Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert has explained how Brits can secure compensation up to £520 per person for flight delays. If your flight is cancelled by an airline, you are likely entitled to a refund or replacement flight as well as a payout.
MSE says compensation for a cancelled flight depends on timing and how soon or late the replacement flight was. The experts caution that you are only due compensation if the cancellation was the airline’s fault. They also warn you never to pay to make a claim.
The rules apply to any UK or EU “regulated” flight in the last six years, or five in Scotland. If your flight was delayed, then it has to have arrived more than three hours later than scheduled.
If your flight is axed within 14 days before you are due to fly, it is the airline’s responsibility to get you on another flight to your destination. Or you can accept a refund instead.
Compensation depends on the timing of your replacement flight. According to experts from MSE and solicitors Bott&Co, you are covered if you flew from the UK or EU or flew into the UK or EU with a UK or EU airline.
You can claim for crew shortages or technical faults but not bad weather or air traffic strikes.
Your replacement flight must also have taken off earlier and/or land later than your original flight.
MSE says: “Even if you don’t get the replacement flight, you may still be owed. The amount of time early or late the replacement flight takes off compared with your original flight determines the amount you’ll get.”
You are entitled to a specific amount of compensation depending on the distance of your flight and the length of the delay.
According to Citizens Advice, if your flight is delayed long enough, your airline has to provide you with food and drink, access to phone calls and emails and accommodation if you’re delayed overnight.
The airline should also provide you with journeys between the airport and the hotel.