Do airlines compensate for delays?

Where you were flying decides everything

There is no global rule. Whether a delay is worth money to you depends almost entirely on where the flight departed from and, in some cases, which airline operated it.

In the UK and the EU, a delay long enough to get you to your final destination three or more hours late generally carries a fixed cash payment, and the airline owes it regardless of what you paid for the ticket — unless the cause was outside their control.

In the United States, there is no federal requirement for an airline to pay you anything for a delay. None. What US rules do give you is the right to your money back when a flight is delayed far enough to count as a significant change, plus whatever the airline has published as its own commitment.

That gap is the single most important thing on this page. Two passengers sitting next to each other on the same delayed aircraft can be owed completely different things depending on where the flight took off.

The UK and EU rules

The entitlement is triggered by your arrival delay at your final destination, not by how late you pushed back. A flight that leaves two hours late and makes some of it up in the air may owe nothing.

At three hours or more, the amounts are fixed by flight distance:

• €250 / £220 for flights of 1,500km or less.
• €400 / £350 for longer flights within the EU, and for other flights between 1,500km and 3,500km.
• €600 / £520 for flights over 3,500km outside the EU — reduced by half if the airline gets you there less than four hours late.

These are the same figures used when you are denied boarding on an oversold flight, and the same ones that apply to a cancellation inside fourteen days. One scheme, three triggers.

The exemption that swallows most claims

The airline does not have to pay when the cause was an extraordinary circumstance — something outside their control. In practice that means weather, air traffic control restrictions, strikes by third parties, security incidents and bird strikes.

A crew shortage, a rostering failure, a routine technical fault or an aircraft arriving late from its previous rotation are normally not extraordinary, and those are the causes behind a large share of delays. If the airline's own answer is a vague "operational reasons", ask them to state the cause in writing. That sentence is what a claim turns on.

Care, which you get either way

Separate from compensation, a long delay in the UK and EU triggers a duty of care: food and drink appropriate to the wait, two communications, and a hotel plus transfers if you are kept overnight. This is owed even when the cause was weather and no compensation is due.

If the airline is not organising it, buy what is reasonable and keep the receipts. A documented cost is recoverable; a remembered one is not.

And a refund, if the delay is long enough

Once a delay passes five hours, you can abandon the trip and take a refund of the unflown portion instead. That is worth knowing at hour four, when you are still being told it will be another ninety minutes.

The United States

The US position is genuinely different and it is worth being blunt about it: there is no US law requiring an airline to compensate you for a delayed flight.

What you do have:

• An automatic refund when the flight is significantly changed and you choose not to travel. The Department of Transportation's rule defines significant as a departure or arrival more than three hours off for a domestic flight and more than six hours for an international one — and also covers a change of departure or arrival airport, an added connection, or a downgrade. The refund is to your original payment method, in cash, not a voucher, and you do not have to ask for it if you decline the alternative.
• A refunded checked bag fee if your bag is not delivered within twelve hours of a domestic arrival, and within fifteen to thirty hours of an international one depending on flight length.
• Whatever the airline has promised itself. US carriers publish their own commitments for delays within their control — typically meals after three hours and a hotel for an overnight — and the DOT holds them to what they published. These vary carrier by carrier and they are the airline's policy, not the law.

The practical consequence: on a US itinerary, the useful question is not "what am I owed" but "do I want the money back or do I want to travel". You usually get to choose one, and only one.

What actually decides your claim

Three details, all of which you can capture on the day and none of which you can reconstruct a month later.

1. The arrival time you actually landed and the doors opened — not the schedule, and not what the app said an hour before. Photograph the arrivals board or the gate screen.
2. The stated cause, in the airline's own words. Screenshot the app notification or save the email. "Operational" is not a cause; press for one.
3. Whether it was one ticket or two. On a single ticket, only the arrival delay at your final destination matters, so a missed connection is the airline's problem. On separate tickets, the second airline owes you nothing at all — the commonest and most expensive misunderstanding in this whole area, and the same trap that makes open-jaw and self-connected itineraries riskier than they look.

Claims go to the airline, not to us

Compensation attaches to the flight and the operating carrier. It does not attach to where the ticket was bought, so booking through us costs you nothing in entitlement — and it also means we cannot pay it on the airline's behalf. Any booking site implying it can is overpromising.

Claim directly with the operating airline first, in writing, quoting the flight number and date. If they refuse and you disagree, the UK and EU both have escalation routes — an alternative dispute resolution body or the national enforcement authority — and in the US, a complaint to the DOT.

What we can do is the record-keeping half: confirm what was booked, what was paid and what the fare rules said. That sits in your trips, and anything we hold we will send you. Who to contact about a booking is the ten-second version of which door to knock on.

Delays and the rest of the trip

A delay does not only cost you time. It costs you the parts of the trip that were booked to a schedule.

A hotel night you no longer arrive for is still charged unless the rate allowed a cancellation, because the two bookings do not know about each other. If a flight lands at 2am instead of 2pm, the room you booked for the previous night was not held for you — which is the same arithmetic that catches people out with overnight flights.

Before you pair a non-refundable room with a tight itinerary, price the free-cancellation version of the same rate and see what the insurance costs. Across the cities we publish figures for, a four-star room in London or New York runs into the hundreds a night — what hotels actually cost has the medians by city and star rating, so you can size the risk rather than guess at it. And if the delay was long enough to be a claim, travel insurance usually expects you to claim from the airline first and covers only what is left.

Common questions

Does a delay have to be three hours to get anything?

In the UK and EU, yes — three hours late at your final destination is the threshold for compensation, though the duty of care starts earlier, at two hours on short flights. In the US there is no compensation threshold, because there is no compensation.

Is it the departure delay or the arrival delay that counts?

Arrival, at your final destination. This is why an airline that leaves late and flies fast can owe nothing, and why a short delay that makes you miss a connection can be worth the full amount.

Do I get compensation if the delay was caused by weather?

No. Weather is treated as outside the airline's control everywhere we are aware of. You still get the duty of care, and you still get a refund if the delay runs long enough.

The airline offered a voucher. Should I take it?

Only if it is worth more than the cash and you will certainly use it. A voucher is not a substitute for a payment you are legally owed, and accepting one can be treated as settling the claim. Ask what the cash figure is before you answer.

How long do I have to claim?

Longer than most people assume — the limit is set by national law and is measured in years rather than months in the UK and much of the EU. Do not write off a delay from last year without checking.

Can I claim for a delay on a flight I booked with you?

Yes, against the airline. Booking through an agent does not change the entitlement. Email bookings@bookthebed.com if you need the booking record, the fare rules or the payment evidence to support the claim — that part is ours.

What if the delay made me miss a hotel night?

That is between you and the property, and it depends on the rate you booked. Contact the hotel as early as you can — a hotel told in advance that you are delayed will usually hold the room; one that hears nothing may release it. What happens if the hotel does not have your booking covers the desk conversation.

Does any of this apply to a flight and hotel booked together?

The flight side is identical — the airline still owes what it owes. The difference is that a trip booked as one gives you one place to look and one record to quote when you are claiming. Our cancellation policy covers the hotel half.

Where do I start if I am still planning the trip?

Search flights, search a city, or browse the destination guides and the hotel directory if you have not chosen where to stay yet. If something has already gone wrong, contact us.