- Flight delay - We enforce your rights!
- Compensation of up to €600
- Free review of your flight delay
- Experience with every relevant airline
Rights in case of flight delay - Quick help from a lawyer!
Lawyer Carl Christian Müller
You are entitled to these compensation in the event of a flight delay:
Short distance up to 1,500 km
250 €
per passenger
Compensation enforceable
- from 3 hours arrival delay
- in the event of cancellation shortly before departure (up to 14 days before departure
- for overbooking
Flight must
- have been carried out with a European airline
- or have taken off from a European airport
Short distance up to 1,500 km
Medium distance up to 3,500 km
400 €
per passenger
Entschädigung durchsetzbar
- ab 3 Stunden Ankunftsverspätung
- bei Annullierung kurz vor Abflug (bis 14 Tage vorher)
- bei Überbuchung
Flight must
- have been carried out with a European airline
- or have taken off from a European airport
Medium distance up to 3,500 km
Long distance from 3,500 km
600 €
per passenger
Entschädigung durchsetzbar
- ab 4 Stunden Ankunftsverspätung
- bei Ankunftsverspätung zwischen 3 und 4 Stunden: 300 EUR
- bei Annullierung kurz vor Abflug (bis 14 Tage vorher)
- bei Überbuchung
Flight must
- have been carried out with a European airline
- or have taken off from a European airport
Long distance from 3,500 km
Flight delay: In which cases am I entitled to compensation?
According to the EU Air Passenger Regulation, every passenger is entitled to compensation of up to EUR 600 in the event of a flight incident. This applies to the following cases:
1. flight delay of more than three hours
In the event of a flight delay of more than three hours, you are entitled to compensation of between EUR 250.00 and EUR 600.00, depending on the distance. The prerequisite is a delayed arrival at the destination airport of more than three hours. The decisive factor here is the arrival delay at the destination airport.
2 Cancellation
If your airline has canceled your flight at short notice, you are also entitled to compensation of up to EUR 600.00, provided the airline informed you of the cancellation less than 14 days before departure.</p
3. denied boarding due to overbooking
If the airline denies you boarding on the flight you have booked because it is overbooked, you are also entitled to compensation. This also applies in principle if the airline has offered you an alternative flight.</p
Who is entitled to compensation in the event of a flight delay?
The passenger or passenger affected by the delay is entitled to compensation in the event of a flight delay. It does not matter whether the passenger paid for the ticket themselves, the only decisive factor is whether the flight ticket bears their name. So if you flew with your family of four, each family member has a separate claim. Of course, the claims can be asserted in a single process.
Where do I apply for compensation in the event of a flight delay?
The claim for flight delay is made directly against the executing airline and must therefore be asserted there. Your tour operator or travel agency, on the other hand, are not liable.
The operating airline is the airline that actually operates or should operate the flight. In the case of code-share flights with several flight numbers, the claim must therefore be made against the airline that operated the flight itself and under its own responsibility. Finding this out is often not so easy, although the airlines are obliged to provide this information in the flight documents. These should state "operated by Lufthansa" or "operated by Ryanair".
How long am I entitled to compensation in the event of a flight delay?
The limitation period is three years from the end of the year in which the flight took place.
This means that passengers in Germany have three years to claim compensation for flight delays. For example, if the flight took place on May 15, 2021, the limitation period expires on December 31, 2024.</p
Note that the limitation period is a legal deadline within which the claim must be asserted. So if a passenger has a claim for compensation, they should make it as soon as possible to ensure they receive their compensation.
It is also important to note that the limitation period only applies to the assertion of the claim, not to the actual payment of compensation. The airline is obliged to pay the compensation within seven days of the claim being made, unless there is reasonable doubt as to whether the claim is justified.
What am I entitled to in the event of a 2-hour flight delay?
In the event of a flight delay of 2 hours, passengers are not entitled to compensation in accordance with the EU Passenger Rights Regulation (Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004). This entitlement only exists in the event of a delay of more than 3 hours, cancellation or denied boarding.</p
However, in the event of a flight delay of 2 hours, passengers have a entitlement to care services from the airline. The airline must provide passengers with free meals and refreshments as well as access to communication facilities (e.g. telephone calls, emails) and, if necessary, overnight accommodation in the event of a delay of 2 hours.
Flight delay lawyer: How we enforce your claim
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Submit flight
You submit your flight to us using our contact form - this process only takes a few minutes. Please use the form - do not send us an e-mail. Unfortunately, we cannot answer inquiries by email.
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We check your flight
We use our flight database to check whether your flight is eligible for compensation. This service is free of charge.
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You instruct us
We will get back to you with an assessment and, if necessary, the order documents. You instruct us to enforce your claim for compensation.
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We get started
Immediately after the assignment, we write to the airline and enforce your claim for compensation - in court if necessary.
Your airline doesn't want to pay?
As a rule, airlines refuse to settle payment claims. We know from experience that airlines often do not respond if the passenger files the claim themselves or they put the passenger off with standardized responses.</p
You should also not be satisfied with flight vouchers or settlement amounts. If the airline makes such an offer, there is already much to suggest that the airline itself assumes that the flight is subject to compensation.
Your lawyer for flight delays!
Send us your flight details. Use our contact form for this. Unfortunately, we cannot process inquiries by email. We can give you an initial assessment of the chances of success of your case via our flight database. This service is free of charge. If you then instruct us, we will write to the airline on your behalf and, if necessary, enforce your claim for compensation in court. If the airline is ordered to pay, it must also bear the costs of the legal dispute and thus the costs of your lawyer. If you have legal expenses insurance, your health insurance will regularly cover the costs.</p
Your contact person
Rechtsanwalt Carl Christian Müller, LL.M. Expert for passenger rights
Your lawyer for flight delays
- Specialized in disputes with airlines
- Free initial consultation
- Available for you nationwide
- Experience with every relevant airline operating in the European market .
Who covers the costs of a lawyer in the event of a flight delay?
Affected passengers often wonder whether it is worth going to a lawyer. However, the airline often has to reimburse the costs incurred by the lawyer:
The airline is in default
If you have already requested payment from the airline by setting a deadline, but the airline has not responded or has rejected the claims, the airline is in default. From the point of view of damage caused by delay, the airline is then obliged to reimburse you for the costs incurred by our assignment.
Airline provided insufficient information
If the airline did not inform you or did not inform you sufficiently about your rights as a passenger, you can immediately instruct a lawyer to assert your claim for compensation in accordance with the case law of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH ruling of 25.02.2016, ref. X ZR 35/15). The right to compensation under Art. 7 of the Air Passenger Rights Regulation also regularly includes the costs of hiring a lawyer if the company - as in this case - has not complied with its information obligations under Art. 14 of the Regulation - according to the BGH. The passenger may not only seek advice on his legal options in order to remedy the lack of information; rather, the lawyer may also take direct action and claim a business fee.
Avoiding legal fees - these are the right steps:
In fact, there is often no other option than to hire a lawyer to get the airline to pay. Only an experienced lawyer specializing in air passenger rights who can handle these relatively "small cases" economically can help here. Nevertheless, there are of course costs involved. Below we show you how you can minimize the cost risks:
Free preliminary review
Submit the flight using our form. Please do not send us an e-mail. Unfortunately, we cannot process requests that reach us by email. We can give you a reliable forecast of the chances of success of your case via our database. This service is free of charge. We do not accept cases that we ourselves assume are not enforceable.
Put the airline in default!
Write to the airline yourself and request that they pay the compensation within 7 days. If the airline does not pay out, it is in default and must bear the costs of the lawyer from the point of view of damage caused by delay.
Legal expenses insurance covers cost risks
As a rule, legal expenses insurers cover the costs of legal action in the event of a flight delay. We will be happy to submit a request for assumption of costs for you. This service is free of charge.
In which cases is the claim for flight delay excluded?
A claim to flight passenger compensation may be excluded in the following cases:
1. extraordinary circumstances: If the airline can prove that the flight delay, cancellation or denied boarding is due to extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even by reasonable measures, the passenger cannot claim compensation.
2. Voluntary re-routing: If a passenger is voluntarily re-routed to another flight and thus arrives at their destination no more than three hours later than originally planned, they are not entitled to compensation.
3. advance notice: If the airline informs the passenger at least two weeks before departure of the cancellation or delay of the flight and offers alternative transportation, the passenger is not entitled to compensation.
4. Airline based outside the EU: If the transporting airline is not based in the EU, the right to compensation only applies to a departure from an airport in an EU member state.
5th limitation period: The claim for passenger compensation expires after three years. For example, if the flight took place on May 15, 2022, the limitation period expires on December 31, 2025.
Exceptional circumstances - often just an excuse
The airline is exempt from compensation claims if the delay was caused by exceptional circumstances (Art. 5 Para. 3 No. 261/2004/EC).
Exceptional circumstances are, for example Bad weather, strike by ground staff or air traffic control, airspace closures, terror warnings or birds in the engine.
Technical defects, on the other hand, do not constitute extraordinary circumstances. This applies even if the airline has carried out all maintenance work on the aircraft in a timely and proper manner.
A strike by the airline's own pilots and cabin crew is also not an "extraordinary circumstance" within the meaning of the Passenger Rights Regulation, according to current case law. Therefore, an internal strike does not release the airline from its payment obligation.
Exceptional circumstances are often only an excuse
In most cases, airlines use extraordinary circumstances as a blanket excuse to fend off claims. However, you should not be satisfied with this, as the burden of proof for the extraordinary circumstance lies with the airline.
Submit your flight to us - we will check free of charge whether your flight is eligible. We know the airlines' excuses - and the airlines know us. The airlines know that we will enforce our clients' rights in court if necessary.
Flight delay lawyer: How we enforce your claim
-
Submit flight
You submit your flight to us using our contact form - this process only takes a few minutes. Please use the form - do not send us an e-mail. Unfortunately, we cannot answer inquiries by email.
-
We check your flight
We use our flight database to check whether your flight is eligible for compensation. This service is free of charge.
-
You instruct us
We will get back to you with an assessment and, if necessary, the order documents. You instruct us to enforce your claim for compensation.
-
We get started
Immediately after the assignment, we write to the airline and enforce your claim for compensation - in court if necessary.
Enforce
compensation for flight delay here!
Submitting a flight delay
What rights are covered by the concept of air passenger rights?
The term air passenger rights covers the rights of passengers in the event of flight delays, flight cancellations and overbooking as well as loss, damage or delay of baggage.
In essence, this includes reimbursement of the cost of the ticket or alternative transportation to the destination if a flight is cancelled or delayed by more than 3 hours. It also includes the right to compensation for denied boarding due to overbooking, cancellation or long delay of flights and compensation for loss, damage or delay of baggage.
In accordance with the EU Passenger Rights Regulation, these rights apply to flights that depart or land within the European Union and to flights operated by foreign airlines that depart from an EU country.
Can I ask the airline to pay the compensation myself?
Of course, you can also demand payment from the airline yourself. However, experience shows that airlines rarely comply with this obligation without pressure from a lawyer. Our clients regularly report that the airlines do not respond at all or refuse to make a payment. This is where we come in: fill out our contact form and send us your flight documents. We will check whether you are entitled to compensation or whether you are entitled to reimbursement of the ticket costs and enforce your claim! -We will claim your payment!
How can I instruct Mueller.legal to enforce my claims?
Use our simple and uncomplicated contact form. You can use it to send us your personal details and the flight you have booked. Please also let us know whether your flight has been delayed, canceled or could not be carried out for other reasons. We also need the booking documents for your flight. You can also send us these documents using the form. We will then contact the airline and clarify everything else for you.
I enforce your claim for compensation!
Lawyer Carl Christian Müller has been admitted to the bar since 2002 and has represented clients for many years in the enforcement of air passenger rights and in other areas of consumer law. In the area of flight delays in particular, he has extensive experience in the judicial enforcement of compensation and has successfully represented clients against almost all European and many non-European airlines.
