How many years after my delay can I still claim for flight compensation?
It's probably longer than you think
Is there a time limit on bringing a claim for flight compensation?
You may have heard that claims for flight compensation must be made within two years of the event…but this isn’t the case.
In the past, when approached directly, airlines would regularly turn down claims for flight compensation that were older than two years, claiming that the Montreal Convention of 1999 gave airline passengers in England and Wales just two years to bring a claim against them should their flight have been cancelled or substantially delayed.
However, this was contested in court and in 2014 and a binding decision was made, ruling that passengers in England and Wales would actually have up to six years following the flight date to bring a claim in accordance with Section 9 of the Limitation Act 1980.
In general we now find that airlines have fallen in line behind this ruling and will pay out on flight compensation claims made up to six years after the event.
On occasion we do get the odd one that will point to their own Terms & Conditions as a defence, which often state that passengers only have two years within which to make a claim. However, we have always managed to obtain compensation eventually on any valid clams.
The best time to make a claim for flight compensation
If you think you might have a potential claim we always recommend that you contact us as soon as possible.
In our experience we’ve had no problems making successful claims for compensation as far back as six years from the date of the flight, although we would point out that leaving it close to the end of limitation will place a certain amount of pressure on proceedings.
We currently take on claims with a month left to run before the six year expiration. This gives us enough time to write to the airline, gives them the opportunity to respond and still leaves us enough time to issue proceedings if necessary.
Have you had a claim for flight compensation rejected?
If you've approached an airline directly about making a claim for flight compensation in the past, but were told for whatever reason that you didn't have a valid claim, it's always worth putting your details into our claim calculator to see if what you've been told in the past might not be the whole truth. It's free to use and only takes a minute.
