How long do I have to file an EU261 claim?

It depends on which country's law applies to the flight. One recent guide puts the general window at roughly two to five years, so a delay from earlier in the year, or even longer ago, is often still claimable — check the specific limitation period before assuming it's too late.

Does EU261 cover a flight I booked with airline miles?

Yes. Loyalty-programme award tickets are covered on the same basis as paid tickets, provided the booking was confirmed and check-in requirements were met. Staff and non-public standby fares are excluded.

The airline offered me a voucher instead of cash — should I take it?

Ask for the cash payment first. Passengers are entitled to compensation as cash, bank transfer or cheque, and some guides warn that accepting a voucher at the gate can risk giving up the right to pursue the full statutory cash amount later.

If I get a refund on my ticket, do I lose my right to compensation?

According to some sources, no — a ticket refund and the separate statutory cash compensation for the delay can both be owed at once. They're different entitlements arising from different parts of the regulation.

Does this apply to a flight arriving into Paris from outside the EU?

Only if the airline operating the flight is EU-based. A non-EU carrier flying into Charles de Gaulle or Orly from outside the EU sits outside EU261 entirely, even for a very long delay. Any flight departing a Paris airport, by contrast, is covered regardless of which airline operates it.

What about my lost or delayed bag?

That's a separate regime — the Montreal Convention, not EU261 — with its own compensation cap, according to at least one guide. A flight-delay claim and a baggage claim need to be filed separately.

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Flight Delayed or Cancelled to or from Paris? What EU261 Actually Owes You

A delayed or cancelled flight into or out of Charles de Gaulle, Orly or Beauvais can trigger statutory cash compensation under EU261 — separate from any ticket refund. Here's the threshold, the amounts, what counts as the airline's fault, and why claiming direct costs nothing.

Booked & Beyond Research Team3 September 2026 · 8 min read

Digital airport flight information board displaying arrival and departure times and statuses. — Photo by Oscar Chan on Pexels

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Claim direct first

If a flight to or from Paris runs long enough or gets cancelled, EU Regulation 261/2004 is a statutory entitlement, not a goodwill gesture the airline hands out at its discretion. It is also separate from any refund of the ticket itself — a passenger can be owed both. The baseline route to collect it is to file the claim directly with the airline through its own EU261 claims channel, which costs nothing. Commercial claims agencies exist as a paid alternative: they handle the paperwork and take a cut of whatever gets recovered.

The three-hour rule

Recent, consistently updated guides describe a flat trigger: cash compensation becomes due once the flight arrives more than three hours late, regardless of how long or short the route was. A smaller number of older guides describe a distance-linked model with shorter thresholds for short-haul flights, but the flat three-hour version is the one backed by the more numerous and more recently updated sources, and it's the safer figure to work from when checking whether a delay qualifies.

What it pays

Once the delay clears that threshold, compensation is banded by flight distance rather than by how badly disrupted the day was. Flights of 1,500km or less pay €250. Longer flights within the EU, and other flights between 1,500km and 3,500km, pay €400. Anything 3,500km or more — a transatlantic route out of Paris, for instance — pays €600. The same three-tier structure turns up across independent guides published within the last year, which is about as corroborated as this kind of figure gets.

When the airline doesn't have to pay

Compensation is only owed when the disruption is the airline's fault. Weather, air traffic control restrictions, strikes not called by the airline's own staff, political instability, and diversions caused by medical emergencies or disruptive passengers are all treated as extraordinary circumstances that release the airline from the cash payment — even after a long delay. What extraordinary circumstances do not remove is the airline's separate duty of care, covered below.

What's owed while you wait

Once a delay reaches two hours, the airline is required to provide meals, refreshments and access to communication (calls or emails), independent of whether the delay will eventually clear the three-hour compensation threshold or whether the cause turns out to be extraordinary. If the new departure slips to the following day, the airline also owes free hotel accommodation and transport to and from it. None of this needs a claim form filed after the fact — if it isn't offered at the gate, keep receipts and it can still be recovered.

Cancellations, and being bumped

A cancellation notified fewer than 14 days before departure carries the same distance-based compensation as a delay, provided the replacement flight still arrives three or more hours late and the airline is at fault. According to some guides, a delay of five hours or more from the original departure time also gives the option of a full ticket refund instead of rebooking, plus a flight back to the original departure point if the disrupted leg was part of a connecting itinerary — though the detail on the connecting-itinerary point varies between sources, so it's worth confirming directly with the airline. Denied boarding from overbooking reportedly follows a similar pattern: a choice between rebooking or a refund, plus compensation scaled to how late the passenger ultimately arrives.

Does your flight qualify

Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais are all EU airports, so a flight departing any of the three is covered by EU261 whichever airline operates it — including non-EU carriers. A Paris-to-New York flight on a US airline is still covered because the journey originates at an EU airport; a qualifying delay there carries the full €600 tier. The rule runs the other way for arrivals: a flight landing in Paris from outside the EU is only covered if the operating carrier is itself EU-based. Non-EU airlines flying into Paris fall outside EU261 entirely, even for a long delay.

Not the same as lost luggage

Some guides fold baggage problems into the same explainer, but according to at least one source, lost or delayed baggage runs under a different international scheme — the Montreal Convention — with its own separate compensation cap. A smooth EU261 claim for the flight delay itself won't resolve a baggage claim, and vice versa; they need to be pursued separately.

Doing it yourself vs paying someone

Filing directly with the airline costs nothing and is the first thing to try. Claims companies advertise themselves as handling the paperwork in exchange for a commission taken out of whatever gets recovered — worth using only if a direct claim has stalled or been refused and the amount at stake makes the hassle of pursuing it further worth outsourcing. Airline staff at the gate sometimes offer a travel voucher instead of cash; according to some guides, accepting it can risk forfeiting the right to pursue the full statutory cash amount afterwards, so it's worth asking specifically for the cash payment before agreeing to anything else. Claim windows also vary — one recent guide puts it at roughly two to five years depending on which country's law applies to the flight, so a delay from months ago is not necessarily out of time.

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