1 · CHECK · 30 SECONDS
Route, airline, what happened, how late.
The amount is fixed by distance and the delay at your final destination. No ticket price, no receipts, no account.
What your airline owes you.
A free check under EU261 and UK261, and the letter that claims it. Up to €600 or £520, without a lawyer or an agency.
Free checkEU261 · UK261
- Any airline
- On any flight leaving the EU or the UK. Coming in, if the airline is European, or British into the UK.
- Up to six years back
- The deadline is set by the country where the claim is heard, usually the one you flew from.
- Nothing you type leaves your browser
- The check runs on your device. No account is needed to see the answer.
Three hours late is counted where you landed. Not at the gate you waited in.
Two steps. Both are free.
The check tells you what you are owed. The letter asks for it.
2 · SEND · ONE EMAIL
A letter the airline’s legal inbox recognises.
Three of them, in the order you will need them: ask the reason, claim, push back on a refusal.
To: Lufthansa Customer Relations Subject: Claim under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 Date of flight: 2026-06-01 Route: MUC (Munich) to LIS (Lisbon) Operating carrier: Lufthansa The flight arrived at its final destination 5 hours behind the scheduled arrival time. I claim compensation of €400 under Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004.
The amount is set by distance, not by what you paid.
Three bands, measured in a straight line from where you took off to where you were going. A €39 ticket and a €900 ticket over the same route are worth exactly the same.
- Up to 1 500 km
- €250£220 UK
- 1 500 to 3 500 km
- €400£350 UK
- Over 3 500 km
- €600£520 UK
Over 3 500 km and under four hours late, Article 7(2) lets the airline halve the amount. Everything else on this page is the full figure.
Claim services keep a quarter of your payout. Sometimes half.
Writing to the airline yourself costs nothing and takes one email. We generate that email, and the two follow-ups you will need if they refuse.
- You send the letter yourself
- The free check and the first letter. The whole payment reaches you.
- €400
- A claim service sends it for you
- They keep €100, taken out of your payout rather than charged up front. At 50% they keep €200.
- €300
- What CheckMyDelay charges
- Whatever the airline ends up paying you.
- €0
Worked on a €400 claim, at the 25% fee the largest claim services publish. The band your own flight falls in changes the figures, not the proportions.
The rules, written out.
Every claim on this site links to its source. These are the four questions that decide most cases.
What counts as extraordinary circumstancesWhich causes let an airline refuse EU261 compensation, which do not, and the case law that settles the difference.How the three hours are actually countedWhy EU261 compensation depends on arrival delay at the final destination, and how connections change the answer.What the 2026 reform changed, and what it did notThe approved reform of EU261: the thresholds and amounts that stayed, the claim deadline that changed, and when the new rules apply.Claim service or do it yourselfWhat claim services charge, when they are worth it, and when sending the letter yourself keeps the whole payout.
Questions people ask before they send the letter.
Do I need to pay before I see the answer?
No. The check and the letter are free, with no account, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
My flight was two and a half hours late. Is there anything?
Not under Article 7. The three-hour line is a line. The check will say so rather than invite you to try anyway.
The airline says it was extraordinary circumstances.
Ask them to say which, in writing. The second letter does exactly that, and most technical faults do not qualify.
How long does the airline have to reply?
The letter asks for payment within 14 days. If the airline refuses or goes quiet, the national enforcement body for the country where the claim is heard will take a complaint. Some expect you to wait for the airline’s final reply first, up to eight weeks.
Is CheckMyDelay a law firm?
No. The site gives estimates under Regulation (EC) 261/2004 and the case law that interprets it. It does not give legal advice, and it links every claim it makes to its source.
How can I check the legal basis of my estimate?
Results link to the regulation and relevant case law so you can read the sources yourself. The calculation runs in your browser. An estimate is not a guarantee of payment. Regulation (EC) 261/2004