Your flight’s distance determines the amount of compensation you could receive

It sounds simple enough. The distance that your flight covered, or was supposed to, will determine the amount of compensation that you’ll be able to claim. The total amount of time you were delayed won’t change the amount, it will only be dependent on your route. Below you can find the clear information on how much money you can receive for your flight’s delay or cancellation:

How much compensation do I get when my flight has been delayed or cancelled?

• For flights travelling up to 1,500 kilometres: you can get £221
• For routes between 1,500 and 3,500 kilometres: a compensation of £354 per person is due
• For flights over 3,500 kilometres with a delay of at least 4 hours, you are entitled to £532 If you arrived at your final destination between 3 and 4 hours later than scheduled, the airline is allowed to reduce the compensation by 50% to a total of £266

The numbers and how they relate to each other is pretty clear. However, it can be problematic when you try figure out which cities fall in which compensation group. Will I get £221 or £354 if I’m flying from London to Warsaw? What happens if I’m flying to Mexico City? Well, to answer that question in a more visual way, we’ve elaborated some nifty maps, with the help of Google Maps of course. If you’re still having a hard time choosing a destination for your summer holiday, then why not try and pick them according to the amount of compensation you could get? Just in case of course.

If you’ve already experienced a flight delay or cancellation and you’d like to find immediately how much money you may be entitled to, you can always use our free claim calculator:

Why not choose your next holiday based on this fact?

So, in order to help you choose your next holiday destination, we will also leave our favourite travel destinations within the determined compensation group. By the way, we’ve used London Heathrow (sorry Gatwick and Manchester airports) as the centre point to calculate our radius since it’s the busiest airport in the UK, and Europe for that matter.

Flight Compensation group 1: less than 1500 km

The first group is the smallest one of course, and you will be able to claim  £221 if your flight has been delayed or cancelled and you were flying within this radius:

Favourite cities to travel to within this radius:

Madrid

Incredibly lively city that has so much to offer. Bask in the sun while getting to know the barrios, our favourites include La Latina and Malasaña. Enjoy the best ham in the world and the company of the ever funny and smiling Spaniards that you’ll meet on your way. Spain’s capital still keeps it’s cultural roots and you won’t feel suffocated by tourist tailored amenities. We also have to add that El Prado is up there in the list of best museums in Europe.

Bologna

Eat your heart out Rome! You were beaten by this beautiful and unpredictable treasure. Talking about eating, Bologna is the perfect city to visit and submerge yourself in authentic Italian cuisine and learn about Italian culture. The best thing to do is to plan a full day of walking through the medieval streets admiring the Renaissance architecture. By all means, please stroll around the city with a basket in hand full of the best snachs Italy has to offer. Feel free to replenish the basket once it’s been emptied, we can assure you it will happen more than once.

Flight Compensation group 2: between 1500 and 3500 km

This also applies to all flights inside the EU (departing and arriving at an EU airport) that cover more than 3500 km. In this case, you may receive £354 per person if your flight was delayed or cancelled.

You can see two circles in this map, the first one is the 1500 km radius from London Heathrow and the second one is the 3500km radius. So if your flight was arriving at an airport located inside these two circles, then it would fall into compensation group 2.

Favourite cities to visit in this group:

St. Petersburg

A completely different kind of experience than Moscow. Russia’s best writers lived in St. Petersburg for a reason, this include: Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. It’s grandeur makes it awe inspiring and romantic. You will feel like you are surrounded by palaces, which sometimes is true. Finally, it’s where the Russian Revolution started and where the Tsar era ended. In other words, St. Petersburg will take you along the history of the biggest country on earth.

^{Picture by Ninara}

Bucharest

The city has a terrible reputation but it makes for a magnificent weekend trip. If you’re willing to let yourself be overwhelmed by how much of a mark a dictator can imprint on a city, Bucharest has a lesson or two to teach. Lonely Planet describes it best when they say “It’s where still-unreconstructed communism meets unbridled capitalism” and that allows whole plethora of experiences to develop before your eyes.

^{Picture by Stefan Jurca}

Flight Compensation group 3: 3500km or more

This one is the clearest of them all, once you’ve left this radius you will be granted a compensation of £532. There is a catch though, if you were delayed more than three hours but less than 4 the airline may apply a 50% reduction to the total amount. However, there are also some good news. If a delayed (even if less than three hours) flight, or a flight cancellation, made you miss your connecting flight (even outside the EU) and therefore you reached your final destination with a delay of more than 3 hours, you may very well be entitled to compensation. The distance that will be observed to determine the amount shall be that one between your airport of origin and your final destination.

For example: you were travelling from London to Mexico City via Barcelona and your flight from LHR to BCN was delayed 2 hours. This made you miss your connecting flight from BCN to MEX and you had to spend a night in Barcelona before boarding your replacement flight and reaching Mexico City, finally! Well then, you may be entitled to compensation! And not based on the distance between LHR and BCN but for the distance between LHR and MEX. That means £532!

Favourite cities to visit

This is very hard because, well, it includes the rest of the world. But here are two pretty nice choices just to inspire you a little bit.

Mexico City (or the whole county if you have the time)

There is a reason why we are constantly using Mexico as an example. We just love the place. Home to probably one of the most welcoming cultures in the world. Mexico City is also infinitely vibrant and cultural. The Mega City is colourful and filled with the most marvellous of tastes, scents and sounds. Start in the neighbourhoods of Colonia Roma and La Condesa and then head out to its historic centre. Don’t forget to visit the forest and caste of Chapultepec and Xochimilco to really get the best out of Mexico City.

Aruba

Last but not least, not a city but a whole island, we’ll recommend this breath taking Caribbean country. We noticed that our other suggestions could be a little bit hectic and fast paced. So this isle is the perfect spot to lay back, enjoy they beautiful beaches, the awesomeness of their culture and of course the cuisine. And we will give you the ultimate insider’s tip to do so: head on over to Zeerovers, a restaurant of upmost freshness and quality with a gorgeous view of the sunset. Quintessential Aruba, if you ask us.

There we go, pardon our sudden need to end this blog post but we’ve felt an urge to book our next holidays.

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