EU261 Flight Compensation Claim Letter

Which flights can this generator create a claim letter for?

Journeys that first departed an airport in an EU Member State, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein or Switzerland, on any operating airline, where you reached your ticketed final destination at least three hours late or your flight was cancelled.

The departure point decides coverage, not the airline’s nationality: Article 3(1)(a) applies to any operating carrier leaving a covered airport, so an Emirates flight from Oslo and a Delta flight from Paris both qualify. Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein are covered through the EEA Agreement, Switzerland through the EU–Switzerland Air Transport Agreement. The EU outermost regions — Martinique, Réunion, the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores and others — count as EU departures. Saint Barthélemy does not; it is an overseas country and territory, so a departure from there is treated as a third-country departure.

The generator produces a fixed-compensation demand under Article 7 for one adult claimant. It does not currently cover UK261, journeys beginning outside the covered territory, denied boarding, downgrading, or refunds and expenses. Where a journey falls outside its scope, that is a limit on this tool — not a statement that you have no claim.

How much compensation can I claim?

€250, €400 or €600, set by the direct distance from your first departure airport to your ticketed final destination.

Distance is the great-circle distance between the two ends of the journey — not the sum of the legs you flew, and not the route the aircraft took. The amount is per eligible passenger, and outbound and return journeys are assessed separately. It can be reduced in the two situations described below, or by compensation the airline has already paid for the same disruption.

When is a delay long enough, and which arrival time counts?

You need to reach your ticketed final destination at least three hours late. Exactly 3:00 qualifies; 2:59 does not. A late departure is irrelevant on its own — what matters is the arrival.

Arrival is the moment at least one aircraft door opens and passengers are permitted to leave, not touchdown and not the airport’s displayed arrival time. If you only know your landing time: landing three hours or more late establishes the threshold, because doors cannot open before the aircraft lands. Landing less than three hours late proves nothing either way, and the generator will ask you to confirm the arrival rather than produce a figure it cannot stand behind.

Compensation is fixed by distance, not by how far past three hours the delay ran. A 3:10 delay and a nine-hour delay on the same journey attract the same amount.

How do connecting flights work?

If the flights were sold together as one journey on one ticket, everything is measured at the ticketed final destination — both your arrival delay and the distance.

This is what makes missed connections claimable. If you leave Bucharest an hour late, miss your connection in Frankfurt and reach New York 4:20 late, the claim rests on the New York arrival, and the distance is measured Bucharest to New York as a single great-circle figure rather than by adding the legs. The connection can be outside Europe; what matters is that the journey started at a covered airport and was sold as one journey.

Separately purchased flights are assessed individually. If you bought Paris–Rome and Rome–Athens on two tickets, the first arrives in Rome 2:30 late and you miss the second, only the Paris–Rome flight is assessed — its 2:30 delay falls short, and the Athens arrival is not added on. That is the practical risk of a self-connection. One booking reference and one overall price is the usual sign of a single journey, though intermediaries can package flights from different airlines into one; if you are unsure, the generator flags it rather than assuming.

My flight was cancelled — when is compensation payable?

Compensation is potentially due unless the airline proves it gave you sufficient notice and, in the shorter windows, offered rerouting within strict time limits. A flight brought forward by more than one hour counts as a cancellation and is treated the same way.

The boundaries are exact and they decide real claims: in the 7–13 day window a reroute arriving 3:59 late defeats the claim, while one arriving exactly 4:00 late does not; under seven days, an arrival exactly 2:00 late leaves the claim intact. Article 5(4) puts the burden of proving whether and when you were told on the airline. If you booked through an agent or travel site, the date that counts is when the notice reached you, unless the airline shows the intermediary was authorised to receive it on your behalf.

Can the airline pay half?

Yes, in two defined situations under Article 7(2) — but only if it invokes the reduction. It is not automatic.

After a long delay. On a journey over 3,500 km that is not wholly inside the EU/EEA/Swiss regime, arriving at least 3:00 but less than 4:00 late, €600 can be reduced to €300. At exactly 4:00 late the full €600 stands. No equivalent reduction applies in the €250 or €400 bands.

After a cancellation, where you were rerouted. If compensation is still due, the amount can be halved where your rerouted arrival was within 2 hours (€250 → €125), 3 hours (€400 → €200) or 4 hours (€600 → €300). Those boundaries include exactly 2, 3 and 4 hours. The letter requests the full amount and states the possible reduced figure openly, so you know the floor before you send it.

The airline blames weather, a technical fault, ATC or a strike. Is that the end of the claim?

No. A stated reason is a label, not a legal determination. Under Article 5(3) the airline escapes compensation only by proving all four of: an extraordinary circumstance existed; it was not inherent in the airline’s normal activity and lay beyond its actual control; it directly caused your cancellation or delay; and the disruption could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures.

Weather, air-traffic-management restrictions, security incidents, external strikes, medical emergencies and airport failures can meet that test, but none does automatically. Routine technical faults found in ordinary maintenance generally do not qualify, though a hidden manufacturing or design defect identified by the manufacturer or a regulator can. An airline’s own staff strike arising from normal labour relations generally does not. Where an extraordinary event explains only part of a delay, the remainder attributable to the airline can still support a claim if it reaches three hours. Because the evidence sits with the airline, the generator produces a conditional claim rather than a final eligibility verdict: the letter asks the carrier to identify the event, explain the causal link and set out the measures it took.

Which airline do I claim against?

The operating carrier — the airline that operated the flight, or was due to operate it if it was cancelled. Not the airline whose name is on the booking, and not the travel site that sold the ticket.

This matters on codeshares and franchise operations, where the flight number belongs to one airline and the aircraft and crew to another. If you cannot identify the operating carrier with confidence, the generator asks you to confirm it rather than inferring one from branding, because a letter sent to the wrong airline achieves nothing.

Am I still eligible if I used miles, or lost my boarding pass?

Yes to a reward ticket, and usually yes without the boarding pass.

Article 3(3) excludes only passengers travelling free or on a reduced fare unavailable directly or indirectly to the public — a staff or industry concession fare, for example. Frequent-flyer redemptions are publicly available programmes and are not excluded because you paid in points. Otherwise you need a confirmed reservation, to have presented for carriage as required unless the airline moved you to another flight, and to have actually travelled. A boarding pass evidences that but is not essential; booking confirmations, itineraries, bag tags and airline correspondence all help. For a cancellation announced in advance, you are not expected to have shown up for a flight that never operated.

My flight was to Europe, not from Europe. Can I claim?

Possibly — but not with this generator yet.

Regulation 261/2004 can cover some journeys into the EU, EEA or Switzerland when they are operated by a carrier licensed under the applicable European regime — a New York–Paris flight operated by Air France, for instance. That analysis depends on the operating carrier’s legal status and other facts, so this generator does not currently determine it. If your journey began outside the EU, EEA or Switzerland, check the operating airline’s official claims process or take advice appropriate to the countries involved.

What about flights from the UK?

The UK runs its own regime and this generator does not produce UK claims.

EU261 was retained in UK law after Brexit and has since diverged. UK compensation is set in pounds — £220, £350 and £520 — not converted from euros, and the Aviation (Consumers) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 changed how delay rules and time limits work there. Treating UK261 as EU261 with a currency swap gives the wrong answer. Departures from the United Kingdom and Gibraltar are out of scope here; a flight from an EU, EEA or Swiss airport to the UK is covered normally, because coverage follows the departure point.

Can I claim for my partner and children in the same letter?

No — the generator produces a letter for one named adult claimant.

Each passenger who meets the eligibility conditions holds their own claim, so several people on one booking may each be entitled. Paying for the booking does not by itself give you authority to claim another adult’s compensation, and claiming for a minor raises separate authority questions. In practice, each adult can generate and send their own letter for the same flight, referencing the same booking.

What about my refund, hotel, meals and replacement flight?

Separate rights, not covered by this letter.

Articles 8 and 9 deal with reimbursement or rerouting and with meals, accommodation, airport transport and communications during a disruption. They operate independently of Article 7 compensation — which cuts in your favour, because care and reimbursement rights can exist even where extraordinary circumstances defeat a compensation claim. The letter states that it is without prejudice to those rights. Keep your receipts and claim expenses separately.

How long do I have to claim, and what happens after I send the letter?

There is no EU-wide deadline. Regulation 261/2004 sets no limitation period of its own; the time limit comes from national law and varies substantially between countries. Which country’s law applies is itself a legal question. Sending a claim letter to the airline does not necessarily stop a limitation period from running, so claim promptly and get local advice if your flight was some time ago.

The airline should then either pay or give reasons for refusing. The letter requests a response within 14 days — that is your request, not a statutory period; current EU261 imposes no general payment deadline. Submit it through the operating airline’s official claims channel and keep proof of submission. If it refuses, ask for a reasoned decision and the evidence behind any extraordinary-circumstances defence. Depending on the country and route, your options may include an approved alternative dispute resolution body, the competent national enforcement body or court. Their powers differ, and a national enforcement body does not always recover an individual passenger’s money.

Do the new EU passenger rights rules change any of this?

Not yet. The EU adopted a reform of air passenger rights law in July 2026, but it is not in force and does not apply to current claims.

The final act enters into force twenty days after publication in the Official Journal and applies twelve months after entering into force. As of this page’s legal review date, publication had not established a fixed application date. Until the rules apply, Regulation 261/2004 and existing court authority govern — including the current threshold, where an arrival exactly three hours late qualifies. The reform text words that threshold differently, which is one reason a claim should be assessed under the rules in force on the relevant date rather than anticipated ones.

What does the generator do?

It asks about your journey, applies the current rules to your answers, and produces a downloadable A4 claim letter to the operating airline setting out the compensation band, the distance basis, any possible Article 7(2) reduction and the evidence you are asking the airline to provide. No account, no stored answers or letters, and no electronic signature — a compensation demand is a letter you send, not an agreement anyone countersigns. Download it before you leave the page.

Where your facts do not resolve cleanly — an uncertain arrival time, missing notice details, an unconfirmed operating carrier, a possibly separate ticket — it tells you what is unresolved instead of inventing a figure. It produces a well-founded demand, not a decision: the airline can still dispute the facts or rely on a defence it must prove.