Europe’s Flight Delay Rules Promise Up To $700—But Some Passengers Need To Hire Bailiffs To Collect

The Washington Post suggests that if you’re fed up with flight delays and not getting any justice from the airline, consider flying a European carrier across the Pond instead of taking United, Delta, or American.

That’s because European Union passenger compensation rules (EU261, and UK261 is similar) cover all departures from Europe including on U.S. airlines – but flights to Europe are only covered if you’re on a European or British airline. So you might get paid for a delay flying to Europe on British Airways, Lufthansa or Air France – but not on the U.S. airlines.

The E.U. Compensation Promise

EU261 delay compensation requires cash payments when you arrive at your final destination 3 or more hours late on a covered itinerary and the delay isn’t casued by extraordinary circumstances such as severe weather, air traffic control restrictions, or political instability.

The delay is calculated based on arrival at your final destination on the same ticket, not departure delay. That means a one hour delay departing Europe that causes you to miss a U.S. domestic connection and get home four hours late is actually covered – even though the delay of the European flight alone wasn’t long enough.

Distance		Arrival delay		Compensation
≤1,500 km		3+ hours		€ 250
1,500–3,500 km		3+ hours		€ 400
Intra-EU >1,500 km		3+ hours		€ 400
>3,500 km		3–4 hours		€ 300
>3,500 km		4+ hours		€ 600

Addiitonally, “right to care” rules kick in during long delays requiring meals, refreshments and communications after 2, 3, and 4 hours depending on distance as well as hotel and transportion during an overnight delay if overnight, regardless of whether cash compensation is ultimately owed. If a departure is delayed 5 or more hours, you can abandon the trip and take a refund.

Post-Brexit, EU261 no longer applied to Britain, but they adopted UK261 which covers flights departing a UK airport on any airline, flights arriving in the UK on a UK or EU airline, and flights arriving in the EU on a UK airline. Compensation amounts range from GBP220 – GBP520.

It’s not automatic, though, you have to ask for it. And you sometimes have to pursue it.

E.U. and U.K. Delay Compensation Is Stronger In Theory, But Then Go Try To Collect

You may have a right to compensation, but that doesn’t mean the airline will pay it. And there’s not as much simple assistance as a DOT consumer complaint often provides in the U.S.

In fact, when a passenger couldn’t collect from compensation from Delta after a flight from London Heathrow, they had to get a judgment and hire a bailiff to go collect. And the bailiff showed up at London Heathrow, halted check-in for a flight, and threatened to seize a Delta plane until a manager there took out her own personal credit card to pay.

This was made into an episode of a TV show!

Meanwhile, I recently covered Ryanair refusing to pay a delayed passenger so a bailiff boarded one of their Boeing 737s and seized the plane.

I’ve written about passengers hiring private bailiffs to collect on unpaid flight delay compensation, taking credit cards from airline staff in their offices to avoid seizure and sale of the office furniture.

Bailiffs once showed up at London Luton airport, delaying a Wizz Air flight to collect a refund that was owed to a customer. It caused a flight delay, and then Wizz Air owed EU261 compensation to all of the passengers on board!

Former Slovenian Star Alliance member Adria Airways once even cancelled a flight to Vienna because they expected bailiffs to seize their aircraft over an unpaid 250 euro claim. Weird, because everyone on the cancelled flight would have been owed compensation, too.

Having to go to these sorts of lengths is why people often sell their claims to companies like AirHelp which runs a business collecting compensation from airlines, and then pays you a portion of what they collect. But watch out! One company lost a case against Finnair, the airline won fees and costs and the company went out of business so Finnair sued the passengers to collect.

There Are Actually Some Scenarios Where U.S. Consumer Protection Is Stronger

U.S. airlines are mostly on the hook for meals during long delays that are their fault ($12 or $15 vouchers that may not cover much in an airport, but that you can usually add to a Starbucks card if nothing else) and for hotels when an overnight delay is their fault (but they promise nothing about the quality of the hotel). That’s because DOT pressured most carriers to add this to their customer commitments, making the voluntary promise enforceable.

There are strong cash payout rights if you’re involuntarily bumped from a U.S. airline – instead of just falling int EU-style delay rules, you’re usually looking at a payout of 400% of your one-way fare up to $2,150 on top of getting to your destination later.

And DOT has been good at requiring airlines to actually refund tickets when they cancel flights, and not to permit airlines to raise the price of a ticket after a passenger has purchased it (in Europe that practice actually happens).

I Wouldn’t Make Airline Choices On The Basis Of EU Consumer Protections

United’s Scott Kirby warns against the U.S. adopting similar rules, because they incentivize airlines not to take mechanical delays which is bad for safety. And that makes a certain sense.. except that European airlines are no less safe.

I think the better argument is that these rules work as a sort of mandatory insurance the government requires to be bundled into ticket price, and that’s not actually great for consumers.

But the cost is small enough it’s likely not noticeable, and prices are largely set by supply and demand including the supply offered by airlines not covered by the rules (and both sets of airlines are often part of the same antitrust immunized joint ventures) – so it’s complicated.

Still, I wouldn’t choose an airline on this basis. The potential for a delay payout in both directions rather than just leaving Europe doesn’t seem lucrative enough to overwhelm other passenger experience kinds of issues, whether schedule frequency, connecting times, or inflight experience like wifi quality. Just a trip on those traditional metrics more than this.