Flight delay compensation is paid on arrival, not on the mood of the departure board. If you reach your destination three hours or more behind the scheduled time, and the airline caused it, EU and UK rules can put €250, €400, or €600 in your name. Per person. The ticket price does not set the number.
The three hours that count
Regulation EC 261/2004, and the UK version that copied it, treat a long delay like a cancellation for compensation. Courts settled the argument years ago: a delay of three hours or more at the final destination can trigger the same fixed sum as a cancellation. A two-hour wait on the stand that still gets you in 90 minutes late does not.
Measure the gap between the arrival time on your ticket and the moment the door opens at the destination. A late departure that the crew makes up in the air is a bad hour, not a claim. Write the actual arrival down before you leave the jet bridge. Photos of the board help. Memory does not.
How much, by distance
The sums are fixed. They are not a refund of the fare, and they sit on top of the ticket you already paid.
| Route length | EU amount | UK amount |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km | €250 | £220 |
| 1,500 to 3,500 km, and longer flights inside Europe | €400 | £350 |
| Over 3,500 km | €600 | £520 |
On a long flight, the higher band can be cut by half if you arrive less than four hours late. That cut is in the regulation. It is not an airline invention. Intra-EU hops stay in the €250 or €400 band even when the city pair feels long.
The rule applies when you fly from an EU or UK airport, or into one on an EU or UK airline. A US carrier flying you home from Chicago to London is a different case from a British or European carrier on the same route. Read the operating airline, not the logo on the boarding pass you were handed at a codeshare desk.
When the airline does not have to pay
Extraordinary circumstances are the exit. A storm, a closed runway, a security scare, an air-traffic restriction: if the airline can show it could not have avoided the delay, the fixed sum usually falls away. You can still be owed care.
A strike by the airline's own crew is often treated as the airline's problem, not as an act of weather. A strike by air-traffic control is more often the other way. The label on the text message is not the legal test. "Operational reasons" is a phrase, not a defence.
The text of the EU regulation is on EUR-Lex. The UK version is explained, in plainer language, by the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
What to keep before you go home
- Booking reference and the ticketed arrival time.
- Boarding pass, even if it is a screenshot.
- The time the door actually opened.
- Receipts for food or a hotel the airline did not provide.
- Names of the other passengers on the booking. Each person claims, including children with their own seat.
There is no single deadline for the whole of Europe. The limit follows the country where the claim is brought, and it is measured in years, not weeks. Do not wait for a perfect afternoon in 2029. Airlines answer faster when the file is still warm.
Starting the claim
The airline's own form is free. Some pay. Some reply with a weather paragraph and stop.
If the delay kills the trip and you rebook yourself, price the replacement on Holipay and keep that receipt too. A new ticket is not the same as compensation, but it is evidence of what the day cost.
A cancellation is a different clock. That one is in cancelled flight compensation.
Short answers
Does a 2 hour 50 minute delay pay?
Not under the three-hour rule. Arrival has to be three hours late or more.
Is compensation the same as a refund?
No. A refund gives the fare back when you do not travel. Compensation is a fixed sum for the disruption when you do, or when the airline cancels on you.
Can I claim if I took a later flight the airline offered?
Yes, if that later flight made you three hours late at the end, and extraordinary circumstances do not apply.