Air Passenger Rights
You are entitled to compensation if your flight was delayed and your situation meets the following criteria:
- you arrived at your final destination at least 3 hours after the scheduled time
- your flight departed from the airport located in EU or your flight was operated by EU carrier when departing from outside of EU and arriving in the EU
- the delay wasn’t caused by extraordinary circumstances (bad weather conditions, strikes, political or civil unrest etc.).
The amount of compensation that you might be entitled to, depends on the flight distance and varies from €250 to €600.
Outside of your right to compensation due to a long flight delay, while you wait, the airline has to provide you with meals and refreshments, communication (phone calls, fax, email), accommodation in the hotel and transportation between the airport and the place of your stay, if necessary.
If you are still unsure if you are eligible to receive compensation due to your flight delay, you can check it quickly by using our free eligibility calculator.
You are entitled to compensation if your flight was canceled and the airline didn’t inform you about it at least 14 days before scheduled departure.
Outside of your right to compensation, while you wait for your alternative flight, the airline has to provide you with meals and refreshments, accommodation in the hotel and transportation between the airport and the place of your stay, if necessary. Unfortunately, if the cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances (bad weather conditions, strikes, political or civil unrest, etc.) the airline is not obligated to pay the compensation.
If you are still not sure if you are eligible to receive compensation due to your canceled flight, you can check it quickly by using our free eligibility calculator.
The airline can deny you the right to board for multiple different reasons. This if you are entitled to compensation is determined by their reason. If overbooking was the cause of your denied boarding, you are eligible for compensation and you can file a claim with Flight Defender. If for some reason you were late at the boarding gate, you didn’t have required travel documents or there was an issue where you were to blame, the airline is not required to pay out the compensation.
You are entitled to compensation when a delayed or canceled flight cause you to miss a connection under these circumstances:
- you booked your flights together (under the same booking number),
- you arrived at your final destination 3 or more hours later than scheduled
- the delay or cancellation was not caused by extraordinary circumstances (bad weather conditions, strikes, security concern etc.)
If you are still not sure if you are eligible to receive compensation for your missed connection, you can check it by using our free eligibility calculator.
The amount of compensation you might be eligible for depends on a few different factors:
- type of flight disruption (whether it was a delay, cancellation or overbooking)
- the length of the delay (based on the time you arrived at your final destination)
- the distance of the flight.
The table below can help you determine how much you can claim: (add table)
You are still entitled to the compensation, even if you accepted the voucher from the airline, but just if the voucher has a lesser value than the compensation you are due. For example – if the voucher that you received was €400 and according to the EU Regulation 261/2004 you are entitled to €600, the airline still owes you €200 in monetary compensation.
There is one particular case when the airline is not obligated to pay compensation after a passenger accepted the voucher. If your flight was overbooked and you voluntarily gave up your seat and accepted the voucher from an airline, you are not eligible for compensation.
Yes. Regulation EC 261/2004 requires airlines to take care of you by providing assistance if your flight was delayed, canceled or overbooked and you are forced to wait an unreasonable amount of time for your flight. In addition to this, you can claim compensation for your inconvenience.
You can check how much you are entitled to by using our free eligibility calculator.
You might be eligible for the compensation if your charter flight was delayed for over 3 hours, canceled or overbooked. Whether you’re traveling on a regular priced flight, using a low-cost company or on a charter flight, your right to compensation does not change.
You can check if you are entitled to the compensation for your disrupted charter flight by using our free eligibility calculator.
No. You are eligible for compensation even if you are not an EU citizen. Your citizenship does not affect your rights under the EU Regulation 261/2004.
Yes. The compensation is owed to a person that experienced the flight disruption, it doesn’t matter who paid for the ticket.
You can check how much compensation you can get for your disrupted flight by using our free eligibility calculator.
The easiest way to find out if you are eligible for compensation is to complete our free eligibility checker. It takes less than 2 minutes.
You might be entitled to flight compensation if in the past 3 years you have experienced a long flight delay, cancellation or you were denied boarding. Compensation is due to a traveler only if the flight disruption was caused by a situation that was in the airline’s control. Airlines are not required to pay out compensation in case of extraordinary circumstances.
- If your flight was within UE, from or/and to UE – according to EC 261 Regulation, you might be entitled to compensation if your flight was delayed (by over 3 hours), canceled or overbooked (you were denied boarding).
- If your flight was within the US – you might be entitled to compensation in case of denied boarding due to overbooking and your alternative flight arrived at your destination one hour late or more.
Claim Submission
Our goal was to make your life easier, so we have built a platform that allows you to fill out your claim in minutes and let you submit one claim for several people if you were traveling together.
Required Documents
Yes. To file a claim with Flight Defender you will need to know your flight number, airports from which you have departed and arrived and the date of your flight. If you do not remember these details you can always contact an airline and obtain information about your flight. You can also try to look for an e-ticket or confirmation email from an airline in your inbox. If you haven’t deleted it, you should still have a copy of it in your email.
Sometimes airlines ask for documentation while submitting a claim. In this case, we would ask you to provide us with your ticket and boarding pass to avoid rejection by the airline. Remember that you can always contact the airline’s customer support and ask for a copy of your travel documents.
The Permission to Handle the Claim (Power of Attorney) is a legal document by which you permit Flight Defender to represent you in legal procedures against the airline to obtain your compensation. The Power of Attorney is needed for Flight Defender to communicate with the airline about your case, as well as represent you in court if needed. The only powers granted to Flight Defender would be to claim your compensation.
Fees and Payout Process
Flight Defender offers competitive pricing. We only charge 20% of the compensation as a fee, where our competitors charge 25% – 45% + VAT (tax). Other than that, we do not require additional legal action fees, administration fee, processing fee or payout fee. We do not have higher commission rates with bigger compensation (flat-rate) like others. There are no upfront costs or hidden fees. Submitting a claim is free and we only get paid if our customers get paid, all other costs are on us.
Flight Defender will not charge you anything if the case is lost in court. We operate on a “no win, no fee” basis which means we only charge you a service fee if we get your compensation.
About Flight Defender
Flight Defender was created with air passengers in mind. We help travelers obtain the compensation they are owed from the airlines for the delayed, canceled or overbooked flights.
After you fill out basic information about your flight in Flight Defender’s compensation calculator, our system will determine if you qualify for compensation. From there, our team of legal experts will file a claim against the airline and take care of every next step for you. If necessary, our lawyers will handle your case in court at no additional charge to you. You will be informed of every step we take and we will contact you in case we need any extra information.
Flight Defender charges 20% of the compensation as the service fee. After receiving money from the airline, we will deduct our fee and send you what’s owed to you.
Flight Defender is your number 1 choice when it comes to defending your air passenger rights and claiming the compensation you are owed. We are the experts in the flight compensation industry and we specialize in EU Regulation 261/2004.
Our promise is to make claiming process stress- free and to bring every claim to its full completion with success. We take care of your claim from start to finish by representing you in front of the airline and handling lengthy back-and-forth communication. Should your case require that we escalate the complaint to a court, our team of lawyers also take care of everything for you at no additional cost. Flight Defender operates on “no win, no fee basis” which means that using our help is totally risk-free. Choosing us will not only improve your chances of success but speed up the payout process and make the whole experience painless.
To learn more about benefits from choosing Flight Defender read what our customers say about us!
Yes. We can definitely help you. Airlines tend to reject cases that are submitted individually by air passengers. With Flight Defender you have higher chances of success.
Simply, fill out our eligibility checker and provide us with your flight details. Inside the form, there will be an “Additional comments” section where you can give us all the information you have received from the airline when they denied you the right to compensation. If our system sees that the airline had no reason to deny you the compensation, our experts will fight for your rights and submit your claim again.
Remember that even if our system denied your eligibility, you can still contact our representative and we will look into your case individually.
If you have experienced a flight delay, cancellation or you were denied boarding you can usually seek compensation from the airline. The problem most people face is insufficient knowledge of the law and lack of time. The claiming process can be difficult, long and involves a lot of paperwork. Having to enforce your rights by yourself can be frustrating and time-consuming, especially when getting unprofessional help from the airline’s customer service. Most air passengers get stressed and discouraged by the hassle they are faced with when seeking compensation. Finally, feeling helpless, often resign their rights too quickly.
Flight Defender was created with those passengers in mind. Our promise is to make claiming process stress- free and to bring every claim to its full completion with success. We take care of your claim from start to finish by representing you in front of the airline and handling lengthy back-and-forth communication. Should your case require that we escalate the complaint to a court, our team of lawyers also take care of everything for you at no additional cost. Flight Defender operates on “no win, no fee basis” which means that using our help is totally risk-free. Choosing us will not only improve your chances of success but speed up the payout process and make the whole experience painless.
Don’t hesitate and file your claim with us. Simply enter your flight information in our free eligibility checker and we will take care of the rest.
