French Bee flight delay and cancellation compensation

Does EU261 cover a French Bee flight delay in both directions?

French Bee flight delay compensation pays €600 per passenger on routes such as Paris–New York, and €400 on Paris–Réunion. You qualify when you reach your final destination three or more hours late, when French Bee cancels with less than 14 days' notice, or when it denies you boarding. Return flights into Paris count too.

French Bee is a low-cost long-haul airline licensed in France, flying from Paris Orly to destinations including Réunion, the French Caribbean, New York, Miami, San Francisco and Tahiti. As an EU carrier, its coverage under EU261 runs in both directions:

• Departing Paris Orly, or any other EU/EEA airport, EU261 applies automatically.
• Arriving into the EU/EEA from outside — New York to Paris, San Francisco to Paris — EU261 also applies, because French Bee holds a French operating licence. That is a right you would not have on a US carrier flying the same route.
• Any UK touchpoint would fall under UK261, though the network is built around Orly.

The triggers are arriving at your final destination three or more hours late, a cancellation with less than 14 days' notice, or being denied boarding despite checking in on time.

How much is a delayed French Bee flight worth?

Compensation is fixed by distance, and a basic fare qualifies exactly like a flexible one:

• EUR 250 — flights of 1,500 km or less, rare on this network
• EUR 400 — flights between 1,500 km and 3,500 km, and all intra-EU flights over 1,500 km. Because Réunion is part of the EU, the Paris–Réunion route — one of the longest domestic flights in the world — sits in this band despite its distance.
• EUR 600 — other flights over 3,500 km: Paris to New York, Miami, San Francisco or Papeete

Where rerouting on a long-haul flight still lands you under four hours late, the airline may halve the EUR 600. Each passenger on the booking is paid separately.

When French Bee doesn't have to pay

Extraordinary circumstances — severe weather, air-traffic-control restrictions, airport closures, security alerts — remove the right to compensation, but only if the airline can show they were genuinely unavoidable.

The burden of proof is on French Bee, not on you. A strike by its own crew is generally not extraordinary under EU case law; third-party strikes by controllers or ground handlers usually are. Routine technical faults are part of running an airline and stay the carrier's responsibility.

How do you claim from French Bee after a long-haul delay?

Keep the booking reference, boarding passes and the messages announcing the disruption, and note your actual arrival time at the gate. Long-haul claims are worth enough that airlines examine them carefully, so evidence matters. We build the file, submit it, chase the response and escalate to the French enforcement body or the courts if the refusal does not stand up.

How much of a French Bee payout do you keep?

The eligibility check is free. If we recover your compensation we charge a fixed EUR 39 success fee — the same whether you're owed EUR 250 or EUR 600 — and the airline's payment goes to you. No win, no fee.

How to claim French Bee compensation

Start with the flight itself. Our free flight check reads the recorded times for your French Bee flight and tells you which band it falls in, in about two minutes.

For the law behind the figure, the flight delay compensation guide covers arrival delays and the cancellation compensation guide covers a flight that never operated. If French Bee has already refused you, the case law summary sets out what the courts have said about the usual excuses.