount only by proving that an event outside its control — severe weather, an air-traffic-control restriction, a security incident — caused the disruption and that no reasonable measure could have avoided it. Technical faults, crew problems and the airline’s own strikes never qualify. The extraordinary circumstances page lists what the Court of Justice has decided.

4. Inside the time limit

EU261 sets no deadline of its own; national law does, from 1 year (Poland) to 6 years (Ireland). The time-limit table gives the reviewed period for each country.

How much: €250, €400 or €600

Article 7 fixes the amount by the great-circle distance between the departure airport and the final destination:

• €250 — 1,500 km or less;
• €400 — 1,500 to 3,500 km, and every flight between two EU/EEA airports over 1,500 km, however long;
• €600 — over 3,500 km, unless both airports are in the EU/EEA (then €400).

The amount is per passenger with a paid ticket, children included; an infant carried free of charge is outside the Regulation (Article 3(3)). On connecting flights booked together, the distance is the straight line from the first departure to the final destination (Bossen, C-559/16), not the sum of the legs.

When the airline may halve it. If it re-routes you and you arrive within 2 hours (up to 1,500 km), 3 hours (1,500–3,500 km) or 4 hours (longer) of the original arrival time, it may reduce the amount by 50 %. For long delays, the same logic applies to the €600 band: arrive between 3 and 4 hours late on a flight over 3,500 km and the airline may pay €300.

Worked examples

Dublin → Faro on Ryanair, cancelled five days before departure. 1,900 km, so the band is €400. Ryanair offered a flight the next morning, far outside the re-routing windows. Unless it proves an extraordinary circumstance, each passenger is owed €400 plus the choice of refund or re-routing.

Frankfurt → New York on Lufthansa, arrived 4 h 10 late. 6,200 km, over 4 hours: €600 each. The return, New York → Frankfurt, is also covered because Lufthansa is an EU airline — the same return on United would not be.

Paris → Réunion on Air France, arrived 5 hours late. 9,300 km, but both airports are in the EU: the intra-EU cap applies and the amount is €400, not €600.

Madrid → Lisbon, arrived 2 h 50 late. No fixed compensation: the threshold is 3 hours at arrival. The airline still owed meals and refreshments once the wait passed 2 hours.

Rome → London on British Airways, delayed 3 h 30 by a hydraulic fault. Departure from the EU, so EU261 applies whatever the airline’s licence; a technical fault is not extraordinary. 1,450 km: €250 each. The same flight in the other direction would be assessed under UK261 (£220).

Rights that exist whether or not compensation is due

Compensation is one of four separate rights. Even when the airline proves an extraordinary circumstance you keep the others:

• Refund or re-routing (Article 8) for a cancellation, denied boarding, or a delay of 5 hours or more.
• Care (Article 9): meals, refreshments, two calls or emails, and a hotel with transport when the wait runs overnight.
• Reimbursement of reasonable expenses when care was not provided — keep the receipts.

Vouchers replace money only if you agree in writing (Article 7(3)); you can insist on a bank transfer.

How to claim EU261 compensation

1. Note the scheduled and actual arrival times (a photo of the arrivals board or a flight-tracker screenshot is enough) and keep the boarding pass and booking confirmation.
2. Write to the operating airline — the one whose aircraft flew you, not the one that sold the ticket — quoting the flight number, date, booking reference, passenger names and Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 (for a delay, add Sturgeon C-402/07 and Nelson C-581/10). The EU261 claim letter template has the wording; the generator fills it from your flight.
3. Give the airline six to eight weeks. A refusal must state the specific cause; “operational reasons” is not a legal category.
4. If it refuses or stays silent, complain to the national enforcement body of the departure country or the airline’s approved dispute-resolution scheme; the courts remain open within the limitation period.

All of this is free, including the claim letter. Horvera’s checker applies the rules to your exact route and dates and shows the reasoning; the Claim Pack is for after you send the claim — a saved case, a submission-ready PDF package, the sent date, follow-up reminders you opt into, an analysis of the airline’s reply and the escalation route for your country.

Refusals that do not hold

• “The delay was due to operational reasons.” Not a defence — the airline must name the cause and prove it was extraordinary.
• “The weather was bad that day.” Only weather incompatible with operating your flight counts; if the same route operated normally, ask why yours did not.
• “You were rebooked on the next flight.” Compensation for a cancellation is excluded only when the replacement met the time windows; a next-day flight never does.
• “You accepted a voucher for the inconvenience.” A goodwill voucher does not settle the statutory amount unless you signed a waiver.
• “The flight was operated by our partner.” Then the partner is the operating carrier and the claim goes to it — the right is unchanged.