The 14-day rule in a nutshell
Under European regulation EC 261/2004, an airline that cancels a flight owes each passenger a fixed compensation unless it gave notice at least 14 days before the scheduled departure time. The clock runs against the departure date and time shown on your booking — not against the date you bought the ticket.
Two further conditions apply: the flight must fall within the scope of the regulation, and the cancellation must not be caused by extraordinary circumstances beyond the carrier's control. Notice period, scope and cause are the three tests that decide every claim.
Three notice windows, three different outcomes
Article 5(1)(c) sets out the exact framework:
- Notice of 14 days or more: no compensation is due. The airline still has to refund the ticket or re-route you.
- Notice between 13 and 7 days: compensation is due unless you were offered re-routing departing no more than 2 hours before the original departure time and arriving at your final destination less than 4 hours after the original arrival time.
- Notice of less than 7 days: compensation is due unless the re-routing departs no more than 1 hour before the original time and arrives less than 2 hours after the scheduled arrival.
The later the notice, the narrower the airline's room for manoeuvre. When a cancellation is announced the day before or on the day of travel, even a modest delay to your rebooked itinerary usually triggers the right to compensation.
The compensation scale: 250, 400 or 600 euros
The amount does not depend on the ticket price or travel class. It is based solely on the great-circle distance between the departure airport and your final destination:
- €250 for flights of 1,500 km or less (e.g. Paris–Barcelona, Dublin–Manchester).
- €400 for intra-EU flights of more than 1,500 km, and for all other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km (e.g. Madrid–Athens, Paris–Marrakech).
- €600 for flights of more than 3,500 km outside the European Union (e.g. Amsterdam–New York, Rome–Dubai).
For connecting itineraries booked under a single reservation, distance is measured to the final destination, not to the connecting airport. A Lisbon–Frankfurt–Singapore booking that is cancelled is assessed on the Lisbon–Singapore distance.
When the airline can halve the amount
Article 7(2) allows a 50% reduction when you accept re-routing and reach your final destination within a limited delay:
- less than 2 hours late on flights of 1,500 km or under: €125 instead of €250;
- less than 3 hours late on intra-EU flights over 1,500 km and other flights of 1,500–3,500 km: €200 instead of €400;
- less than 4 hours late on non-EU flights over 3,500 km: €300 instead of €600.
The reduction only applies where re-routing was genuinely offered and taken. If you cancelled your trip and took the refund instead, arrival-delay thresholds are irrelevant.
Which flights are covered
EC 261/2004 covers every flight departing from an airport in the European Union (plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), regardless of the airline's nationality, and flights arriving in the EU operated by an EU carrier. A New York–Paris flight on a European airline is covered; the same route on a non-EU carrier is not. The United Kingdom applies a near-identical regime (UK261) with amounts expressed in pounds sterling for UK-departing flights.
Extraordinary circumstances
An airline can avoid paying if the cancellation results from an event outside its normal activity and genuinely beyond its control: dangerous weather, air traffic control strikes, airspace closures, political instability, bird strikes. By contrast, routine technical failures, crew rostering issues or strikes by the carrier's own staff are generally not accepted as extraordinary. The burden of proof lies with the airline, which must document the event and the steps it took to avoid the cancellation.
Rights that stack on top of compensation
Separately from the fixed sum, the airline must let you choose between a full refund of the unused ticket within seven days and re-routing to your final destination under comparable conditions. While you wait, it must provide care: meals and refreshments proportionate to the delay, hotel accommodation and transfers where an overnight stay is required. These are additional entitlements — they cannot be deducted from your compensation.
How far back can you claim?
You can generally claim for cancellations going back up to 3 years, although the exact limitation period depends on the country whose courts have jurisdiction. Keep your booking confirmation, boarding pass, and above all the cancellation email or text message: it establishes the notification date, which is the decisive element in this type of file. Receipts for meals, hotels or alternative transport are useful for reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses.
Have your file checked
Three variables — notification date, re-routed departure and arrival times, and distance to the final destination — determine the outcome. A mistake on any of them changes the amount, or the eligibility itself. Airlines Quick Refund reviews your case and handles the amicable claim with the airline, charging a 35% commission on success only: no compensation obtained, nothing to pay.
Check your cancelled flight in under two minutes with our compensation calculator and see which amount applies to your booking.