Your flight was cancelled. What now?

First, choose how to continue

For a cancellation covered by EU261, the airline should offer a choice: reimbursement, re-routing as soon as possible under comparable transport conditions, or travel later when seats are available. Reimbursement is normally due within seven days. If a journey has become pointless, relevant unused portions and a return to the original departure point may also matter.

Choosing reimbursement usually ends the right to re-routing and ongoing care. You do not automatically receive a full refund and a replacement flight together. Ask about your options before accepting a voucher; vouchers require your agreement.

Ask for care while you wait

If you wait for the earliest re-routing, reasonable meals, refreshments and communication may be due. An overnight wait can mean accommodation and transfers. Ask the airline to provide these first. If it does not, keep itemised receipts for necessary, reasonable purchases.

These rights can remain even when weather or another extraordinary event removes the right to standard cash compensation. They do not cover every consequential loss; separately booked hotels or missed events need another assessment.

Then check cash compensation

The standard bands are €250 for a flight up to 1,500 km, €400 for a longer flight within the EU or another covered flight up to 3,500 km, and €600 for a longer non-intra-EU flight. Great-circle distance is used, not the path the aircraft happened to fly.

Personal notification at least fourteen days before departure normally removes this payment. With shorter notice, the timing of the alternative offered can also remove it. With re-routing, arrival close enough to the original schedule can reduce a remaining payment by half. The calculator explains each branch.

The airline can avoid standard compensation if it proves extraordinary circumstances caused the cancellation and all reasonable measures were taken. An ordinary technical problem is generally insufficient. A short cause label such as “weather” is not complete evidence.

Build a small evidence file

Keep the booking confirmation, cancellation message with its timestamp, original schedule, offered replacement, actual arrival information, airline explanation and receipts. The relevant carrier is normally the one that operated the flight, including on a codeshare.

Contact the operating airline first. If the answer is inadequate, the relevant national enforcement body, an available dispute-resolution service, or a claim service can help assess next steps. Time limits vary by jurisdiction. Connections, separate tickets and Swiss or UK cases deserve individual review.