What happens if my flight is cancelled?

Refund or rebooking — the choice is normally yours

When an airline cancels, the two remedies are a replacement flight or a refund of the unused portion of your ticket. Which one you prefer is usually your call rather than the airline's, and an airline offering only a voucher is offering you something less than the law in many places requires. A voucher is worth accepting when it is genuinely worth more than the fare and you will certainly travel again; it is not a substitute for a refund you would rather have.

Refunds are issued by whoever took the payment, back to the original payment method. That is the single most useful thing to understand about the process, because it explains why timelines vary so much: the money has to travel back along the same chain it came down.

Say which one you want, and say it in writing

The remedy you get often follows the first thing you click. An app that offers you a voucher and a rebooking, with the refund three screens deeper, is not breaking any rule — it is presenting the option it prefers. If you want the money back, ask for a refund explicitly, in writing, and keep the message. It costs nothing and it is the evidence that settles a dispute later.

Do not accept a replacement flight you cannot use

A rebooking two days later is technically a remedy and practically useless if the reason for the trip has passed. You are generally entitled to choose the refund instead. Decide what the trip is worth to you before you answer, not after.

Compensation is a separate thing from a refund

People often use the two words interchangeably and then feel short-changed. A refund returns the money you paid. Compensation is an additional fixed sum some jurisdictions require the airline to pay for the disruption itself, and it typically depends on how far in advance you were told, how long the delay to your arrival ended up being, and whether the cause was within the airline's control. Weather and air traffic control restrictions usually fall outside it; a crew or aircraft problem usually does not.

The notice period is the part people miss

Under the UK and EU rules, an airline that tells you at least fourteen days before departure generally owes no compensation at all, however inconvenient the cancellation is. Inside fourteen days it depends on how much notice you had and what they re-routed you onto. This is why the date of the email matters as much as the date of the flight — save it.

The amounts themselves are fixed by flight distance rather than by what you paid, which means a cheap fare and an expensive one on the same route are owed the same. What you are owed when you are bumped sets out the current UK, EU and US thresholds in full; the same UK and EU figures are the ones used for cancellations.

Compensation claims are made against the airline directly. No booking site can pay it on their behalf, and any site implying otherwise is overpromising.

What we do when it is a flight booked with us

We are an agent, not the airline. When a cancellation happens we pass your instruction to the airline and chase the outcome, but the airline sets the fare rules, decides the rebooking options and releases the money. We will tell you plainly which stage a refund is at rather than quoting a timeline we cannot control.

One thing worth doing yourself: check your bank or card statement to confirm which company actually took the payment. On any booking site, the merchant on your statement is the party who has to send the money back, and knowing that name shortens every conversation that follows. Who to contact about a booking is the ten-second version of the same test.

What to keep

Keep the cancellation notice with its timestamp, the boarding passes or booking references for whatever you eventually flew, and receipts for anything the disruption forced you to buy. A documented cost is recoverable in a way that a remembered one is not, and every one of these is trivial to save on the day and impossible to reconstruct a month later.

If you booked a flight and a hotel together

This is where a cancellation gets expensive in a way people do not expect. If your flight disappears and the hotel was booked separately, the hotel booking is untouched by it — a non-refundable room stays non-refundable even though you can no longer get there. The two bookings do not know about each other.

Before you book any non-refundable room to pair with a flight, it is worth asking what happens to the room if the flight fails. A free-cancellation rate usually costs a little more and is the cheaper answer the first time something goes wrong.

That is also the honest argument for booking a flight and a room together rather than separately: same trip, one place to look when it goes wrong, and one conversation instead of two. It is charged as two payments, which is normal and not a double charge.

The room you lose is usually worth more than the flight

It is worth putting a number on this before you choose a rate. Across the cities we publish prices for, a four-star room runs to a median of $547 a night in London and $630 in New York — so two lost nights on a non-refundable rate can exceed a short-haul fare on its own. What hotels actually cost has the figures by city and star rating if you want to size the risk before booking.

Common questions

Can I get a refund if I choose not to fly on the replacement flight?

Generally yes. If the airline cancels, you can normally decline the alternative and take a refund of the unused portion instead. Say which you want.

How long does an airline refund take?

The rules in several jurisdictions require it within days; the practical answer is often weeks. It depends on the airline, the fare and who collected the money. We will tell you what stage it is at rather than invent a date.

Does the airline have to pay for my hotel if I am stranded overnight?

Under the UK and EU rules, an airline that cancels must provide care — meals and accommodation appropriate to the wait — regardless of whether compensation is also owed. Keep receipts if you have to arrange it yourself.

The airline cancelled because of weather. Do I still get anything?

You still get the refund or the rebooking. You generally do not get compensation, because weather is normally treated as outside the airline's control. Those are two different entitlements and only one of them depends on the cause.

Can I claim compensation if I booked through you rather than the airline?

Yes. The entitlement attaches to the flight and the operating carrier, not to where the ticket was bought. Claim against the airline directly; we cannot pay it for them.

My connection was missed because the first flight was cancelled. What counts?

On a single ticket, the arrival time at your final destination is what matters, not the individual leg. On two separate tickets, the second airline owes you nothing — which is the main reason separate tickets are riskier than they look.

What if my flight is not cancelled but moved by several hours?

A significant schedule change is often treated similarly to a cancellation, and airlines will frequently allow a free change or a refund. Ask — the answer is usually better than the automated email suggests.

Does travel insurance cover a cancelled flight?

Sometimes, but insurers expect you to claim the airline's refund first and will cover only what remains. Do I need travel insurance explains where that line falls.

Where do I see what I booked?

In your trips. If you are still planning, search flights, search a city or start from a destination guide — and our cancellation policy covers what applies to the hotel side.