Your flight was delayed.

One number decides this claim, and it is not the one on the departure board.

Read this first

It is the arrival that counts

The clock is measured at the door of the aircraft at your FINAL destination, not at pushback. A ninety-minute departure delay that becomes a three-hour arrival is a claim. A three-hour departure delay that the crew make up in the air is not. Before anything else, find your actual arrival time — the airline has it, and so does your boarding-pass app history.

What you are owed

Fixed compensation at three hours

Where EC261/UK261 applies, an arrival delay of three hours or more attracts the same amounts as a cancellation — broadly EUR 250 / EUR 400 / EUR 600 by distance. The United States has no equivalent statutory payment for delay, which is why a US-departing delay claim is usually about costs and refunds instead.

Duty of care while you wait

Meals and communication once the delay passes a threshold that LENGTHENS with distance — broadly two hours on short-haul, three in the middle band, four on the longest flights — and accommodation if you are kept overnight. Owed regardless of the cause.

A refund if the delay is long enough

On a very long delay you may abandon the journey entirely and take a refund instead of travelling. If you did not travel, say so — it changes the claim.

How they will refuse, and what answers it

“The delay was under three hours.”

Ask them to state the actual arrival time on which they relied. Disputes here are common and frequently resolve in the passenger's favour once a specific time has to be put in writing.

“It was a technical problem, which is extraordinary.”

Routine technical faults are generally treated as inherent to running an airline, not extraordinary. A part failing is usually within their control. Ask for the specific defect and why they consider it beyond their control.

“The delay was caused by the inbound aircraft arriving late.”

Knock-on delay does not automatically excuse them — it depends on what caused the original delay. Ask what that was.

Gather this before you write

□Your ACTUAL arrival time at the final destination, and where you got it
□The original scheduled arrival time from your booking
□Boarding passes or app records for every leg
□Any reason the airline announced or messaged, screenshotted
□Receipts for anything the delay forced you to buy

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.