Flight compensation, without the fog

How much

Per passenger, including children with a paid seat, whatever the ticket cost. Article 7. Distance is the great-circle distance between the first departure airport and the final destination (Art 7(4)). Our check uses the flight record's distance.

When: delays

Compensation is due when you arrive at your final destination three hours or more after the scheduled time. The Regulation only mentions cancellations, but the European Court read long delays in (Sturgeon v Condor, C-402/07; Nelson v Lufthansa, C-581/10) and UK courts follow that. “Arrival” means when at least one aircraft door opens (Germanwings v Henning, C-452/13), not touchdown.

Under three hours: no compensation, but care. Once departure is delayed by two hours on a flight up to 1,500 km (three hours for 1,500 to 3,500 km, four for longer flights) the airline must provide meals and refreshments, two calls or emails, and a hotel if you are stuck overnight (Arts 6 and 9). Keep receipts.

When: cancellations

Compensation is due unless you were told at least 14 days before departure (Art 5(1)(c)(i)), or told 7 to 13 days before and re-routed to depart no more than 2 hours early and arrive under 4 hours late (ii), or told under 7 days before and re-routed to depart no more than 1 hour early and arrive under 2 hours late (iii). Separately, you are always owed the choice of a refund within 7 days or re-routing (Art 8).

When: denied boarding

If you were bumped against your will because the flight was overbooked and you had checked in on time, the fixed compensation is due immediately (Art 4) and there is no extraordinary-circumstances defence. Volunteers who accepted the airline's offer have made a different deal.

Which flights

• UK261: any flight departing a UK airport, on any airline; and any flight arriving at a UK airport on a UK or EU airline.
• EU261: any flight departing an EU, Norwegian, Icelandic or Swiss airport, on any airline; and any flight arriving in the EU on an EU airline.
• So: Heathrow to New York on Delta is covered (departs UK). New York to Heathrow on Delta is not. New York to Heathrow on British Airways is. Malaga to Manchester on Ryanair is covered by both.

Extraordinary circumstances (Art 5(3))

The airline escapes compensation only if it proves the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures. Both halves matter and the burden is the airline's.

• Usually counts: severe weather at the airport, air-traffic control restrictions or an ATC strike, airport closure, security alert, bird strike (Pešková v Travel Service, C-315/15), a medical emergency on board.
• Does not count: technical faults found in routine maintenance (Wallentin-Hermann v Alitalia, C-549/07; Huzar v Jet2.com [2014] EWCA Civ 791), unexpected technical faults generally (van der Lans v KLM, C-257/14), the airline's own staff striking (Airhelp v SAS, C-28/20; Krüsemann v TUIfly, C-195/17), crew rostering and sickness, a late inbound aircraft on its own.
• Knock-on delays: an airline can rely on an extraordinary event affecting an earlier flight by the same aircraft (Transportes Aéreos Portugueses v Flightright, C-74/19), but only if it also shows it took all reasonable measures, including reasonable reserve time in the schedule (Eglītis v Air Baltic, C-294/10).

This is why our check pulls the Eurocontrol airport delay record and the METAR weather for the day. If they show nothing, the airline's letter saying “adverse weather” or “air traffic control restrictions” is a claim, not a fact, and your reply can say so.

How long you have

England and Wales: six years from the flight (Limitation Act 1980; Dawson v Thomson Airways [2014] EWCA Civ 845). Scotland: five. Northern Ireland: six. Other EU states range from one year (Belgium, Poland) to ten (Sweden). We check flights from the last 180 days automatically.

If the airline refuses or ignores you

Write once, wait 8 weeks or for a final answer, then go to the dispute scheme the CAA lists for the airline: AviationADR (easyJet, Ryanair, TUI Airways, Wizz Air, Virgin Atlantic, KLM, Air France, Turkish and others), CEDR (British Airways, BA CityFlyer, Cathay Pacific, SAS) or Schlichtung Reise & Verkehr (Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels Airlines). They are free to the passenger. Many airlines, including Jet2, Aer Lingus, Emirates and Qatar Airways, are in no scheme: for a UK flight the CAA's Passenger Advice and Complaints Team can take the complaint up, though it cannot make a binding decision. Your check names the right route, and every claim can be issued in the county court on the small claims track for a modest fee that you recover if you win.