Flight delayed or cancelled?
You may be owed €250–600.
EU Regulation EC261/2004 protects you on any flight departing an EU airport, or arriving in the EU on an EU airline. Check your eligibility, then follow the steps to claim.
A 3-hour-plus arrival delay, a cancellation with less than 14 days’ notice, or denied boarding (overbooking) entitle you to a flat €250, €400 or €600 depending on distance — regardless of ticket price. Unless “extraordinary circumstances” apply (extreme weather, air-traffic-control strike, security). Meals and accommodation are owed either way.
What happened?
Did the airline give a reason?
How much can you claim?
Per passenger · Art. 7A sample letter — the kind that gets paid out.
Your real letter is auto-filled with your details from the form; legal articles and case law are included by default. Reading it and writing your own is completely free.
Flight delayed or cancelled? Claim €250–€600
Everything above is free to read and do yourself. Want it auto-filled with your flight and ready to send? Generate the PDF.
Generate my claim PDF — €19free to read · €19 to auto-generateYou flew the flight. They take ~30%.
AirHelp, Flightright, EUclaim and Compensair all start “free”, then keep 25–35% of what they recover. Our PDF is a flat €19 — the rest is yours.
| Service | Their cut | You keep (€400) | Family (€1,600) |
|---|---|---|---|
| FFCheck You win | €19 flat | €381 | €1,581 |
| AirHelp | 35% commission | €260 | €1,040 |
| Flightright | 30% commission | €280 | €1,120 |
| EUclaim | 27% commission | €292 | €1,168 |
| Compensair | 25% commission | €300 | €1,200 |
Competitor rates are their own published fees on the date of this page; we update on changes. Shown for a €400 claim and a €1,600 family-of-4 claim. · 07/2026
If the service is “free”, you’re the product.
Commission services need a signed mandate, ID copy, boarding pass, full booking and bank details — their real product is the data. We only need what it takes to write your letter.
Your name (on the letter), email (PDF delivery), flight details, and a Stripe payment token — we never see your card. No marketing list, no data sale, ever.
A signed legal mandate, ID/passport copy, boarding pass + booking PNR, email, phone, sometimes home address and bank IBAN (they receive your payout).
Why a generic ChatGPT letter gets ignored.
A generic prompt gives you “Dear airline, please pay €400.” A real claim letter cites the regulation and the ECJ case law, and pre-empts the “extraordinary circumstances” excuse — refined over hundreds of real claims.
- “Under EU regulations, I am entitled to compensation”
- “I look forward to your prompt response”
- “Please refund my €400”
- No specific citations, no case law, no deadline, no escalation.
- EU 261/2004 Art. 5 & 7 — exact articles and tiers
- Sturgeon (C-402/07 & C-432/07) — 3-hour delay = cancellation
- Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07) — tech faults ≠ “extraordinary”
- 14-day demand → enforcement body → disputes board → court, with statutory interest.
How it works
- Tell us what happened
Flight number, route, what went wrong. Two minutes — most people finish in under three.
- Complete checkout
Card, Apple Pay or local methods. Stripe-secured. The PDF arrives the moment you pay.
- Send it to your airline
Attach the PDF or paste it into a fresh email. A formal letter gets an EC261 case file opened — an email doesn’t.
Everything we cite — free to read.
Plain-language explainers, step-by-step protocols, landmark ECJ case law and head-to-head comparisons with the commission services. Everything in our letters, at no charge.
The official answer is above. This is what actually happened.
Anonymous outcome reports from people who sent a claim — reviewed by us before they count. Stats unlock at 5 approved reports and always show their sample size.
Independent published figures, so you never stare at an empty box — our own community numbers grow next to them. Sources below.
Sources
Every rate here is the AIRLINE's payout rate — the share of claims that end in the airline paying. It is never a FFCheck sales number.
0 reports so far — be the first. Sixty seconds, fully anonymous.
✍️ Report your outcome (anonymous, 60 seconds)
What the evidence says
Updated 10 October 2026
Public reports and official statistics, not our own measurements. Our own counter starts when readers report their outcome. Report your outcome →
UFC-Que Choisir · February 2026
The consumer group says the decree in force since 7 Feb 2026 makes MTV mediation (over 4.5 months on average) compulsory and requires a court officer's summons (about €100) to sue; it asked the Conseil d'État to annul it.
UFC-Que Choisir · January 2025
UFC-Que Choisir and Ryanair agreed on compensation for many passengers and a simplified channel through which the association submits EU261 claims for delays, cancellations and overbooking on flights to or from France.
Services Publics+ (user report) · July 2025
A traveller was refused €250 for a cancelled short flight; the tourism mediator sided with them, but the airline, an MTV member, ignored the opinion. A report to the DGAC went unanswered; the official reply months later was a link.
Routard forum · May 2026
A passenger delayed about 15 hours via Frankfurt was refused by Lufthansa, citing bad weather; members replied that the airline must prove extraordinary circumstances and pointed to the European small claims procedure.
Routard forum · June 2026
A Swiss/Edelweiss claim for a 4h24 delay via Zurich was first refused (meal costs only), then offered at half; after a registered letter and a draft court summons it was paid in June 2026. No mediator covered Swiss.
Routard forum · January 2025
No reply from LATAM two months after a claim for a delay of over 4 hours from Paris; four days after posting, the traveller reported being paid, but into the airline's wallet rather than a bank account.
Digest of public reports read 10 Oct 2026: replies often take weeks to months; several reports describe refusals citing weather or other extraordinary circumstances, or no reply at all. What worked: firm written follow-ups, sometimes with a draft court claim, and consumer-group action. MTV opinions can favour passengers but are not always followed.
How to claim
- 1. Claim from the airline
Write to the airline directly (email or letter), citing Regulation EC261/2004. Keep proof — boarding pass, booking, screenshots.
- 2. Mediation (mandatory in France since 7 Feb 2026)
If the airline refuses or doesn’t answer within 60 days, in France you must go through an approved mediator before court — usually the Médiateur Tourisme et Voyage (MTV). Free, and mandatory since the decree of 5 Aug 2025.
- 3. Report to the DGAC
The DGAC is France’s enforcement body for EC261. It doesn’t pay the compensation itself, but you can report a non-compliant airline.
- 4. Court (last resort)
If mediation fails, you can go to court. The limitation period in France is 5 years (Civil Code art. 2224).
Your rights, no matter what
Even with extraordinary circumstances, beyond a certain wait the airline must provide: meals and drinks, two means of communication, and accommodation + transfers if you need to stay overnight. This right to care is separate from compensation.
FAQ
How much for which flight?
€250 up to 1,500 km; €400 for intra-EU flights over 1,500 km and all flights 1,500–3,500 km; €600 beyond 3,500 km outside the EU.
How long must the delay be?
From 3 hours at the final destination. This 3-hour threshold still applies in 2026 (the proposal to raise it to 4–6h was rejected).
What about weather or strikes?
“Extraordinary circumstances” (extreme weather, ATC strike, security) remove the flat compensation but not the care. A strike by the airline’s own staff usually doesn’t count.
How long do I have to claim?
In France the limitation period is 5 years. Don’t wait — gather your proof early.
Do I need a paid claim company?
No. Claiming and the MTV mediation are free. Claim firms take 25–35%; you can do it all yourself for nothing.