Three separate rights
What you’re owed, even with no compensation
Compensation is only one of three rights EU261 gives you, and they stack. If a storm cancels your flight, no compensation is due, but you are still owed a refund or a new flight, and food and a hotel while you wait.
Checked against its sources
Article 7
Compensation
The fixed €250–€600 for a qualifying delay, cancellation or denied boarding. This is the only one of the three that depends on the cause and on the three-hour threshold.
Article 8
Refund or rerouting
Your money back within seven days, or a new flight to your destination. Your choice. Owed on any cancellation or denied boarding, whatever the cause, and on a delay of five hours or more.
Article 9
Care while you wait
Meals, drinks, two calls or emails, and a hotel plus transport if you’re stranded overnight. No cap (McDonagh), and owed even when the cause was extraordinary. A limited three-night cap arrives only on 23 October 2027.
Refund, rerouting and care today
This is the current law, and it applies to every flight until 23 October 2027.
- Refund Art 8(1)(a)
- The full price you paid for the parts of the journey not flown, plus the parts already flown if the trip no longer serves any purpose, with a flight back to where you started if needed. Due within seven days, in money. Vouchers only with your signed agreement (Art 7(3)).
- Rerouting Art 8(1)(b)–(c)
- Under comparable conditions, at the earliest opportunity, or on a later date that suits you, subject to seats. If the airline flies you to another airport serving the same city, it pays the transfer (Art 8(3)).
- When the choice is owed
- On any cancellation (Art 5) or denied boarding (Art 4), whatever the cause. On a delay, the refund option opens once the delay reaches five hours (Art 6(1)(iii)).
- Care Art 9
- Meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to the wait, two phone calls or emails, and a hotel with transport to and from it if an overnight stay becomes necessary.
- When care starts
- On a delay, once departure is expected to slip by 2 hours (up to 1,500 km), 3 hours (intra-EU over 1,500 km, other flights of 1,500–3,500 km) or 4 hours (all others); a hotel if departure moves to the next day (Art 6). On a cancellation, meals and calls, plus a hotel if the new flight leaves the next day or later (Art 5(1)(b)).
- If the airline provides nothing
- Buy what you need and keep the receipts. There is no time or money cap, but you recover only what was necessary, appropriate and reasonable (McDonagh, C-12/11).
Stranded overnight
No hotel from the airline?
Book a reasonable room near the airport yourself and keep the receipt, then claim the cost back from the airline. You recover what was necessary, appropriate and reasonable: a mid-range hotel, not a suite (McDonagh, C-12/11).
- London Heathrow
- Paris CDG
- Frankfurt
- Amsterdam Schiphol
- Madrid Barajas
- Barcelona El Prat
- Munich
- Rome Fiumicino
- Dublin
Hotels nearest each airport, on Agoda. These are affiliate links: we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Disclosure.
What changes from 23 October 2027
Regulation (EU) 2026/2202 rewrites Articles 8 and 9. None of this applies to a flight before 23 October 2027, and none of it applies to UK261. The full reform →
| Right | Today | From 23 Oct 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Refund deadline | Within seven days. | Automatic, within seven calendar days of your choice, by bank transfer unless you explicitly agree otherwise. Up to 30 days if the airport activates its contingency plan. new Art 8(1)(a) |
| Refund on a long delay | Once the delay reaches five hours. | Offered once the departure delay reaches five hours, and on a missed connection if you cannot be rerouted within five hours. new Arts 6(3), 6b(2) |
| Rerouting yourself | Not in the text. If the airline fails to reroute you at the earliest opportunity, the Commission says it must repay a replacement flight you bought. No fixed waiting time and no cap. | If the airline offers no rerouting under comparable conditions within three hours, you may book your own. It must repay necessary, reasonable costs up to 400% of the ticket price within 14 days. new Art 8(3) |
| Vouchers | Only with your signed agreement. | Only with your explicit consent on a durable medium. Valid 12 months, and any unused value is refunded automatically. new Art 8a |
| Meals and contact | In reasonable relation to the wait; two calls or emails. | Refreshments every two hours, a meal after three hours and every five hours after that (three a day at most), internet access and two calls. new Art 9(1) |
| Hotel | No limit on nights (McDonagh). | May be capped at three nights, but only if the disruption was extraordinary and could not have been avoided. Never for passengers with specific needs or those accompanying them. new Arts 9(6), 11(10) |
| Paying for care yourself | Recover what was necessary, appropriate and reasonable. | Repaid within 14 days of your request. new Art 9(4) |
| When care stops | Not set out in the text. | Choosing a refund while at your starting airport, or rerouting on a later date, ends care for that flight. new Art 9(7) |
The point most people miss
Airlines often answer a compensation claim by pointing at the refund they already paid, as if that settles it. It does not. A refund is Article 8. Compensation is Article 7. Meeting one duty does not discharge the others. If a flight was cancelled for weather, you get no compensation, but you are still owed the refund or a new flight, and food and a hotel while you wait.
Questions
Do I get compensation and a refund?
Yes, if your claim qualifies. Article 7 compensation and the Article 8 refund or rerouting are separate rights, and receiving one does not cancel the other.
What am I owed if the delay was the airline’s fault but under three hours?
No fixed compensation, because the three-hour arrival threshold is not met. You are still owed care under Article 9 once the departure delay passes the 2, 3 or 4-hour mark for your distance: meals, and a hotel if you are kept overnight.
Has the 2026 reform changed refunds and care yet?
No. Regulation (EU) 2026/2202 applies from 23 October 2027. Until then the current Articles 8 and 9 apply, with no cap on hotel nights.