Cancelled flight? Refund vs compensation explained

When an airline cancels a flight, people are usually offered one thing: a seat on another flight, or their money back. Fewer know there is often a second payment owed on top.

The refund (or re-route)

If your flight is cancelled, for any reason, you choose between:

• a full refund of the unused part of the ticket, paid within seven days, in money, not vouchers, unless you agree to vouchers in writing; or
• re-routing to your destination at the earliest opportunity, or on a later date that suits you.

This applies whatever the cause. The airline cannot refuse a refund because the cancellation was due to weather.

The compensation

Separately, you are owed fixed compensation (£220 / £350 / £520 by distance, or €250 / €400 / €600 for EU departures) if:

• the airline told you about the cancellation less than 14 days before departure; and
• the cause was not extraordinary circumstances.

There is a narrowing rule for late notice: if they told you between 7 and 14 days before and offered a re-route that left no more than two hours earlier and arrived under four hours late, no compensation. Within 7 days, the windows are one hour earlier and two hours late. In practice most last-minute cancellations don't meet these, and compensation is due.

The sums together

A family of four on a cancelled £600 booking from Manchester to Alicante, told the night before for an "operational" reason: £600 refund plus 4 × £350 = £1,400 compensation (Manchester to Alicante is about 1,680 km, so the middle band). Airlines will hand over the first without a fight and hope you don't ask for the second.

Care while you wait

If you accept re-routing and wait at the airport, the airline must provide meals, and a hotel with transfers if you're delayed overnight, regardless of the reason for the cancellation. Keep receipts if they don't, and claim the cost back.