The fare you paid does not change the payment. A flight that reaches your final destination three or more hours late, or is cancelled on less than 14 days’ notice, pays €250, €400 or €600 under EU261 and £220, £350 or £520 under UK261 — set by great-circle distance alone, not by the ticket price.
Article 7 never looks at your fare
Article 7(1) says “passengers shall receive compensation amounting to” €250 up to 1,500 km, €400 for intra-Community flights over 1,500 km and other flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km, and €600 for everything else. There is no proportion, no percentage and no ceiling tied to what the seat cost. The UK version works the same way at £220, £350 and £520.
That the payment can exceed the fare is not an oversight. Article 7 names cancellation and denied boarding; the right to the same fixed sum after a 3-hour arrival delay comes from the Court of Justice in Sturgeon (C-402/07 and C-432/07, 2009), upheld in Nelson (C-581/10 and C-629/10, 23 October 2012). The airlines argued in Nelson that a flat sum unrelated to the ticket price was disproportionate. The Court disagreed, holding the measure appropriate because the loss of time suffered is “irreversible, objective and easily quantifiable” and identical for every passenger on the aircraft. What you paid to sit there is not what the money is for.
The sum is also per passenger, not per booking. Four seats on one reservation is four claims.
Where your fare does matter
Two places, and only two.
- The refund. Article 8(1)(a) returns the ticket price when you give up the flight — the whole price for the parts not flown, plus the parts already flown if the journey no longer serves any purpose. That is your money back, quite separate from Article 7.
- The halving. Article 7(2) lets the airline cut the fixed sum by half when it re-routes you and you still arrive within two, three or four hours of the original arrival, by band. It turns on arrival times, not on price.
A refund of the fare is not compensation. The most common cheap-ticket answer is a credit for the price of the flight, presented as settlement. Article 8 and Article 7 are different provisions with different triggers, and taking one does not extinguish the other. Nor does a voucher: Article 7(3) allows payment in travel vouchers only “with the signed agreement of the passenger”.
The one exception: a fare not available to the public
Article 3(3) is the real limit, and it is about availability, not price: the Regulation “shall not apply to passengers travelling free of charge or at a reduced fare not available directly or indirectly to the public”, though it does apply to tickets issued under a frequent flyer or other commercial programme.
A sale fare, a flash promotion or a fare that appeared for nine minutes on a comparison site is still a fare available to the public. So is a fare somebody else paid for you: in M1.R. and M2.R. v AAA (C-20/24, 6 March 2025) the Court held that a passenger is not treated as travelling free or at a non-public reduced fare where the tour operator paid the carrier at market conditions and the package price was paid by a third party rather than by the passenger. The same judgment puts the burden on the airline to prove the exclusion applies. Staff tickets and closed sponsorship fares are the cases the provision was written for.
When the fixed sum is not enough
Article 12(1) preserves your right to further compensation, with the amount granted under the Regulation deductible from it. In Rusu v Blue Air (C-354/18, 29 July 2019) the Court held that the Article 7 sum is not intended to compensate damage such as loss of salary, and that such damage may be the subject of further compensation under Article 12(1) before a national court. On a cheap ticket with an expensive consequence — a missed day’s work, a forfeited hotel — that is the route, and it needs proof.
Find your band by distance in the amounts table or run the route through the compensation calculator, then send the delay compensation letter. If the booking included children, compensation for children and infants covers who counts as a passenger.
Can the compensation be more than I paid for the flight?
Yes, routinely. Article 7 fixes the sum by distance band, and Nelson upheld exactly that design. A short-haul seat bought on promotion and a flexible fare on the same aircraft carry the identical €250 or £220.
Does a sale fare or a promo code take me out of EU261?
No. Article 3(3) excludes fares “not available directly or indirectly to the public” — staff and closed-programme tickets. A discount anyone could have bought is a public fare, and after C-20/24 the airline has to prove otherwise.
The airline offered my fare back instead — should I take it?
Only for what it is. A refund under Article 8 returns your money; it is not the Article 7 payment and it does not settle it. If the offer is framed as full and final settlement, say in writing which article you are accepting under and that the compensation claim stands.