Three hours late can mean £220 to £520. Speak to Kestrel.
Arrive three or more hours late at your destination on a UK or UK-departing flight and fixed compensation applies: £220, £350 or £520 by flight distance, per passenger, unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances such as severe weather. Cancellations carry rerouting or refund plus compensation on similar terms. Meals, communication and hotels are owed during the wait regardless. Airlines rely on you not pursuing it.
UK law fixes compensation by distance: £220 for shorter flights, £350 for mid-range, £520 for long haul when delay at arrival hits three hours, with the long-haul figure halved for delays under four hours. The test is arrival time at the gate, not departure, and per passenger means a family claim multiplies.
The airline escapes only by proving extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided by all reasonable measures: severe weather, air traffic control restrictions, security events. Most technical faults and crew shortages do not qualify, whatever the gate announcement said. Cancellations inside fourteen days of travel carry compensation too, unless rerouting kept you close to schedule.
Care rights run regardless of cause: meals and refreshments after set delay thresholds, hotel and transfers for overnight waits, and a choice between refund and rerouting on cancellation. Compensation claims in England can be brought for six years, which is longer than most airlines like passengers to believe.
Photograph boards and announcements, keep boarding passes, note actual arrival time at the gate, and keep receipts for everything.
Flight, dates, delay length, passengers, the fixed amounts, and receipts for care they failed to provide. Templates and portals both work; writing preserves the record.
Extraordinary circumstances is a claim they must prove, not a magic phrase. Ask for the specifics; generic weather citations collapse under scrutiny.
The airline's ADR scheme or the aviation regulator's process, then the small claims court, where these cases are short and formulaic.
Tell Kestrel what happened. Plain answers on the spot, any hour, and a booked call with a lawyer if you want one.
Speak to Kestrel nowSix years in England to claim compensation. ADR schemes carry shorter windows. Receipts for care expenses fade fastest of all: photograph them the same day.
This sits in our Consumer disputes practice. The machine builds the file; these lawyers do the law.
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Make them prove it. The burden is theirs, the bar is high, and most technical faults fail it. A refusal letter naming no specifics is an invitation to escalate, not the end.
On a single booking, the arrival time at your final destination governs, so a short first delay causing a long overall one still qualifies, at the distance band of the whole journey.
Compensation is payable in money; vouchers require your agreement. Signed voucher acceptances can compromise the claim, so read anything pushed across a gate desk before signing.
Three hours at arrival is the line, measured door open at the gate. Airlines record padded schedules and gate times; where the true figure is disputed, flight data services usually settle it.
Any hour. Plain answers, a fixed quote in writing, and a named solicitor by 9:00.
Speak to Kestrel