A flight compensation claim can settle in as little as two to eight weeks when the airline cooperates, but a contested case often runs three to six months, and one that ends up in court can take a year or more. The process itself is straightforward — check eligibility, gather your documents, submit the claim, wait for a response, and escalate if the airline stalls. Knowing each step tells you what to expect and when.

Below is the full journey, step by step, with a realistic timeline table at the end. If you’d rather see straight away whether you qualify, check your compensation — it’s free and takes a couple of minutes.

Step 1: Check eligibility

Before anything else, work out whether you have a claim at all. Under EU 261 and its UK equivalent, you’re generally owed compensation if:

• Your flight was delayed three or more hours at the final destination, cancelled with less than 14 days’ notice, or you were denied boarding involuntarily.
• The disruption was within the airline’s control — a routine technical fault or staff shortage counts, but genuine severe weather or air-traffic-control restrictions usually don’t.
• Your flight departed the EU/EEA (any airline) or arrived in the EU/EEA on an EU/EEA carrier — with UK 261 covering UK departures and arrivals on the same basis.

Get past those three questions and you almost certainly have a claim worth pursuing. Compensation is a fixed amount per passenger:

Step 2: Gather your documents

A claim moves faster when the evidence is ready from the start. Pull together:

• Booking confirmation or e-ticket, showing your flight number and route.
• Boarding passes, if you kept them.
• Any communication from the airline about the delay, cancellation or denied boarding — texts, emails, app notifications.
• Notes on what happened: the delay length at arrival, the reason given at the gate, and the time you finally got in.
• Receipts for any meals, drinks or accommodation you paid for during the disruption.

You don’t need every item to start, but the more you have, the harder the airline finds it to wriggle out. Keep it all in one place — you’ll refer back to it if the case is contested.

A few details make a disproportionate difference. The exact arrival time at your final destination is the single most important fact in a delay claim, because compensation hinges on being three or more hours late on arrival — not on departure. Screenshots of the departure board or airline app, timestamped, are gold if the airline later disputes how late you actually were. And if you were rerouted, note the flight you eventually took, since that determines whether the €600 tier might be reduced.

Step 3: Submit the claim — direct or through a company

Now you send the claim. There are two routes.

Do it yourself. Write to the airline directly, usually through its online compensation form or customer-relations address. It costs nothing, and if the airline pays promptly, that’s the cheapest possible outcome.

Use a compensation company. A specialist submits and manages the claim for you, typically on a no-win-no-fee basis, and takes over if the airline resists. You trade a success fee for not having to chase anyone yourself.

Airlines each run their own forms and processes, so where you submit depends on who you flew with. Sending a claim to the wrong department is one of the most common reasons the clock stalls before it’s even started.

If you were on KLM, you’ll want the right klm claim compensation route rather than a generic contact page.

Luxair passengers should use the correct luxair compensation form to avoid delays in processing.

For a flight with Olympic Air, the dedicated olympic air claim compensation channel keeps things moving.

And if you flew Air Dolomiti, the specific air dolomiti compensation form is the place to lodge it.

Step 4: The airline responds (or doesn’t)

Once submitted, the ball is in the airline’s court. A cooperative airline may acknowledge the claim within days and pay within a few weeks. Others take longer, ask for more information, or push back with an “extraordinary circumstances” defence — often weather or a technical issue.

Remember that the burden of proof is on the airline to justify refusing. A blanket “the delay was outside our control” isn’t enough; it has to document the specific cause. If the response doesn’t add up — the weather was fine, other flights departed, the “technical fault” was routine — that’s a rejection worth challenging rather than accepting.

Some airlines simply go quiet, betting you’ll give up. Silence is not the end of the road; it’s a trigger to escalate.

Set a clear deadline in your first letter — asking for a substantive reply within a reasonable window, say a fortnight — so an unanswered claim has an obvious point at which you move up a level. A dated paper trail also strengthens your hand if the case later reaches a regulator or court, because it shows you gave the airline a fair chance to respond.

Step 5: Escalation — NEB, ADR or court

If the airline refuses unfairly or ignores you, the claim moves up a level. There are three main escalation routes:

• National Enforcement Body (NEB). Each EU country and the UK has a regulator that oversees passenger-rights complaints. It can rule on your case, though it may not force payment directly.
• Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Some airlines are signed up to an independent ADR scheme that arbitrates disputes without going to court.
• Court. As a last resort, a small-claims or county-court action can compel payment. This is where documented evidence and knowledge of the case law really count.

Escalation is where DIY claims most often stall, because it takes persistence and legal know-how. It’s also where a compensation company earns its fee — carrying the case through the formal stages, including court representation if needed.

Which route fits depends on your case and where you flew. The NEB is a sensible first escalation for a clear rights breach the airline is simply ignoring. ADR suits a genuine dispute where an independent decision would help, provided the airline participates. Court is the route with real teeth but also the most effort, which is why it’s usually the last step rather than the first — and the point at which most people decide to hand the claim to a specialist.

How long it takes

Timelines vary enormously depending on how hard the airline fights. Here’s a realistic picture:

The bulk of straightforward claims land at the quicker end. The longer timelines usually involve an airline disputing liability or an “extraordinary circumstances” argument that has to be tested. Patience pays: remember the time limits to bring a claim are generous — commonly two to three years, up to six years in England and Wales and five in Scotland — so a slow case is rarely a lost one.

How FlyHelp manages it for you

If chasing an airline for months doesn’t appeal, this is exactly what a specialist is for. FlyHelp runs the whole process on your behalf: checking eligibility, assembling the evidence, submitting to the right airline channel, responding to pushback, and escalating — up to and including court representation — when an airline won’t play fair.

Getting started takes minutes: you upload your ticket and passport, add an e-signature, and the team handles the rest on a no-win-no-fee basis, so a success fee applies only if compensation is recovered. With 5+ years’ experience as a dedicated flight compensation company, FlyHelp knows how each airline behaves and how to keep a claim moving when it would otherwise stall.

Want to start the process the easy way? Check Your Compensation — free, no obligation, a couple of minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a flight compensation claim take?

It depends on how the airline responds. A clear-cut claim with a cooperative airline can settle in two to eight weeks. A contested claim — where the airline disputes liability or drags its feet — typically takes three to six months. If it has to go to court, expect six to twelve months or more. The good news is the time limit to claim is long, so a slow case is rarely a lost one.

What documents do I need for a flight compensation claim?

At minimum, your booking confirmation or e-ticket and details of the flight and disruption. It also helps to keep boarding passes, any airline messages about the delay or cancellation, notes on how late you arrived and the reason given, plus receipts for meals or accommodation you paid for. You don’t need everything to start, but stronger evidence makes it harder for the airline to refuse.

What happens if the airline ignores my claim?

Silence isn’t a dead end. If an airline doesn’t respond or refuses unfairly, you can escalate to the relevant National Enforcement Body, an Alternative Dispute Resolution scheme if the airline uses one, or ultimately the courts. The burden of proof is on the airline to justify any refusal. A compensation company can carry the case through these formal stages, including court representation, so you don’t have to.