Flight Cancelled or Delayed? What You Are Actually Owed

• 3 / 6 hrs

  Delay that triggers a U.S. refund: domestic / international

• 7 days

  Business days an airline has to refund a card payment

• €600

  Top EU261 compensation band, for flights over 3,500 km

• $0

  U.S. statutory compensation for a delay, however long

Two travelers on the same cancelled flight can walk away with wildly different outcomes, and the difference is not persistence or luck. It is which regulation applied, whether they accepted a rebooking, and whether they knew that saying yes to a voucher closes the door on everything else.

Refund and compensation are different things

Hold that distinction through everything below. Almost every argument at a rebooking counter is really an argument about which of the two words applies.

The U.S. rule: an automatic cash refund

Since 28 October 2024, DOT rules require U.S. airlines and foreign carriers operating to and from the United States to issue automatic cash refunds when a flight is cancelled or significantly changed and the passenger does not accept the alternative offered.

• Automatic means you should not have to ask, fill in a form, or negotiate. The rule shifted the default from opt-in to opt-out.
• Cash means the original payment method, not a voucher, not a credit, not miles — unless you affirmatively accept one of those instead.
• Promptly means within seven business days for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment methods.
• The full amount means the ticket and the fees for services you paid for and did not receive.

What counts as a significant change

The DOT rule defines this rather than leaving it to the airline, which is the most useful part of it.

Worth re-reading when a schedule change email arrives months before travel looking like an inconvenience. A rebooking that adds a connection is a significant change even if it arrives on time, and it is a cash refund if you would rather not fly it.

What the U.S. does not give you

There is no U.S. equivalent of European delay compensation. No statutory payment exists for the disruption, however long the delay and whatever caused it.

What exists instead is the DOT’s Airline Customer Service Dashboard, which records what each carrier has committed to provide when a delay or cancellation is within its control — meals, hotel accommodation, ground transport, rebooking on another airline. Those commitments are the airlines’ own promises, published and tracked by the regulator, and they are enforceable as commitments rather than as a fixed sum.

The practical consequence: in the United States, ask for what the airline has promised for a controllable delay, by name. In Europe, ask for what the regulation owes you, by number.

Bag fees, seat fees and wi-fi you never got

The same 2024 rule covers the extras, which is the part almost nobody claims.

• Checked bag fees. Refundable if you file a mishandled baggage report and the bag is not delivered within 12 hours of a domestic flight arriving at the gate, or within 15 to 30 hours for an international flight depending on its length.
• Fees for services not provided. Wi-fi that did not work, seat selection you did not get after an aircraft swap, inflight entertainment that was inoperative — all refundable as a matter of rule rather than goodwill.

These are small amounts individually and they are the clearest-cut claims you will ever make, because the airline either provided the service or it did not. They are also a reason to keep the receipt for every extra you buy, including on a basic economy ticket where the extras are the real cost.

EU261: the rule that actually pays compensation

Regulation 261/2004 — EU261 — is the rule that pays money for the disruption itself.

Three conditions decide whether you have a claim at all.

1. Where the flight departed. EU261 covers any flight departing an EU airport on any airline, and flights arriving in the EU only when operated by an EU carrier. A U.S. airline flying Paris to Chicago is covered; the same airline flying Chicago to Paris is not.
2. How late you arrived. The trigger is arrival delay, not departure delay — three hours or more at the destination — plus cancellations notified at short notice.
3. Whether the cause was extraordinary. Severe weather, air traffic control strikes, security incidents and political instability remove the compensation obligation. Technical faults and crew scheduling generally do not.

One disruption sits outside all of this and has its own rulebook. Being denied boarding on an oversold flight is the one U.S. case with a statutory payment attached, worth up to 400% of your one-way fare, and what you are owed when you are bumped covers the formula and the caps.

What changed in July 2026

Europe overhauled the regulation in the summer of 2026, and the timing matters more than the content for anyone flying now.

The European Parliament approved the reform on 7 July 2026 by 646 votes to 12, and the Council gave its final approval on 13 July 2026. The reformed rules become applicable roughly twelve months after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, which puts real-world effect into 2027 rather than today.

Until then, the bands and triggers above are the ones that apply. Check the position for your own flight date rather than assuming, because this is the single most likely thing on this page to be out of date.

United States versus Europe, side by side

What to do in the airport

In the moment, six things, roughly in this order.

1. Join the queue and call at the same time. Whichever connects first wins. The airline’s app is often faster than both.
2. Decide: travel or refund. Accepting a rebooking waives the automatic refund. Both are legitimate choices; making the choice by accident is not.
3. Ask for the specific commitment. If the delay is within the airline’s control, ask for the meal voucher, the hotel, or the rebooking on another carrier that it has publicly committed to.
4. Get the reason in writing. Screenshot the app, keep the email. In Europe the stated cause decides the claim; airlines rarely repeat it later.
5. Keep every receipt. Meals, taxi, hotel, and the replacement ticket if you buy one.
6. Do not accept a voucher to end the conversation. A credit accepted in the moment is very hard to unwind.

How to claim, and in what order

Afterwards, escalate in this order and stop when you are paid.

1. The airline, in writing. Flight number, date, booking reference, arrival delay, and the amount you are claiming. For EU261, cite Regulation 261/2004 and the distance band. Attach boarding passes.
2. The regulator. In the U.S., the DOT aviation consumer protection complaint process; in Europe, the national enforcement body in the country of departure. Carriers respond differently to regulators than to individuals.
3. Your card issuer. A chargeback is available where the service was not provided and no refund arrived, and it is leverage rather than a first step.
4. A claims company, last. They take roughly 25% to 35% of a European payout. That is worth it only if the alternative is not filing at all.

Reducing your exposure before you book

Some of this is decided before anything goes wrong.

• One ticket, not two. Separately booked itineraries have no protection between them: miss the connection and neither airline owes you anything.
• Earlier is safer. First departures of the day suffer the least knock-on delay, and they leave room to be rebooked the same day.
• Longer connections on the way out. An hour saved on the itinerary is an hour of buffer surrendered.
• Pay with a card that has trip delay coverage. It pays for the hotel that regulation does not.
• Know your fare’s own rules too. Separate from all of this, the 24-hour cancellation rule and the change-fee-free rebooking flow are what you use when a fare drops after you book.

None of these prevent disruption. They decide how expensive it is when it happens, which is the only part of it you control.