Guide · updated 12 November 2026

Cancelled flight: refund, another flight, or compensation

When your flight is cancelled you choose between a refund and another flight. If you were told less than 14 days before, compensation is often owed on top.

First: refund or another flight, your choice

Under Regulation (EC) 261/2004 the airline must offer you a choice: a full refund within seven days, or transport to your destination at the earliest opportunity, or later at a date that suits you. You can refuse a voucher and insist on money.

While you wait for the new flight, the same rules on meals, calls and hotel apply as for delays.

When compensation is owed on top

Compensation of €250, €400 or €600, depending on distance, is owed except when:

• you were told at least 14 days before departure
• you were told 7 to 13 days before and offered a flight leaving no more than two hours earlier and arriving no more than four hours later
• you were told less than 7 days before and offered a flight leaving no more than one hour earlier and arriving no more than two hours later
• the cancellation was caused by an extraordinary circumstance the airline couldn’t avoid

Extraordinary circumstances

Bad weather, closed airspace or an air traffic control strike free the airline from compensation, but not from refunding or rerouting you. A technical fault or a strike by the airline’s own staff is not extraordinary, according to the Court of Justice.

If you booked through an agency

Compensation is owed by the airline that operated the flight, not the agency. Keep the booking confirmation and the cancellation message with its date, because the notice date decides the compensation.

This is general information, not legal advice for your specific case. We check every claim individually.