Flight refunds explained

When your flight is cancelled or heavily delayed you can often get your money back — and, separately, compensation on top. Here is when a refund is due and how to claim it in cash.

Based on Regulation (EC) 261/2004

Check my flight

What a refund actually covers

A refund returns the price of the ticket you could not use. It is one of the choices EU261 gives you when a flight is cancelled or when a very long delay makes you abandon the trip. It is not the same as compensation — and taking a refund does not cancel your right to compensation.

Refund vs compensation

You can be owed both at once. Read the full compensation rules in the flight compensation guide.

When you can get a refund

• Your flight was cancelled and you do not want the re-routing offered.
• Your flight was delayed 5 hours or more and you choose not to travel.
• You were denied boarding and do not want an alternative flight.

Where relevant, the refund covers the parts of the journey not made, and a return to your first departure point if a connection has become pointless.

How to get your refund

Ask the airline directly and state clearly that you want a cash refund to your original payment method within seven days, as the regulation requires — not a voucher or travel credit. Keep your booking reference and any cancellation message. If you booked through an agent, you may need to claim through them.

Vouchers: you can say no

Extra expenses and care

Beyond the fare, if the airline failed to provide meals or a hotel it should have, keep your receipts and reclaim those reasonable expenses too. This "duty of care" applies even when no compensation is due — for example in bad weather.

Partly used tickets

If you completed part of a multi-leg trip before it fell apart, you can get a refund for the legs not flown, plus — where the flights already taken no longer serve any purpose — a flight back to your original departure airport.