Claiming compensation from easyJet

On this page 16

1. The subsidiary question, and why it usually resolves in your favour
2. Which regime, and what it pays
3. The three-hour threshold and how to measure it
4. Claiming, step by step
5. The voucher problem
6. What easyJet refuses, and whether it holds
7. Care and assistance, which easyJet owes regardless
8. Escalating a refusal
9. Cancellations
10. Worth knowing if you fly easyJet a lot
11. Your right to be re-routed, including on another airline
12. easyJet Holidays and package bookings are a different animal
13. If the flight was diverted
14. Extras, bags and seats you paid for
15. Worth knowing if you fly easyJet a lot
16. What to do in the moment, at the airport

Most passengers think of easyJet as a British airline. For compensation purposes that is only partly true, and the part that is not true occasionally matters a great deal. easyJet operates through separate airline subsidiaries holding licences in different countries, and the one named on your booking as the operating carrier is the one whose licence decides whether an inbound flight falls inside the rules.

The subsidiary question, and why it usually resolves in your favour

easyJet restructured around the time of Brexit so that it could continue flying intra-EU routes, and it now operates through airline entities licensed in more than one jurisdiction. Your booking confirmation and boarding pass name the operating carrier; that is the legal defendant, not "easyJet" as a brand.

Here is why it rarely bites. UK261 covers an inbound flight if the operating carrier is a UK or an EU airline. EU261 covers an inbound flight if the carrier is EU-licensed. Since easyJet's operating entities are licensed in the UK and in EU member states, an inbound flight into the UK is covered whichever of them flew it, and an inbound flight into the EU is covered where the EU-licensed entity flew it. The gap is narrow: a flight into the EU from outside it, operated by the UK entity, is the one combination where you would need to look twice.

The practical advice is simply to name the operating carrier exactly as it appears on your booking when you claim, rather than writing to "easyJet". If they come back saying the wrong entity was addressed, that is an administrative point, not a defence.

Which regime, and what it pays

The departure airport decides. Out of Gatwick, Luton, Bristol or Manchester it is UK261. Out of Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam or Faro it is EU261.

Distance to final destination	UK261	EU261
Under 1,500 km	£220	€250
1,500–3,500 km	£350	€400
Over 3,500 km	£520	€600

easyJet flies very little beyond 3,500 km, so in practice you are looking at the first two rows. Gatwick to Malaga, Edinburgh to Alicante and Bristol to Prague are all comfortably inside 1,500 km at £220; Gatwick to Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh or Tel Aviv crosses into the £350 band.

The three-hour threshold and how to measure it

You need to have arrived at your final destination more than three hours after the scheduled arrival time, and arrival is when the doors open. easyJet's own app will often show a landing time; that is not the number the regulation uses, and on a marginal claim the difference decides it.

If you were delayed two hours forty minutes by the app's reckoning, it is still worth claiming and stating the time you actually disembarked. See the borderline three-hour claim.

Claiming, step by step

1. Find the operating carrier on your booking confirmation, and use that name.
2. Use easyJet's own claim form rather than social media or general enquiries, so the claim gets a reference number.
3. Put everyone on one claim. All passengers on the booking, claimed together.
4. State the arrival gap, the distance and the figure. Not "please compensate me" but "arrival 4h10m late at Malaga, 1,650 km, £350 per passenger × 2 = £700".
5. Ask for bank transfer explicitly, and decline vouchers in writing.

Our template letter is written to be pasted straight into this kind of form.

The voucher problem

Low-cost carriers are fond of offering travel credit worth somewhat more than the cash entitlement. It sounds generous and it is usually a worse deal: credit expires, is restricted to that airline, cannot cover another carrier's fare when you actually need to fly, and in some cases cannot be combined with sale fares. Compensation under both regimes is payable in money.

You are perfectly entitled to accept a voucher if it genuinely suits you. Just decide that on the merits rather than because it was the only option presented.

What easyJet refuses, and whether it holds

Weather and airport congestion

Weather severe enough to stop the flight is a genuine defence. "Congestion" and "airport restrictions" are softer, and worth probing — ask what the restriction was and who imposed it. Slot restrictions arising from the airline's own late running are not extraordinary.

Technical faults

Push back. Faults discovered in maintenance or in normal operation are treated as inherent in running an airline and are not extraordinary. A refusal that says "technical issue" is usually a claim worth pursuing. See technical faults.

Crew shortages and crew out of hours

Not a defence. Rostering is the airline's own business, and crew running out of legal duty hours because of earlier delays is the consequence of how the schedule was managed. See crew-related delays.

Knock-on delay from an earlier rotation

easyJet runs tight rotations, so one morning problem can cascade all day. That helps them only if the original cause was itself extraordinary and they could not reasonably have recovered. Ask what the first cause was, and when.

Care and assistance, which easyJet owes regardless

During a long delay the airline must provide food and drink proportionate to the wait, and a hotel plus transport if you are kept overnight. This duty survives even a genuine weather cancellation. In practice, on a disrupted evening at a busy base you will often be told to sort yourself out and claim it back.

If so: book something reasonable, keep every receipt, and submit it as a separate expenses claim. Reasonable means an ordinary hotel and ordinary meals. What airlines actually reimburse covers the limits.

Escalating a refusal

easyJet participates in an alternative dispute resolution scheme for UK flights. ADR is free, the decision binds the airline, and it removes the one thing that puts most people off doing this themselves — the prospect of a court. It is slow, typically a couple of months, but it costs you nothing and you do not need a claim company to use it.

For EU departures, the national enforcement body for the departure country is the route. For a clear-cut claim where you would rather not wait, a small claim is faster. How the regulator and ADR routes actually work walks through both.

Cancellations

Fourteen days' notice or more removes compensation. Inside that, compensation is due unless the re-route offered was close enough in timing to bring the airline inside the exceptions. Separately and always, you choose between a full refund and being re-routed.

One easyJet-specific habit worth knowing: on a cancellation the app will often present rebooking as the obvious path and the refund as a buried alternative. Taking the rebooking is fine and does not waive compensation, but if you no longer want to travel at all, the cash refund is your right and not a concession.

Worth knowing if you fly easyJet a lot

Claims are per passenger per flight, not per year, and there is no limit on how many you make. Frequent flyers on short-haul routes with tight turnarounds accumulate claimable disruptions at a surprising rate, and a disrupted flight from two or three years ago is very often still inside the limitation period. If you fly the same routes regularly, it is worth going back through old bookings once.

Your right to be re-routed, including on another airline

This is the most under-used right in the whole regulation, and it is worth more than the compensation on a badly timed cancellation.

When a flight is cancelled you may choose a re-route to your destination at the earliest opportunity, under comparable transport conditions. The phrase that matters is "earliest opportunity". It does not say "the next easyJet flight with a free seat". If easyJet's own next service is in three days and another carrier is flying the route tomorrow morning, the earliest opportunity is tomorrow morning, and the cost of putting you on it is the airline's.

In practice the app will offer you the next available easyJet seat and nothing else. You have to ask, and you should ask in writing so there is a record. If they refuse and you buy a comparable replacement ticket yourself to get where you were going, that cost is recoverable — passengers have successfully claimed exactly this. Keep it proportionate: an economy seat on a reasonable alternative, booked promptly, not a last-minute premium fare days later.

easyJet Holidays and package bookings are a different animal

If your flight was part of an easyJet Holidays package rather than a flight-only booking, you have two overlapping sets of rights and the package ones are frequently stronger.

Package travel rules oblige the organiser to provide suitable alternative arrangements at no extra cost, to offer a price reduction for services not delivered as described, and to repatriate you if things fall apart — duties that bite harder than the flight-only regime because they cover the whole holiday, including the hotel nights you lost and the transfers you did not get. They sit alongside your flight compensation rather than replacing it, so a long flight delay on a package booking can produce both an Article 7 payment and a package price reduction.

The practical consequence is that you claim in two places: the flight compensation from the operating carrier, and the package remedies from the organiser. Do not let one be used to settle the other. Package holiday disruption goes through the overlap properly.

If the flight was diverted

Where you are landed somewhere other than your booked destination, the airline must carry you on to the airport you ticketed, at its cost. Your delay for compensation purposes runs to when you actually reached that original destination, coach transfer included — not to when the aircraft touched down elsewhere. That distinction routinely turns an apparently two-hour delay into a five-hour claim.

If you are left to make your own way, the reasonable cost of doing so is reimbursable on top of any compensation. More on diversions.

Extras, bags and seats you paid for

Paid seat selection, speedy boarding, hold luggage and sports equipment are services sold separately from the fare. If the flight is cancelled and you take the refund, those come back too. If you are re-routed and the new flight does not carry across something you paid for, that specific item is refundable. It is not compensation, it is not capped by the distance bands, and it is easily forgotten because it is spread across several lines of the original booking.

Dig out the original confirmation email rather than the app summary; the itemised breakdown is usually there and it is the evidence you need.

Worth knowing if you fly easyJet a lot

There is no cap on the number of claims you can make, and each is per passenger per flight. Short-haul networks with tight turnarounds generate claimable disruption at a steady rate, and limitation periods are long — six years in England and Wales. If you fly the same routes regularly it is genuinely worth an hour going back through old bookings; most people write off disruptions that are still perfectly claimable.

What to do in the moment, at the airport

Everything above is easier if you spend five minutes collecting the right things while you are still standing there. Screenshot the departure board showing the delay. Screenshot the app notification and whatever reason it gives, because the reason offered at the time and the reason given in the refusal letter are often different, and that inconsistency is useful. Note the time the doors opened at the other end. Ask at the desk, politely and in those words, for food vouchers and for hotel accommodation if you are overnight, and note who you asked and what they said.

None of this is required to make a claim. All of it makes the claim quicker to win, and it costs nothing at the time it is cheapest to gather.

Questions people ask about this