How much EU261 compensation do you get, and how is it paid?

Article 7 of the UK retained Regulation 261/2004 fixes the sums in pounds. They are £220, £350 or £520, by the same distance bands as EU261. The UK kept this copy of the regulation after leaving the EU. You are owed the money when you reach your final destination at least three hours late, unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances.

Let's say you fly 2,500 km from London and land five hours late because of a crew shortage. That is the middle band, so the airline owes you £350. On a flight over 3,500 km that arrives three to four hours late, it may pay £260 instead of £520.

Check which regime covers your flight before you quote an amount. UK261 and EU261 have different reach, because UK rules depend on UK airports and UK carriers. A departure from London falls under UK261. A departure from an EU airport falls under EU261, in euros.

Send your claim in writing to the operating airline. The court deadline is six years in England and Wales and five in Scotland.

A flight-tracking site shows 1,600 km flown, but the great-circle distance between the two airports is 1,450 km. That flight sits in the first band, so the airline owes €250, not €400. It can work the other way too: an airline may put you in the wrong band.

Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 sets the bands and the great-circle rule. Up to 1,500 km pays €250, 1,500 to 3,500 km pays €400, and over 3,500 km pays €600. Intra-EU flights over 1,500 km also pay €400. The miles shown on the flight map play no part.

For a single booking, the Wegener judgment confirms that the final destination counts. So when the flights share one booking, measure from your first departure airport to your final destination.

Enter the two airport codes in a great-circle distance calculator. If the result lands near 1,500 km or 3,500 km, check it twice. Then quote your figure to the airline.

Four people on one booking, on a flight over 3,500 km that lands five hours late, are owed €600 each. That makes €2,400 in total. If the airline lawfully applies the 50% reduction, it applies per passenger, so each would receive €300.

Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 sets the amount each passenger receives, and Article 3 sets who it covers. The right belongs to each traveller, not to the person who paid. A shared booking reference changes nothing. Every traveller needs a confirmed reservation and must have checked in on time, except after a cancellation.

One claim can usually cover the whole party. List every passenger's full name as it appears on the ticket. Attach each boarding pass or the booking confirmation.

The airline checks every name separately, so keep each passenger's documents together. If it pays only one person, write back and ask for the others by name.

You paid €30 for a 1,000 km flight. It reached your destination four hours late, after a fault found during the pre-flight checks. The airline owes you €250. A technical problem like that generally counts as part of running an airline, so it is not an extraordinary circumstance.

Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 makes compensation a fixed sum for lost time, not a refund of your fare. That is why it can exceed a cheap ticket. The bands are €250 up to 1,500 km, €400 for the middle band and €600 over 3,500 km.

The ticket price matters in one case only: a downgrade. Under Article 10, the airline then repays 30%, 50% or 75% of the price of the affected flight. For a delay or cancellation, price plays no part in the amount.

Claim from the operating airline, with your booking and boarding pass.

Timing decides it, so count carefully. Arrival is the moment a door opens and passengers may leave, not touchdown, as the Germanwings judgment held. Let's say the plane touched down 3 hours 50 minutes late, but the doors opened 4 hours 5 minutes late. The airline owes €600, not €300.

Article 7(2) of Regulation 261/2004 allows the cut. On flights over 3,500 km, the full €600 applies when you reach the final destination four hours or more late. Between three and four hours, the airline may pay €300. UK261 works the same way, with £260 instead of £520.

The second case covers rerouting. If the airline cancelled your flight or denied you boarding and moved you to another one, it may halve the sum. It can do so only when your new arrival stays within the distance-based limits in Article 7(2). Outside them, it owes the full amount.

Ask the airline for its recorded arrival time and compare it with your own notes.

Airlines sometimes offer a voucher with a higher face value. Consider an airline that owes you €400 and offers a €500 voucher instead. The extra €100 helps only if you will fly with that airline before the voucher expires. If you never use it, you lose all €400.

Article 7(3) of Regulation 261/2004 makes money the default. The airline may offer travel vouchers, but only with your signed agreement. Without that signature, it must pay the amount in money.

Read the voucher terms before you decide. Look for the expiry date and any fare restrictions. Check whether you can use it for other people, and whether any balance carries over. If the terms are unclear, reply that you want the payment by bank transfer.

Turning down a voucher does not reduce what the airline owes. Answer in writing and keep the offer email.

Some airlines invite you to take compensation as loyalty points. The offer can look generous, but points have no fixed cash value. Their worth depends on what you can book with them, and when.

To see how it works, picture an airline that owes you €600 for a long-haul delay and offers 40,000 points instead. Price a route you actually fly, including taxes and fees. If the points buy less than €600 in real use, money serves you better.

Article 7(1) of Regulation 261/2004 sets the amount. Article 7(3) allows non-cash payment only with the passenger's signed agreement, so you can decline. Say so in writing, ask for money and give your bank details. Keep the offer email in case you need to escalate.

If you already accepted points by mistake, contact the airline in writing straight away. Ask to switch to money.

Send the claim in writing with your booking, boarding passes and the amount, for example €400. Ask for payment within a set period, such as 30 days. If you hear nothing, send a final reminder before you consider court.

That plan matters because the regulation fixes the amount but not the payment date. Airlines answer at their own pace, and a disputed claim takes longer. Your protection is the national court deadline, which keeps running while you wait. The Moré judgment confirms that national law sets it.

These deadlines vary a lot. Poland allows one year and the Netherlands two. Germany allows three, counted to the end of the third year. England and Wales allow six. A passenger in Poland who waits passively can lose the claim.

The reform changes this picture. It adds a 30-day duty to pay or give a specific reason, and a single EU-wide 9-month claim deadline replacing national limits. It should apply from the second half of 2027. Until then, the current rules stand.

The airline confirmed €600 for a long-haul delay eight weeks ago, and nothing has arrived. Reply to that acceptance email, quoting its reference and the amount. Ask for payment within 14 days and attach your bank details again.

An acceptance email is not money in the bank. Payments can stall because of wrong bank details, a lost file or a backlog. So check the details you gave the airline before you write.

If the deadline passes, look at the options in the country concerned. Many countries have a public body that handles passenger complaints, and courts hear unpaid claims. Act within the national limitation period: one year in Poland, three in Germany and six in England and Wales. The Moré judgment confirms that national law sets these limits.

The operating airline remains responsible for paying the amount set by Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004. A reform expected from the second half of 2027 adds a 30-day payment deadline. Until it applies, the current rules stand.

Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 fixes the sums at €250, €400 and €600. Article 7 of the UK retained Regulation uses its own sterling amounts of £220, £350 and £520. Which regime applies depends on the flight, not on where you live.

Currency matters when the payment crosses borders. An airline owes you €400 and pays it into a dollar account. Your bank converts it at its own rate and may charge a fee. You could end up with less than €400 in value.

You can limit that loss. Ask the airline to pay in your currency and to name the exchange rate and date. Or give it an account that receives euros. If the payment arrives short, ask the airline to explain the difference and pay the balance.

No confirmed rule on how to convert the amounts could be found, so ask the airline to explain its method. Keep the payment advice and your bank statement, so you can show any gap.

A real-world pattern: a payment arrives short, with the gap labelled a handling fee. If the airline owes €400 and pays €370, write back and quote the €400 owed for your distance band. Ask for the €30 balance. If it says it applied the 50% reduction instead, ask it to show your arrival time.

Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 fixes the amounts by distance. They are €250, €400 or €600 under EU261, or £220, £350 or £520 under UK261. Article 7(2) provides the only reduction. It lets the airline halve the sum on some long-haul delays and some rerouted journeys.

Bank charges are a separate issue. Your own bank may charge to receive an international transfer or to convert currency. Ask the airline to pay in your currency if it can.

Keep the payment advice that shows what arrived and when. If the airline will not pay the balance, treat the shortfall as part of your claim.

Airline claim forms often ask for an IBAN, a European account number. Passengers with banks in the United States, Australia or elsewhere may not have one. The design of a form does not reduce what the airline owes you under Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004.

Consider a €600 claim after a long-haul delay, where the form will not accept your account number. Email the airline and quote your claim reference. Give your bank's SWIFT code, account number and address. Ask the airline to confirm it can pay that way.

Some travellers open a multi-currency account that provides a European account number. That can also avoid conversion fees. A card refund is a different matter: it returns a ticket price, not compensation.

Do not accept a voucher just because the bank form is awkward, since a voucher needs your signed agreement. Keep copies of every message about payment details. That makes any delay on the airline's side easy to show.

Start with the airline, and ask it in writing for the refund before you go to your card issuer. Under Article 8 of Regulation 261/2004, read with Article 7(3), the refund is due within seven days. That applies once you choose a refund after a cancellation.

If the airline misses that, a chargeback through your card issuer is one way to get the ticket money back. The issuer applies its own rules, not the regulation.

You paid €300 by card, the airline cancelled, you asked for a refund, and weeks went by. Show your issuer the cancellation notice, your written refund request and its date. Ask how long you have to open a dispute, because card issuers set their own limits.

Fixed compensation of €250, €400 or €600 is a different claim. It is not a payment you made, so a chargeback does not fit it. Claim it from the operating airline, and keep the two claims apart.

Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004, or of the UK retained Regulation, decides how much the airline owes you. It does not decide how your government taxes it. That is a question for national law, and it can differ between countries and between types of payment.

To see how it works, picture €400 received for a cancelled flight, plus interest a court awarded because the airline paid late. Your adviser may treat the two parts differently. Tell them exactly what you received and why.

Keep a simple record. Save the airline's letter or email confirming the amount and the reason, the date it arrived, and any court order. For a business trip, tell your employer's finance team too, since the ticket cost may already sit in their accounts.

This answer does not give a tax rule. Check with a tax adviser or your national tax authority before you file a return.

Your flight arrives a day late, and you lose a €150 prepaid hotel night that the hotel would not refund. You can claim that €150 from the airline under the Montreal Convention 1999. Send the booking and the hotel's refusal. Separately, the airline may owe €400 fixed compensation for a 2,000 km flight.

The two systems work in opposite ways. EU261 compensation is a fixed sum that needs no proof of loss. Article 19 of the Convention covers actual, provable damage caused by a delay on an international flight. The two can sit side by side.

Lost wages are harder. You need evidence that you lost pay, that the delay caused it and that you could not reasonably avoid it. The airline can defend itself, for example by showing it took all reasonable measures. Article 22 sets the cap on what it pays.

Claim in writing with documents. Under Article 35, the right ends unless court action starts within two years.

The 2024 Commission guidelines say an outbound and a return are separate flights, even when you bought them together. That cuts both ways. Each leg is judged on its own delay, its own cause and its own coverage. A return that is not covered does not become covered because the outbound left from Europe.

Paris to Boston and back on Air France shows how it works. The outbound lands 5 hours late after a crew shortage in Paris. The route is about 5,530 km, so Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 sets €600. The return lands 3 hours 30 minutes late, also for an internal reason. On flights over 3,500 km, a delay of 3 to 4 hours can be halved, so that leg may pay €300.

Coverage is where round trips catch people out. A flight leaving an EU airport is covered whatever the airline. A flight into the EU from outside is covered only when an EU airline operates it, under Article 3(1)(b). So the Boston leg counts on Air France, but would not count on a US airline.

Claim each flight separately, with its own flight number and arrival time. If both legs were with the same airline, you can send both claims together, listed as two delays. If the airline pays one and rejects the other, ask for the reason for that leg in writing.

Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 pays a flat sum for a long delay. It does not add money for each extra hour. The three-hour mark comes from the Sturgeon judgment and is measured at your final destination. For most flights it is the only line that matters.

An Amsterdam to Prague flight is about 705 km. Land 3 hours 10 minutes late or 10 hours late, and the airline owes €250 per passenger either way. The only escape is proof of extraordinary circumstances.

Long-haul flights have one extra step. Lisbon to New York is about 5,410 km. Arrive 3 hours 30 minutes late and the airline may pay €300. Arrive 4 hours or more late and the full €600 is due. Beyond that, a 12-hour delay pays the same €600.

A longer wait still gets you more help, if not more compensation. Meals and refreshments are due from 2, 3 or 4 hours depending on distance, and a hotel when you need to stay overnight. After a 5-hour delay you can give up the trip and ask for a refund. Keep receipts for anything you pay for yourself while you wait.

For connecting flights booked together, the delay is measured at the end of the journey. The Court of Justice set this out in Folkerts (C-11/11), and the 2024 Commission guidelines follow it. What matters is the gap between the scheduled and actual arrival at your last airport, not the delay on each leg.

A Vienna to Toronto trip on one booking changes in Frankfurt. The Vienna flight leaves 90 minutes late, and the Frankfurt flight is then held up by a technical problem with the aircraft. You reach Toronto 5 hours late. Vienna to Toronto is about 6,950 km, so the claim is for €600 per passenger, once.

Separate bookings work the other way. Each ticket is its own journey, so each delayed flight is judged alone against the three-hour mark. That can mean two claims, but each leg must reach three hours on its own arrival.

Claim once, quoting both flight numbers and the final arrival time. If the airline says one of the delays was extraordinary, ask for the reason for each leg in writing. Meals and drinks during each wait are a separate right and do not depend on this calculation.

Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 ties each amount to a distance band: up to 1,500 km, 1,500 to 3,500 km, and over 3,500 km. Flights inside the EU of more than 1,500 km sit in the €400 band, whatever their length. Once your delay qualifies, the band follows from the distance alone.

A Milan Malpensa to Lisbon flight is about 1,650 km. Routes close to the 1,500 km line are worth checking with a great-circle calculator. If that flight lands 4 hours late for an internal reason, the airline owes €400, not €250.

Long-haul payments can go wrong too. On a flight over 3,500 km, €300 is correct only in two cases. You arrived 3 to 4 hours late, or a rerouting stayed within the Article 7(2) limits. Arrive 4 hours or more late and the full €600 is due.

Reply to the airline in writing, name the two airports, give the distance and ask for the balance. Do not sign anything saying the payment settles your claim in full until you have checked the band. The EU reform approved by the European Parliament on 7 July 2026 will give airlines 30 days to pay or give a specific reason. It is expected to apply from the second half of 2027, and until it applies the current rules stand.

The two payments come from different places. Regulation 261/2004 puts the duty on the operating airline, under Articles 2(b) and 3(5), and Article 7 fixes the amount. Your insurer pays under the terms of the policy you bought. The regulation's test is distance, arrival time and the cause of the delay; an insurance payout is not part of it.

A Rome to Athens flight is about 1,090 km. It lands 5 hours late after a crew shortage, and your policy pays a small fixed sum for the delay. The airline still owes €250 per passenger under EU261, because the cause was its own.

Read the policy wording before you claim on both. A policy may pay delay benefits only when the airline is not liable, or may ask you to pursue the airline first. It may also ask you to declare other payments, so you are not paid twice for the same cost. If you claim hotel or meal costs from both, expect one of them to ask for the money back.

Claim from the airline first, with your booking reference and arrival time. Keep its reply, since an insurer may ask to see it. Then tell your insurer exactly what the airline paid and what it was for.