How to Claim Compensation for Delayed or Canceled Flights – Complete Guide

If you traveled to the Azores or another destination and your flight was delayed or canceled, did you know you may be entitled to compensation of up to €600? You even have 3 years to check and claim it after the date of the affected flight. AirHelp is the company specialized in these situations, and we will introduce you to it in more detail below.

If you had a delayed or canceled flight in the last 3 years, check here if you are entitled to compensation of up to €600.

In this complete guide, we will explain step by step how you can check if you are entitled to compensation and how you can claim and receive it.

What is AirHelp

AirHelp was founded in 2013 and is currently the largest advocate for air passenger rights. It acts as a helper and intermediary for claims related to delayed, canceled, or overbooked flights, having already assisted over 13 million passengers in receiving their compensation.

Its platform and expertise allow you to quickly and intuitively check if your flight and reason are valid for receiving monetary compensation, which can be up to €600 per passenger. Once you verify the passenger laws and protections, and if your claim is viable, it will assist you throughout the process. However, if the airline, for example, refuses to pay you, AirHelp will engage its lawyers to take the case to court, pursuing your claim to the fullest extent with the desired outcome: receiving the amount you are legally entitled to.

AirHelp has over 700 employees worldwide, available in 16 languages, and has the largest team of lawyers specialized in air passenger rights issues.

How AirHelp Works

AirHelp operates as an online consultant that, in the case of a delayed, canceled, or overbooked flight in the last 3 years, checks whether you are entitled to receive monetary compensation. The company’s commitment is to ensure that if you are entitled to compensation, you receive it.

To do this, you will need to follow several steps on the online platform, remembering that this is a service where you only pay if AirHelp successfully secures monetary compensation for you. In fact, you will never have to pay “directly” to AirHelp; if you obtain your compensation, the cost/fee is deducted from your compensation (see below for eligible costs and fees).

If you do not succeed in obtaining your compensation, you will not pay for the service provided by the company, which can even include taking legal action against the airline in question, as well as the service of the lawyer assigned to represent you, through AirHelp.

This way, we can say that the risk of using AirHelp is null; let’s see:

• If you are entitled to monetary compensation and AirHelp ensures that you receive it directly from the airline: You pay a small service fee and receive the remainder in your bank account – Excellent!
• If you are entitled to compensation and AirHelp had to take the airline to court, hiring a lawyer for the case and winning the action: You pay a fee for the service and still receive the remainder of the compensation in your bank account – Excellent!
• If you are entitled to compensation, and AirHelp did everything but still could not win in court: You pay nothing.

You have nothing to lose by trying. At this moment, you have no monetary compensation; if you receive any part, great. If not, at least you tried and didn’t incur high expenses and costs of suing an airline. This is the decisive and most advantageous factor of AirHelp.

Is AirHelp Safe and Reliable?

Without a doubt, the answer is yes. AirHelp is trustworthy, and the service is completely secure. From the moment you submit your data to check if you are entitled to compensation until the end of the entire process when you receive it in your bank account, the entire process is very transparent.

With over 6 years in the market and a high success rate, AirHelp is increasingly popular and one of the most used companies in this field worldwide, giving you more experience, knowledge, and techniques to ensure that you will receive your monetary compensation.

User ratings on Trustpilot are “Excellent“.

In Which Cases Am I Entitled to Compensation and Should I Use AirHelp?

Monetary compensation applies only to certain issues and reasons, so you can use AirHelp’s platform when any of the following options occur:

• Your flight was delayed;
• Your flight was canceled;
• You missed a connecting flight;
• Your flight was overbooked and you were denied check-in/boarding;
• Loss, damage, or delay of baggage.

As you can check on the website, each of these variants and conditions varies from region to region, with specific laws and rules for each item. The compensation amount is also variable (see table below).

Delayed or Canceled Flight

In the case of delayed or canceled flights, you may be entitled to monetary compensation of up to €600. Whenever any of these cases occur, keep in mind the following recommendations:

• Always keep your flight ticket/boarding pass;
• Ask the airline desk at the airport for the reason for the delay or cancellation;
• Request compensation for meals and drinks;
• Note all times: initial departure time, departure after delay, and arrival after delay;
• Do not sign any document provided by the airline that might waive your rights;
• In case of a canceled flight, request accommodation paid for by the airline;
• If you incur additional expenses, whether in travel or meals, keep the receipts and associate, if possible, your taxpayer number;

Costs

As mentioned, submitting a claim does not have any direct cost to you, meaning you won’t have to pay anything before knowing the final result. What is applied are fees in the case of your case’s success, in which AirHelp takes a part of the amount. See below for more details about AirHelp’s Fees and Commissions.

Fees & Commission

AirHelp charges a 35% fee on the value of your compensation as a service fee, meaning this percentage is deducted from the amount you receive to cover the costs of your process. This fee can be reduced to 25% (-10%). To benefit from this discount on your monetary compensation, just access AirHelp through this link.

How to Check if I Am Entitled to Monetary Compensation

This will be the first step, and one of the most important, in the entire process of checking and obtaining your compensation. To check if you are entitled to it, you should follow these steps:

1. Go to AirHelp’s website (by clicking this link, your service fee is reduced to 25% instead of 35%).
2. Fill out the initial form with the departure and arrival points of the flight you wish to check eligibility for compensation.
3. Indicate if there was any connecting flight, selecting YES or NO;
4. Select the reason for your complaint, indicating what happened to the flight: Delayed Flight, Canceled Flight, or Overbooked Flight;
5. Respond to questions about the reason the airline delayed or canceled the flight. Indicate an option from the list;
6. Provide information about your flight: Airline, Flight Number, and Departure Date;
7. Indicate your best email address (very important for receiving communications and updates about your claim) and read the Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy. If you accept them, proceed to validate and check if you are entitled to compensation;
8. At this point, AirHelp will inform you whether you are entitled to monetary compensation, and it will also indicate an estimated amount;
9. If affirmative, you must now proceed with the remaining details to continue your claim: First Name, Last Name;
10. Indicate if you traveled alone or not. If you traveled with other passengers, you may also provide their details, and the compensation request will also be valid for those passengers. However, it is optional, being an optional step);
11. Your full address;
12. The details and reference of the affected booking/flight;
13. Complete the form with the remaining requested personal data and submit your compensation claim;
14. DONE! Your request has been submitted, and you will wait for AirHelp to contact you via email to confirm your request and what the next steps are, as well as estimates for waiting time.

How to Request Compensation

As indicated in the previous step, just go to AirHelp’s website, follow the requested steps in the form, and after verifying the viability of your claim and whether you are entitled to monetary compensation, submit your compensation request.

After successfully submitting the form, you will need to wait for a response from AirHelp via email or phone. An assistant will be responsible for handling your claim and will follow through from start to finish.

How Much Can I Receive for My Claim?

Your monetary compensation varies depending on the length of the delay/cancellation and the flight distance. For flights delayed less than 3 hours, there is no entitlement to compensation.

In other cases, the compensation amount ranges from €125 to €600 per passenger. In the table below you will find the relation:

What Documents Are Needed?

To initiate your compensation request after it is validated, you will be asked for some documents regarding the flight and your identity, as listed below:

• Copy of the boarding pass and/or reservation ticket;
• Copy of ID card or passport;

If your process needs to go to court to ensure you receive your compensation, a power of attorney will be required – a pre-filled one will be sent to you – so that the lawyer can represent you when filing the lawsuit.

Throughout the process, if additional documents are needed, the AirHelp team may also request them via email and will call you to explain what they need.

How Long Does It Take to Receive Compensation?

The time it takes to receive your compensation varies depending on the cause, airline, and outcome. If the airline accepts to pay the compensation you are entitled to voluntarily, it usually takes about 3 to 4 months. This time can vary from case to case depending on the volume of claims that exist.

After the first contact from AirHelp with the airline, for example, the airline will have about 30 to 60 days to respond to AirHelp. If they do not respond in time, your case will go to court, which could take some time due to the complexity and bureaucracy involved.

Even though sometimes the delay may be long, if you have compensation to receive, it is always a good thing.

Does AirHelp Work? Testimony and Experience

Our experience is that yes, AirHelp works and has proven to be quite effective. One of the members of the byAçores team traveled with their family to Cape Verde, and their return flight was canceled due to technical issues – it was simply indicated as technical problems, with no further details on the true reason. However, the next day, it was resolved with a new flight via a chartered plane.

Since the cancellation had not been communicated in advance, all passengers were entitled to monetary compensation. Given that the route was between 1500 km and 3500 km, each passenger was entitled to compensation of €400.

The claim form was filled out on the AirHelp website with all flight details, passenger information, and the request was submitted. It was eligible and moved forward with the initial compensation request directly to the airline. After about 2 months, the airline responded that they refused to pay the compensation. Sometimes airlines, even knowing they have to pay this amount, refuse to do so in order to buy more time and delay the payment.

AirHelp proceeded with legal action against the airline, and all passengers signed a power of attorney for AirHelp’s lawyer to represent them in court. After about 4 to 5 months (during this time, there were several emails and phone calls exchanged with AirHelp), whenever any documentation or information was requested, AirHelp responded: They won the case in court and you will receive your compensation!

Each passenger was entitled to €400, and since it went to court, AirHelp charged 35% of the initial service fee + 15% legal action fee, totaling 50%. So, each passenger received €200.

If you access AirHelp via this link, your service fee will be 25% only.

AirHelp Portugal Contacts

You can contact AirHelp in Portugal through their website, requiring a login to send direct communications about your case or inquiries. There is also a help area with frequently asked questions about all processes and eligibility of cases.

Log in here and talk to the AirHelp team.

If you had a delayed or canceled flight in the last 3 years, check here if you are entitled to compensation of up to €600.