Your flight was cancelled.

A cancellation triggers two separate entitlements, and most passengers claim only one of them.

Read this first

Fourteen days is the line

Compensation generally turns on how much notice you were given. Told more than fourteen days ahead, no compensation is due. Told inside fourteen days, it is — unless the airline can prove extraordinary circumstances. Find the message that told you and note its timestamp, because that timestamp is the claim.

What you are owed

A refund, or re-routing — your choice, not theirs

When a flight is cancelled you choose between a full refund of the unused ticket and being re-routed to your destination. The airline does not get to decide for you, and it cannot force a voucher on you in place of money.

Fixed compensation, if the cause was within their control

Where EC261/UK261 applies and you were told less than fourteen days before departure, compensation is owed on top of the refund or re-routing — broadly EUR 250 under 1,500km, EUR 400 for 1,500-3,500km, EUR 600 beyond that, with UK equivalents in pounds. In the US there is no statutory compensation for a cancellation, but the refund right is strong and applies even to non-refundable fares.

Duty of care, whatever the cause

Meals, communication, and a hotel plus transfers if you are kept overnight. This is owed even when the cancellation was weather or air traffic control, and it is the entitlement airlines most often quietly skip. Keep every receipt.

How they will refuse, and what answers it

“It was extraordinary circumstances.”

They must prove it, not assert it. Ask in writing for the specific cause and the evidence. Weather, air traffic control restrictions and security incidents genuinely qualify; a technical fault, crew shortage or scheduling decision generally does not.

“We have issued you a voucher.”

A voucher is not a refund unless you accepted it as one. State plainly that you did not, and require the money to the original payment method.

“You booked through an agent, so claim from them.”

The compensation obligation sits with the operating carrier regardless of where you bought the ticket. If the agent is holding a refund the airline has already released, that is the agent's problem to answer for — and the reason to put both on the same clock.

Gather this before you write

□The cancellation message, screenshotted with its timestamp — this proves the notice period
□Your original booking confirmation showing the scheduled times
□What the airline stated as the cause, in writing wherever possible
□Receipts for meals, transport and any accommodation you paid for yourself
□Boarding passes or app records for the flights you actually took

Now make them answer.

Tell us what happened in your own words. We write the claim, set the deadlines, and email each escalation on the day it is due — and we will not demand money the rules do not owe, because a claim that overreaches gets a one-line refusal.