How to claim flight compensation yourself (and keep all of it)

On this page 6

1. Before you do anything, write down four things
2. Work out the number first
3. Send this
4. What their first answer will be
5. Escalating, in order of effort
6. The honest case for paying someone else to do it

Before you do anything, write down four things

Almost every refused claim fails on evidence rather than law. Within a day or two of landing, note these down while you can still prove them:

1. The time the aircraft door actually opened at your destination. Not the "landed" time. Compensation is measured by arrival, and the regulation means the moment a door opens and passengers can get off. The gap between wheels-down and doors-open is regularly 15-20 minutes, which is exactly the margin that decides a borderline three-hour claim.
2. Your final destination, not the leg that went wrong. If you booked London to Singapore via Frankfurt on one ticket and missed the connection, your delay is however late you reached Singapore.
3. What the airline said the cause was, word for word, and who said it. Gate announcements, the app notification, the text message. Screenshot them.
4. Your booking reference and the flight number that actually operated, which is not always the number you booked if they moved you.

Keep boarding passes and booking confirmations. You do not need receipts to claim compensation, but you do need them to reclaim meals and a hotel on top.

Work out the number first

Put the flight through the calculator before you write. Claiming a specific figure with a legal basis attached gets a materially different reply than asking what they think you are owed. It also means you will notice if they offer you less than you are entitled to, which is the most common outcome of a successful claim.

Send this

Use the airline's own complaint form if it has one, because that creates a reference number on their system. Paste this in.

Two sentences there do the real work. Naming the distance band and the article stops the airline treating it as a goodwill enquiry. Asking them to evidence Article 5(3) matters because the burden of proof sits with the airline, not you — and a vague "operational issues" reply does not discharge it.

What their first answer will be

Expect one of four:

• Payment. Roughly what happens when the cause was plainly their fault and you quoted the right figure.
• A voucher worth more than the cash. You are entitled to money. Vouchers expire, restrict routes, and cannot be spent with a different airline. Decline in writing.
• "Extraordinary circumstances." Usually with no detail. Reply asking for the specific cause and the evidence. If the reason given is a technical fault, a crew shortage, or a strike by their own staff, say that you do not accept it — the case law is against them on all three.
• Silence. Common. Chase once at 14 days, then escalate.

Escalating, in order of effort

Go to the national enforcement body for the departure country, or for the arrival country if the flight was inbound on an EU or UK airline. In the UK that is the CAA, or the airline's appointed ADR scheme, which many UK carriers have signed up to and whose decisions bind them. In Ireland it is the Commission for Aviation Regulation; in Germany the LBA; in Spain AESA. These are free and slow — think months.

The faster route for a clear-cut claim is the small claims process. In England and Wales, Money Claim Online costs a modest fee that is added to your claim if you win, and it takes about 20 minutes to file. Airlines settle a meaningful share of these before a hearing, because defending costs them more than the claim. Mind the limitation period: six years in England and Wales, five in Scotland, and much shorter elsewhere in Europe — see the deadlines guide.

The honest case for paying someone else to do it

There is one. If the airline has already refused, the cause is contested, the airline is outside your jurisdiction, or the thought of filing a court claim means you will simply never do it, then a third of something beats all of nothing. We compare the main firms and their fees in claim it yourself or use a company. For a straightforward delay on a UK or EU carrier, though, the email above is genuinely most of the job.