Airline refused? Where to complain, and what works

Step 1: the airline itself, in writing

No body will look at your case until you have put the claim to the airline in writing. Send it by email or through the claim form and keep the confirmation. State your flight number, the date, your booking reference and the amount you are claiming.

Then the clock that matters starts: if you are not satisfied with the airline’s final response, or it takes more than eight weeks to respond at all, you can escalate. That eight-week mark is the key to everything that follows, so date-stamp your first letter.

Step 2: CAA-approved ADR — if your airline is in a scheme

Alternative Dispute Resolution gives you an independent decision without going to court. The CAA approves the bodies that provide it, AviationADR and CDRL among them, and where an airline has joined a scheme the outcome binds that airline.

Here is the catch nobody puts up front: scheme membership is voluntary. Several carriers have not joined, and for those the ADR door simply is not there. Check your airline’s membership before you invest weeks in the process.

If the airline is not in a scheme: PACT

For carriers outside any approved scheme the CAA runs its Passenger Advice and Complaints Team. PACT will take up your case with the airline and tell you what it thinks of the refusal.

It is worth doing, but be clear about what you are getting: PACT’s view is not a binding order. It is pressure and an informed opinion, not an enforceable judgment.

The route that actually compels payment: the small claims court

A flight compensation claim is a money claim for a few hundred pounds. In England and Wales that is the small claims track of the County Court — designed to be used without a solicitor, and the only forum that can actually order a refusing airline to pay.

That is the step most passengers never take, and airlines know it. It is also why the statistics on who pays only after court action are so unflattering for some carriers.

Mind the clock — and mind the reform

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland you have six years from the flight; in Scotland, five. That is generous, and it is why a refusal is not the end of the road.

But do not bank on it indefinitely. The revised EU regulation introduces a nine-month window, and while that does not change UK law, the direction across Europe is towards much shorter deadlines. Six months of "we are still investigating" emails is not progress.

Exactly how long you have, country by country →

Or skip the maze

Run the free check with your flight number and date, including if the airline has already turned you down. We read the stated ground for refusal, test it against the flight data and the official weather observations, and tell you honestly whether the case stands. If it does not, we should say that too.