Article 7 fixes compensation at €250, €400 or €600 under EU261 and £220, £350 or £520 under UK261, by great-circle distance to the final destination. A part payment does not change the figure. The letter below takes what has been paid on account, without prejudice, and asks for the difference.
[Your full name]
[Your address]
[Email]
[Phone]
[Today's date]
[Airline name] — Customer Relations / Claims
[Airline claims address or online claim form]
Re: Part payment accepted on account — balance of compensation claimed
Flight [Flight number]
Route [Departure airport] to [Final destination airport]
Date of flight [Flight date]
Booking reference [Booking reference]
Your reference [Reference number]
Dear Sir or Madam,
You have [paid me / offered me] [Currency] [Amount already paid] in respect of
my claim for flight [Flight number] on [Flight date]. I accept that sum
on account and without prejudice, as a part payment only. I do not
accept it in full and final settlement of my claim, and nothing in this
letter is an agreement to compromise it.
Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 sets the compensation by the
great-circle distance to the final destination. The distance from
[Departure airport] to [Final destination airport] is approximately
[Distance in km] km, which falls in the [Distance band] band. The sum
due for [Number of passengers] passenger(s) is [Currency] [Total].
The balance outstanding is therefore [Currency] [Amount].
If you say the amount was reduced under Article 7(2), please state the
re-routing you offered, its arrival time and the original scheduled
arrival time, so that the reduction can be checked. If you say the
payment settles the claim, please send me the wording I agreed to and
the date I agreed to it.
Please pay [Currency] [Amount] within 14 days of the date of this letter
to: [Payment details].
Yours faithfully,
[Signature]
[Your full name]
How to use it
- Work out the full sum first, from the amounts table or the calculator. Send nothing until you know the figure.
- Reply in writing before you bank or spend the payment, and keep the timestamp.
- Use the words “on account and without prejudice”. They are what stop a part payment becoming a settlement.
- Do the arithmetic in the letter: full sum, paid, balance. One line each.
- Give 14 days, then escalate or issue.
“Full and final settlement” is the trap. An offer made in those words, accepted or banked without a reply, is a compromise of the whole claim, and an airline will run that argument. Say in writing that you accept only on account before the money moves. If the airline has already paid without those words, it is simply a part payment, and this letter puts that on the record.
Can I keep the money and still claim the rest?
Where the airline paid without conditions, yes: a debtor who pays part of a debt has not discharged the rest. Where the payment was expressly offered in full and final settlement, taking it is evidence that you accepted the compromise. The safe order is always the same — write first, say what you are accepting it as, then let it clear.
The airline halved the compensation. Was it entitled to?
Only on conditions. Article 7(2) lets the carrier reduce the amount by 50 % when it re-routed you and you reached your final destination within two hours of the original arrival on short flights, three hours in the middle band and four hours on the longest ones. The Court in Sturgeon (paragraph 63) applies the same reduction to a flight of more than 3,500 km that arrives three to under four hours late, giving €300. If you arrived later than that, the reduction does not apply and the letter asks for the numbers behind it.
They paid me in vouchers. Does that count as payment?
Not unless you agreed to it in writing. Article 7(3) allows payment in travel vouchers only with the signed agreement of the passenger; otherwise it is cash, electronic bank transfer, bank order or bank cheque. Treat an unagreed voucher as an unpaid claim and use the voucher to cash letter.
Check your figure against the amounts table and, if the band is arguable, against how flight distance is measured — a route measured to the connection rather than the final destination is the most common way an airline lands one band too low. If the balance is refused, the file goes to the national enforcement body, and if it is worth issuing for, to the letter before claim.