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The Regulation No. 261/2004 does not set a time limit on how far back claims can go. There is no unified time limit for all EU countries. Hence time limit for flight claims is specified in national laws of the country where you bring the claim (European Court of Justice, Case C-139/11 dated November 22, 2012).

Generally, in majority of countries passenger can claim compensation for flights dated 3 to 5 years old, however other countries may have up to 10 years and even longer, so we encourage passengers to submit claims for all pre-existing disrupted flights and we will check it for you and notify you accordingly (you might have hundreds of EUR sitting in your email, so do not lose it).

Every EU country has its country-specific time limit. For example, in the UK – time to submit a claim to court is 6 years (confirmed in case Dawson v. Thomson Airways in 2014), so any claims for a flight less than 6 years old shall be eligible for flight compensation.

Important that time limit for bringing a claim is calculated from the date of the disrupted flight (date of arrival or scheduled departure in case of cancellation) and NOT until the date of claim submission to the airline, but until claim officially submitted to state court. Hence, it is important that passengers CLAIM FAST on their flights not to lose its rights. Warning, some airlines are actively trying to enter into lengthy settlement discussions directly with passengers in order to delay court filing, so once time has lapsed airline will immediately change its approach and reject passenger’s claim completely without any remedy.

Any passenger (regardless of nationality and residence) has a right to the EU Flight compensation (from €250 to €600) for eligible flights only in the following cases:

1) pertinent to all airlines;

EU to EU flights (domestic EU flight operated by any airline);
EU to Non-EU flight (departing from any EU airport and arriving at any airport outside EU operated by any airline);
2) pertinent to EU airlines only:

from Non-EU country to EU country (flight departing from a non-EU member state and arriving in any EU country on a flight operated by an EU licensed Airline).
Additional conditions:

1) a passenger has to have a confirmed reservation on a flight operated by the airline, and

2) a passenger has to arrive in time for the check-in as indicated on the ticket or communication from the airline, or, if no time is so indicated, no less than 45 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time of the flight;

3) flight shall meet time limits for bringing court claims, which are EU country-specific (EU countries, as usual, allow recovery for EU flights up to 3 years old, but some countries allow even older flights claims, e.g., UK allows to claims for flights up to 6 years old).

Major exclusions from the Regulation No. 261/2004:

1) flights from a Non-EU country to an EU country operated by a non-EU airline (e.g., American Airlines flight from New York to Paris is excluded from the Regulation No. 261/2004 may be covered by US regulations, but a return flight from EU to the US will be covered). But if you have a connection in Paris and continue the flight to Dubai on any airline, then the flight Paris to Dubai will be covered as the flight from EU;

2) flight disruptions caused by Extraordinary Circumstances (such as labor strike, security reasons, bad weather but only which affected flights, not any bad weather conditions qualify as an extraordinary factor);

3) passengers travelling on a free or discounted ticket not available to the general public are not eligible for flight compensation (airline employee’s discounted tickets). However, seasonal tickets, publicly discounted, promotion/sale tickets fares, as well as ticket obtained from a frequent flyer program are eligible for the flight compensation;

4) flights from Gibraltar Airport;

5) helicopter flights.

Yes, but you have to provide us with proof of authority/consent of your fellow passengers to do that. Please note that flight compensation will be paid to each passenger account even if you paid for tickets for your family unless proof of authority or assignment of payment is specifically furnished to our reasonable satisfaction.