If you’ve been reading along, you know that my recent trip to Europe was marred by the fact that my initial flight to Dublin was canceled
We were just relaxing and enjoying our first ever business class trip when…. CANCELED!
(SEE ALSO: Aer Lingus Business class review to…. FLIGHT CANCELED?!?!?!)
In the aftermath, I’ve already talked about 5 things I did right when my flight was canceled and 3 mistakes I made when my flight was canceled
While going through the rebooking process, my philosophy was that I wanted to concentrate on GETTING to Europe, and then I’d figure out how to get compensation for my canceled (and ultimately downgraded) flight. I didn’t want to do something to my ticket (like refund or cancel it) and find out that all of a sudden I didn’t have ANY ticket to get to Europe
Submitting an EU261 compensation claim
EU261 is a resolution passed by the European Union back in 2005, laying out a specific formula for compensation for passengers whose flights are delayed or canceled. In my case, because my flight was 2993 miles (4817 kilometers), my flight is considered a “Level 3” flight, and so the EU261 compensation is at the highest level.
EU261 is applicable for any carrier flagshipped in the European Union OR if you are flying from the European Union OR if you are flying TO the European Union (but only on an EU-based carrier). In my case, we were flying to Dublin on Aer Lingus, so I qualified for EU261 compensation on both counts
As I understand it, a Level 3 flight that was canceled or delayed more than 4 hours is subject to €600 per person.
Form to submit an EU261 compensation claim
When I got back into the USA and ready to submit my EU261 compensation claim, it took me a little time to figure out how exactly to submit my EU261 compensation claim. There are several different websites out there that will submit your EU261 compensation claim and follow up on it with you for a percentage of your EU261 compensation (usually around 25%). My plan was to use one of these sites if I had to, but to try and do it by myself to get the full amount of EU261 compensation for myself!
I’ll share what I did and if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments
To submit an EU261 compensation claim, you have to send in your documentation to the airline in question. I used this online form (PDF) from the official online site of the European Commission.
Where to submit your EU261 compensation claim
Some airlines have online forms where you can submit your EU261 compensation claim (here’s Ryanair’s EU261 compensation claim form). I was looking to file an Aer Lingus EU261 compensation claim, and I did not initially see where to submit my EU261 compensation claim. I did read reports that the Aer Lingus EU261 address is
Aer Lingus Limited,
Head Office Building,
Dublin Airport,
Ireland
But before I just mailed something to a black box somewhere in Ireland, I thought I would check if there was an online way to do it. I reached out to @AerLingus on Twitter
(SEE ALSO: List of Airline and Hotel Twitter contacts) and they responded with
@PointsWithACrew Hi, if you’d like to claim for a cancelled flight you must do so through Customer Relations here: http://t.co/BlumrvIIdE
— Aer Lingus (@AerLingus) September 28, 2015
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So I submitted my EU261 compensation claim through that online Aer Lingus form, and we shall see how that goes!
(5/14/18 – UPDATE: Read here for the final resolution of this EU261 compensation claim)
Any tips or suggestions (or war stories!) of submitting an EU261 compensation claim? Leave them in the comments!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I believe that “flagshipped in the European Union OR if you are flying to/from the European Union” should actually read “flagshipped in the European Union OR if you are flying from the European Union”.
When flying from the U.S to Europe, Air Lingus is bound to EU261 while United isn’t. When flying back from Dublin they are both bound to EU261.
You’re right – I will update the post
Submitting is the easy part – all airlines follow a similar process as you described.
Getting an airline to pay is the hard part. Hopefully Aer Lingus is better than most.
That’s what I’ve heard as well – we’ll see!
Any update? Did you get paid?
Yes! Read here for the final update
I sent numerous letters (email and physical) to Aer Lingus for my father-in-law who had a flight from Dublin to the US cancelled because of a mechanical issue. I sited this rule and after months of nothing heard back that they didn’t feel the claim was covered. I wrote back a few times citing evidence and never heard back.
I finally decided to try using GetAirHelp.com to see if they could have any luck. They take a fee for doing it but I wasn’t getting anywhere, so I figured it was worth a shot. They had the same experience, but there was a recent EU case ruling that airlines do need to pay in cases with these types of circumstances. The last AirHelp email I received was that my court case was one of MANY and that it would take time, but hopefully I would get paid.
The Irish are very nice people, but it looks like Aer Lingus is as cheap as any other airline 😉 Good luck with your case!
I have had to involve a lawyer for most of my claims.
I was compensated by Lufthansa last year. I’m still astounded. They said it “wasn’t really their fault” (mechanical) but as a “goodwill gesture” they would send me the money.
Good luck, I had a United flight BRU-IAD divert to LHR and cancelled and re-accommodated the next day and United refuse to give EU261 compensation. Only offering $300 voucher as compensation. A fellow Flyertalker was on the same flight and got $500 voucher as he was 1K
I’ve read lots of reports of carriers trying to weasel out of paying, but my one experience was very smooth, I submitted online to American Airlines nearly 2 years ago; their Contact Us has a separate link for EC261 claims. It took them 4 weeks but they acknowledged responnsibility and offered either 600 euros per person or vouchers for $1750 per person. We took the vouchers and had a great year flying. A friend submitted to Air Canada last month and within a week or so had cash in hand.
Do you or one of your readers know if EC261 applies to someone flying a European carrier and transiting Europe? My wife is stuck in Paris today after her delayed Air France flight from Tel Aviv caused her to miss her connection to the US. Israel has a similar law, but it would be good to know if she is covered by the EU reg.
I would think a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris on Air France would fall under EU 261
After a horrendous journey with SAS I submitted a claim, took them three months to acknowledge it during which time you could do nothing as you cannot phone their customer service. To make myself feel better I took to venting to them on Twitter weekly. Once they acknowledged it they did pay the claim quickly which was good.
I recently submitted a claim on FlyBe for a cancelled flight out of DUB. FlyBe were actually helpful to me and paid off quite promptly–and I was submitting for three people,so it was a bit of cash! The airline seems like it’s flight operations are terrible, but on this the compensation they were good! Don’t see the need for a service to submit most claims! Quite straightforward process for me!
we got stuck in 2012 in LHR for a day (flight was cancelled due to mechanical failure). I have been a 1K for the last 7+yrs. The airline got us into the hotel for a night. I submitted the claim to 1K desk upon return. They offered $500voucher/person. We took it.
I recently took a voluntary “bump off” a flight with Swissair from Zurich to Tel Aviv. They put me in the Radisson Blu for the night [the hotel is in the airport], gave me a pre-filled cash card with CHF 500 on the spot and an upgrade on the flight the next morning. Pretty good service!
We flew eventually from Las Vegas to Chicago after 3 hour delay( they used our plane on a different flight with a longer delay ). We then missed our connection to Dublin and onwards to Newcastle arriving 7 hours late. We were transferred to a British Airwyas flight via Heathrow instead of Dublin.
United sent $150 each electronic voucher, and I asked about compensation they said they weren’t part of EU so answer was No! It was one ticket issued for combined flight with Aer Lingus so I thought we would be eligible. Aer Lingus are yet to reply. Does anyone know if it is an eligible claim?
Gwen – it’s my understanding that you’re only covered if you’re flying on an EU-based airline OR you’re flying FROM (not to) the EU. You might want to check with one of the services that try to get people’s money back for things like this (just google it)