After a cancelled or very delayed flight, airlines often offer "a refund" or "a credit". Yet Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 provides for three different rights, which meet different conditions and can generally be combined.
✓ Content checked by the VolClaim editorial team · Last updated: 19 October 2026 · Sources: Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 (Articles 7, 8 and 9)
In the event of cancellation or denied boarding, you can choose between a refund of the ticket and re-routing to your destination. If the delay is at least 5 hours, you can ask for a refund of the ticket. See cancelled flight.
Meals and refreshments depending on the wait, hotel accommodation if an overnight stay is necessary, transport between the airport and the hotel, and two communications (calls or emails).
€250, €400 or €600 depending on the distance, in the event of a delay of at least 3 hours on arrival, a cancellation notified less than 14 days before departure, or denied boarding.
The refund compensates for the price of the ticket you did not use; compensation makes up for the inconvenience suffered. These are two different things. Accepting a refund of the ticket does not mean losing the fixed compensation, if its conditions are met.
Likewise, care (meals, hotel) is owed while you wait, whether or not you are subsequently entitled to compensation. If the airline did not provide it, keep your receipts: our list of documents to send us explains which ones to keep.
Example: your flight is cancelled six days before departure and you choose the refund. You can generally also claim the Article 7 compensation, since the cancellation was notified less than 14 days before departure, unless an extraordinary circumstance applies.
Have you accepted a refund or a credit? The fixed compensation may still be owed. VolClaim checks your rights free of charge, claims the compensation from the airline, asks for payment in money rather than a voucher and follows the claim through to payment by bank transfer, with no upfront costs: 25% incl. VAT only if successful. If court action becomes necessary, our total fee is capped at 50% incl. VAT. It covers all procedural costs (court fees, lawyer, judicial officer), which we advance and bear. If the proceedings fail, you pay nothing. Procedural costs awarded against the airline (legal costs, Article 700 of the French Code of Civil Procedure) are retained by us.
Compensation and refunds are in principle paid in money (cash, bank transfer or cheque). A voucher or travel voucher is only possible if the passenger agrees to it in writing. You can refuse it and ask for a bank transfer.
The ticket must be refunded within 7 days, in accordance with the terms of Article 7(3). For the fixed compensation, the regulation sets no time limit.
An extraordinary circumstance (weather preventing a safe flight, external strike…) can exempt the airline from the fixed compensation. It does not exempt it from care while you wait, nor from the refund or re-routing. Depending on the case, there is therefore always something to claim.
Generally yes. The refund (Article 8) and the fixed compensation (Article 7) are two separate rights: accepting a refund of the ticket does not mean losing the right to €250 to €600 compensation, if its conditions are met.
No. Under Article 7(3) of the regulation, payment is in principle made in money (cash, bank transfer or cheque); a voucher or travel voucher is only possible if the passenger agrees to it in writing. You can refuse it and ask for a bank transfer.
Article 8(1) of the regulation provides for a refund within 7 days, in accordance with the terms of Article 7(3). This time limit concerns the ticket refund, not the fixed compensation, for which the regulation sets no time limit.
No. An extraordinary circumstance can exempt the airline from paying the fixed compensation, but not from providing care while you wait, nor from the refund or re-routing.
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