A flight cancelled with less than 14 days’ notice pays the same fixed sums as a long delay: €250, €400 or €600 under EU261, £220, £350 or £520 under UK261. A refund or re-routing is a separate right on top. The airline escapes only on a near-identical re-routing, or on extraordinary circumstances it can prove.
[Your full name]
[Your address]
[Email]
[Phone]
[Today's date]
[Airline name] — Customer Relations / Claims
[Airline claims address or online claim form]
Re: Cancellation compensation under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004
Flight [Flight number]
Route [Departure airport] to [Final destination airport]
Original date of flight [Original flight date]
Booking reference [Booking reference]
Dear Sir or Madam,
I held a confirmed booking on flight [Flight number], from
[Departure airport] to [Final destination airport], on
[Original flight date], booking reference [Booking reference]. You
cancelled this flight and notified me on [Date you were told], which was
[Days of notice] days before the scheduled departure.
The alternative you offered departed at
[Alternative flight departure time] and arrived at
[Alternative flight arrival time], so the re-routing exception in
Article 5(1)(c) does not apply.
Under Articles 5 and 7 of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 I am entitled to
fixed compensation for the [Distance band] band, which is [Currency]
[Amount]. I am not aware of any extraordinary circumstances, and the
burden of proving any rests with the airline.
I was [not re-routed / not refunded]. Under Article 8 I therefore also
exercise my right to [a full refund / re-routing].
If a refund, the amount is [Currency] [Refund amount].
Please confirm payment of [Currency] [Amount] within 14 days to:
[Payment details].
Yours faithfully,
[Signature]
[Your full name]
How to use it
- Find the date the airline told you and count back to the original departure. Under 14 days is the trigger.
- Take the amount and band from the amounts table; for a UK flight claim in pounds.
- Delete the Article 8 paragraph if you were already refunded or flown out on an acceptable alternative.
- Attach the cancellation email or text message — it dates the notice for you.
- Send it through the airline’s claim form and keep proof of sending.
If you are still at the terminal, what to do at the airport right now covers the first moves before you write this letter.
A refund is not a settlement of your compensation. Article 8 (your money back, or a seat to your destination) and Article 7 (the fixed sum) are two separate rights in the same regulation. Taking one does not waive the other, and an airline that pays only the fare has answered half the claim.
When can the airline avoid paying for a cancellation?
Only in three cases. It told you at least 14 days ahead. It told you 7 to 14 days ahead and re-routed you departing no more than two hours early and arriving less than four hours late. Or it told you under 7 days ahead and re-routed you departing no more than one hour early and arriving less than two hours late (Article 5(1)(c)). Extraordinary circumstances are a separate defence it has to prove. The notice-period math itself is worked through in cancelled with less than 14 days’ notice.
Claiming against a specific airline
The letter above works against any carrier, but the airline pages add what is carrier-specific: the claims route, its home regulator, and the trap that catches passengers most often on a cancellation. See Austrian Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Transavia, Finnair, Norwegian, SAS and Turkish Airlines for the European and Turkish carriers, or Pegasus, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Delta, United and American Airlines for the rest.
The airline moved me to another flight and called it a change, not a cancellation
If your flight number disappeared from the schedule and you were put on a different service, that is a cancellation whatever the email called it. Say so in the letter and give both flight numbers. If the replacement met the timing limits above, the compensation falls away but your refund or re-routing right does not. If the airline refuses to put you on any alternative at all, use the refused-to-rebook letter instead.
Do I still get compensation if I accepted the alternative flight?
Yes, unless the alternative met the Article 5(1)(c) timing limits. Flying on the airline’s replacement is not a waiver — it is the re-routing the regulation tells the airline to offer. Keep both boarding passes so you can show the actual arrival time at your final destination.
The airline may also halve the amount under Article 7(2) where the re-routing arrived within two, three or four hours of the original time, by distance band. That is a reduction, not a refusal, so a letter that gets a half payment has still worked. If the airline claims the reduction, ask it to state the original and actual arrival times it relied on.
Refused on extraordinary circumstances? Read what actually counts, then escalate to the regulator. If the cancellation was part of a package holiday, the 14-day package refund rule runs alongside this claim.