Your money back — and the cost of getting there another way

Refund: your money back, in cash

Where a flight is cancelled and you do not travel, or is delayed by more than five hours and you decide not to fly, you are entitled to a full refund of the ticket price including taxes and fees for the unused part of the journey. You must be offered the refund in money — you are never obliged to accept a voucher.

Rerouting at the earliest opportunity

Instead of a refund you may ask to be rerouted to your final destination at the earliest opportunity, or at a later date that suits you. The airline bears the cost, and where it cannot provide a seat on its own aircraft it must buy you one on another carrier rather than leave you stranded.

Replacement travel you had to arrange yourself

If the airline failed to reroute you and you bought a replacement flight yourself, the reasonable additional cost can be recovered. This is where the amounts can exceed the fixed compensation: a family rebooking a cancelled long-haul can claim far more than €600 per person.

Keep every receipt and the rebooking confirmation. Where the airline simply cancelled and refunded, remember that the refund settles the ticket — it does not settle the fixed compensation owed for a short-notice cancellation.

Both rights can apply

A short-notice cancellation can entitle you to the fixed compensation and a ticket refund at the same time. Where the airline itself caused a substantial delay or cancellation, you may also recover hotel and meal costs it should have covered and did not.

Watch the clock

Ticket refunds and additional-cost claims generally follow a three-year limitation, and the deadline runs from the date of the flight. Claiming it back from the airline directly is often slow; a formal claim moves it on.