When a flight is delayed or cancelled

We arrange travel as an agent for the airlines that operate the flights. When a flight is disrupted, the operating carrier holds the seats, the aircraft and the rebooking authority, and it is the only party that can put you on another aircraft. That is why our advice for anything happening at the airport or within twenty-four hours of departure is always to contact the airline directly first — they can act in minutes on something that would take us an exchange of messages to relay.

We will help you deal with the airline afterwards, and we will chase a claim on your behalf. What we cannot do is grant compensation or a refund on the airline's behalf, and any page that implies an agent can is misleading you.

Whether anything is owed to you beyond a seat on another flight usually turns on the cause of the disruption and on which regulation applies to your route. Weather and air traffic control restrictions are treated differently from a crew shortage or a technical fault in most regimes, and the airline's own stated reason is the document a later claim is decided on.

So capture it while it exists. The airline app, an email, or a text message stating the cause is worth considerably more than a verbal explanation at a gate, and the record has a habit of becoming less specific over the following weeks.

• Screenshot the airline app showing the delay or cancellation and the stated reason.
• Photograph the departure board showing the status and the time.
• Keep boarding passes, bag tags and every receipt for food, transport and accommodation.
• Note the names of staff you dealt with and the time you spoke to them.

Passenger-rights regimes are set by governments and apply according to where you departed from, where you were going, and which carrier operated the flight. They differ substantially, and a rule that applies to a departure from one region may not apply to the same airline flying an identical delay elsewhere. That is why this guide does not tell you what you are entitled to.

What it will tell you is that entitlements typically fall into three separable buckets, and that you should ask about each one by name rather than accepting the first thing offered.

• Rerouting or a refund — being carried to your destination, or having the unused portion refunded.
• Duty of care — meals, communication and accommodation while you wait, which in most regimes is owed regardless of the cause.
• Fixed compensation — a set sum for the disruption itself, which in most regimes is owed only for causes within the airline's control.

A travel credit or voucher offered at the airport is sometimes generous and sometimes a settlement of a claim worth more than the voucher. Ask directly whether accepting it waives a compensation claim. If nobody can answer, take the rebooking and decline the voucher, and pursue the claim separately afterwards.

The same applies to a refund offered in place of rerouting. In several regimes accepting a refund ends the airline's obligation to get you to your destination, which is the wrong trade if you still need to be there.

An itinerary made of two separate tickets is two separate contracts. A delay on the first that makes you miss the second is, to the second airline, simply a passenger who did not turn up. There is no protection, no rebooking obligation and usually no refund, and this is the single most expensive misunderstanding in flight booking.

If your trip is built this way, the disruption plan has to be your own: your insurance, your card benefits, and a connection buffer long enough to absorb a delay. Our guide to multi-city trips covers how to tell the difference before you book.

Once you are rebooked and out of the airport, send us the booking reference, the evidence you collected and what the airline told you. We will take it up with the carrier, and we will tell you honestly if we think a claim has no prospect rather than billing you to file it.