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THE 60-MINUTE PLAYBOOK · EC261 / UK261

Your flight was just cancelled. Here’s the next hour.

By Nathan Zarcaro, founder of MyAirAdvocate · 4 min read · Updated

A traveller checks the departures board in an airport terminal

THE SHORT ANSWER

If your flight was cancelled, get rebooked in writing, let the airline pay for food and a hotel, and keep every receipt. If it left the UK or EU, or landed there on a European airline, you’re also owed €250–€600 per person.

AT A GLANCE

  • Do: Take the refund or the new flight, in writing
  • Do: Meals and a hotel are the airline’s cost
  • Do: Keep every receipt
  • Don’t: Don’t sign anything that says “full and final”

Does this apply to my flight?

EC261 · UK261

COVERED

  • ●Any flight departing the UK or an EU country, on any airline (including US carriers)
  • ●Any flight arriving into the UK or EU on a UK or EU airline
  • ●Connecting itineraries on one booking, where the final destination is late

NOT COVERED

  • ●US domestic flights (Boston to Denver) — different rules, no fixed compensation
  • ●Flights into the EU or UK on a non-European airline (New York to London on Delta or American)
  • ●Anywhere else in the world, unless local law says otherwise

This is EU Regulation 261/2004, called EC261, and its UK copy, UK261. It is the reason a cancelled Paris flight pays €600 and a cancelled Phoenix flight pays nothing.

In this guide · 5 sections
  1. 01What should I do first when my flight is cancelled?
  2. 02Does the airline have to pay for my food and hotel?
  3. 03How much compensation am I owed for a cancelled flight?
  4. 04How do I claim after a cancelled flight?
  5. FAQQuestions people ask

RIGHT NOW

What should I do first when my flight is cancelled?

Do these in order. The rebooking line fills up first.

  1. Get in the desk line and call the airline at the same time

    Whichever answers first wins. Have your booking reference ready. Travelling with someone? One of you queues, the other calls.

  2. Take the rebooking, and get it in writing

    You choose: a full refund, or a new flight to your destination at the earliest chance, on another airline if theirs isn’t soon (Article 8). Get it by email or on a printed itinerary. A spoken “you’re on the 7am” isn’t enough.

  3. Photograph the departure board

    Get CANCELLED next to your flight number, with the clock visible. That one photo ends a lot of arguments.

  4. Ask why, and write the answer down

    Note the time, the agent’s name and the exact words. “Operational reasons” means nothing legally. You’ll quote it later.

THE NEXT HOUR

Does the airline have to pay for my food and hotel?

Yes. Article 9 says the airline must look after you while you wait, whoever’s fault the cancellation was.

  1. Meals

    Ask the desk for meal vouchers. No desk? Buy something reasonable and keep the receipt.

  2. A hotel, if the new flight is tomorrow

    The airline pays for the room and the ride to it. If it won’t book one, book an ordinary airport hotel yourself. The Ritz gets refused.

  3. Every receipt, photographed the moment you get it

    The taxi, the 1am sandwich, the toothbrush. Reimbursement claims don’t fail on principle. They fail on missing receipts.

See exactly what your flight owes you. Free, no card.

Check my flight →

THE PART THEY SKIP

How much compensation am I owed for a cancelled flight?

If the flight left the UK or EU on any airline, or arrived there on a UK or EU airline, EC261 or UK261 covers it. Cancelled with under 14 days’ notice, it pays by distance, per person, children included:

FLIGHT DISTANCEEC261UK261
Up to 1,500 km€250£220
1,500 to 3,500 km€400£350
Over 3,500 km€600£520

Per person. Flights within the EU stop at €400, however far.

That’s on top of the refund or the new flight.

The airline gets out of it only by proving extraordinary circumstances: severe weather when your flight was due to leave, closed airspace, a security incident.

Crew shortages don’t count. Aircraft problems don’t either; the courts settled that in 2008. “Operational reasons” is what airlines say when they don’t have a real one.

TOMORROW

How do I claim after a cancelled flight?

Send two claims: your receipts (reimbursement), and the fixed amount (compensation, Article 7). Here’s a compensation letter template for the second.

Both usually go through the airline’s web form. Six to eight weeks of silence is normal. In England and Wales you have six years to file; most of the EU gives two or three.

Or skip the letters: check your flight. We tell you what applies and, if you say go, file the claim for you.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions people ask

My flight was cancelled two hours before departure. Does that change anything?

It helps you. Under 7 days’ notice is the strongest position: the airline owes compensation unless the new flight left within an hour of the original and landed under two hours late.

If I take the refund, do I lose the compensation?

No. The refund settles the ticket. The compensation is a separate right under Article 7 and doesn’t go away.

The airline says the cancellation was weather.

Ask which weather, at which airport, at what time. Weather excuses the flight it actually stopped. The refusal letters that say "adverse weather conditions" with no date or place are the ones that lose at the dispute body.

I booked through a website, not the airline. Who do I claim from?

The airline that operated the flight. Always the operator, never the seller.

How much is a family of four owed on a cancelled London to New York flight?

That’s over 3,500 km under UK261: £520 each, £2,080 for the four of you, plus whatever you spent while you waited.

See exactly what your flight owes you — free, no card. We check it against the rules, and if it qualifies and you say go, we file the claim for you.

Check my flight →

The law this guide is written against: EC261 full text (EUR-Lex) · UK261 full text (legislation.gov.uk)

General information, not legal advice. Compensation depends on the facts of each disruption and the airline’s evidence. MyAirAdvocate files claims for a flat $39, charged only if the airline pays, and never takes a percentage of what you are owed.