Flight compensation companies compared: fees, terms and the free route first

Checked 15 Sep 2026·19 min read · 9 tables

£0 is what the CAA says ADR costs a UK261 passenger, and a claims company that takes your case to ADR uses the same free route before it charges its fee. This page explains that route first, then sets five companies side by side, alphabetically, on their own published fees and terms. No company is ranked best: the right choice, if any, depends on the terms below.

#Can you claim the full amount yourself, for free?

£0 is what ADR costs, and the CAA says plainly that “you do not need to use a third-party claims management company (CMC) to take your complaint to ADR.” Complain to the airline first, then take an unresolved UK261 claim to AviationADR or CEDR, or to the CAA’s Passenger Advice and Complaints Team (PACT) if the airline belongs to neither.

Source: CAA, Alternative dispute resolution; CAA, How to make a complaint — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-22.

The Civil Aviation Authority says ADR “is free to use and, in most cases, will provide you with its decision within three months.” Complain to the airline first; if it turns the claim down or has not responded within 8 weeks, take it to whichever ADR scheme the airline belongs to, or to PACT if it belongs to neither. When compensation is owed, the UK261 scale of £220, £350 or £520, or the EU261 scale of €250, €400 or €600, then arrives in full, with no fee taken. A claims company can also reach ADR on your behalf, using “the same services and processes that you are entitled to access yourself for free”, the CAA notes, before it may “deduct a significant proportion” of the payout as its fee. Two companies say so too: Bott and Co’s terms say a client who claims alone “will receive all of the compensation awarded”, and Skycop’s UK261 page says you can “claim directly with the airline without a claims-service fee”.

Submit within 12 months of the airline’s final reply, over an incident from the last 6 years, 5 if you live in Scotland. Accept the decision and it binds the airline; refuse it and you can still go to court instead. Every fee compared here assumes compensation is actually owed: if the airline proves extraordinary circumstances, no compensation is due, and a company’s fee is a percentage of nothing.

Send your claim to the airline in writing before you look at any of the five companies below.

#What do flight compensation companies charge?

35% is what AirHelp (VAT included) and Compensair (VAT not stated) each charge on a successful claim; Skycop charges €110, €176 or €264, including VAT, on €250, €400 or €600; Flightright charges “usually 20–30%” plus VAT; and Bott and Co charges a flat 42% excluding VAT. Five companies, five different ways of stating one fee.

Flight compensation company fees, checked 14 October 2026

Source: each company’s own published fee page, first checked 2026-09-22 and re-read unchanged 2026-10-14 (see Sources).

Skycop’s 44% rate, including VAT, applies to any compensation amount outside its three fixed bands, and Skycop publishes its price list in euros only. AirHelp also lists “a fee of US$29.99” for goodwill claims, and sells a separate subscription, AirHelp+, which is a different product from a per-claim fee and is not compared here. Flightright’s terms say the percentage for your own claim is “specified during the Ordering Process”, so the public range is not a quote.

Bott and Co prints two different charge tables for the same compensation amounts, both shown here as printed.

Bott and Co’s two published charge tables, as printed

Source: Bott and Co, flight delay compensation fees; Bott and Co, Terms and Conditions (Flight Claims), checked 2026-10-14.

Each figure in the terms is about 1.2 times the fees-page figure, which reads like VAT already added, yet the terms then say “We add VAT to the total of our charges at the rate that applies when the work is done (currently 20%)”. The two tables cannot both describe the same deduction, so this page computes no net figure for Bott and Co. Reading a percentage alone hides how it is charged. AirHelp and Compensair both state 35%, yet only AirHelp confirms VAT is already inside that number. The CAA puts no figure on the “significant proportion” it warns about.

ClaimCompass has no fee page to compare: claimcompass.eu and www.claimcompass.eu redirect to airhelp.com, checked on 22 September and again on 14 October 2026, so it carries no row here.

Decided a company is worth the fee anyway? AirHelp (third-party claim service) takes UK261 and EU261 claims and charges its 35% Service Fee, including VAT, only where it obtains compensation, plus a further 15% where its Legal Action Fee applies. Withdraw after it has begun court action and its terms let it recover its legal expenses; the free ADR and PACT routes above stay open regardless.

Do it yourself · freeClaim with the airline yourself

• Write to the airline and keep the reference
• Refused: the regulator for your route, free
• You keep all of the compensation

Check your flight in the calculator →

Hand it overAirHelp takes the claim, no win no fee

• They deal with the airline for you
• AirHelp's fee is 35% of the compensation, VAT included, and nothing if the claim fails.

Start with AirHelp →Third-party claim service

Before you sign with any company, ask it for the exact amount, VAT included, that it would deduct from your own claim.

#How much of £220, £350 or £520 reaches you after the fee?

£338 is what is left of a £520 UK261 payout once AirHelp’s 35% fee, VAT already included, is deducted; £143 is left from £220, and £227.50 from £350. Only AirHelp and Skycop state their fee inclusive of VAT, so only their figures after the fee can be computed honestly on this page.

AirHelp on UK261 amounts (35%, including VAT)

Skycop on EU261 amounts (fixed fees, including VAT)

Source: AirHelp fee page; Skycop price list, checked 2026-10-14.

AirHelp’s fees page says it pays “Your Full Amount in EUR (€)” on claims under European regulations, and on other regimes in the regulation’s currency or that of your place of residence. The pound figures are this page’s arithmetic on the UK261 amounts: the share the fee takes, not the sum or currency AirHelp transfers.

Bott and Co’s two tables put the charge on a £520 payout at £225 plus VAT on the fees page and £270 in its terms, which then add VAT on top; until the firm’s own figures agree, this page does not compute what reaches you. Flightright’s “usually 20–30%” is a range, not a number, and states VAT applies on top; Compensair’s payment policy is silent on VAT altogether. Neither can be reduced to one net figure without guessing.

Compare that £338 with the £520 you would keep by claiming yourself when compensation is owed: the fee is the entire gap between the two figures, not a processing charge on top of what you would get anyway. Skycop’s fixed euro amounts only match the EU261 bands exactly; a compensation figure outside €250, €400 or €600 falls to its 44% general rate instead, which this page has not reduced to a net amount because the underlying compensation figure would vary. None of these figures include a court-stage fee, covered next, which can take a further cut if your claim needs a hearing. All of them also assume the airline cannot show extraordinary circumstances; if it can, nothing is due to either you or the company.

Ask any company in writing for the exact amount it would deduct from your own compensation figure before you sign anything.

#What extra fee applies if the claim goes to court?

15% is the extra Legal Action Fee AirHelp may add on top of its 35% service fee if a claim needs court action, which AirHelp says happens in “statistically 3% of all cases”. Flightright adds 14% only on success; Compensair may add 10%; Skycop’s court fee replaces its standard fee; Bott and Co pays court fees but takes fixed costs.

Court-stage fees, by company

Source: each company’s own fee page and terms; Bott and Co, fees page and Terms and Conditions (Flight Claims), checked 2026-10-14 (see Sources).

Four shapes cover all five companies. AirHelp, Flightright and Compensair add a second fee on top of the first. Skycop replaces its standard fee with a different one entirely. Bott and Co keeps its 42% and pays the court fees itself, but its fees page and terms pull in two directions: the fees page says “We will pay for all court fees, and any costs relating to your claim”, while the terms pass Bott any fixed costs under the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 that you become entitled to. Neither page puts a figure on that addition.

A worked example shows the size of AirHelp’s second fee: on a £520 UK261 payout that reaches court, its combined 35% plus 15%, both including VAT, comes to 50%, so £260 is deducted and £260 is left, the cap its help page names. AirHelp also says it pays the legal costs “win or lose”, while its terms say all reimbursements, including legal expenses and interest, belong to AirHelp. Flightright’s 14% surcharge applies “only in case of success”, so a lost case adds no extra fee. Compensair “reserves the right to charge” its extra 10% without saying when it would. Skycop’s Legal Proceedings fee of €125, €200 or €300 on the three bands, or 50% otherwise, stands in for the standard fee instead of adding to it.

Ask Bott and Co in writing what fixed costs would apply to your claim if it issues proceedings.

#Who runs each claim company, and who regulates it?

6 kinds of claim come under claims management regulation in Great Britain, and on our reading of the Order a flight delay or cancellation claim is not one of them. The more useful check is who you contract with: two Berlin companies, one Vilnius company, and a firm of solicitors in Cheshire regulated by the SRA.

Source: Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001, arts 89F, 89G and 89N — legislation.gov.uk; SRA Solicitors Register; Bundesamt für Justiz legal services register; each company’s terms and imprint, checked 2026-10-14.

Who you sign with, checked 14 October 2026

Our reading of the Order: article 89G(2) lists six kinds of claim, from personal injury and financial products to housing disrepair, specified benefits, criminal injury and employment, and a UK261 or EU261 compensation claim is none of them. Handling one is therefore not, by itself, an FCA-regulated claims management activity in Great Britain, and a flight claim company without FCA authorisation is not doing anything wrong on that ground alone. Two edges change the picture. A company that pursues your section 75 claim against a card issuer, after an airline collapse for instance, is handling a listed kind of claim, because article 89F(2)(d) counts section 75 claims as financial product claims. And solicitors acting in the ordinary course of legal practice in England and Wales sit outside these articles under article 89N; their regulator is the SRA, and Bott and Co is on the SRA register as a licensed body.

AirHelp and Flightright both appear in Germany’s legal services register as debt-collection providers. That is a German registration, not a UK authorisation. AirHelp, Flightright and Skycop each apply their home country’s law to the contract, while keeping the mandatory consumer protections of the country where you live. Each company also has its own page here: the AirHelp review, the Bott and Co review, the Flightright review and the Skycop review.

Check that the company named on the contract you are asked to sign matches the one in its published terms.

#What happens to your claim once you sign, and who decides on a settlement?

3 contract models sit behind the four companies whose terms were read for this page. AirHelp and Skycop take your claim by assignment and own it; Flightright takes it by assignment in trust or by your authority to enforce it in your name; Bott and Co acts for you under a conditional fee agreement.

Source: AirHelp, Flightright, Skycop and Bott and Co terms; AirHelp and Flightright help pages; Bott and Co FAQ, checked 2026-10-14.

How the claim passes, and who accepts an offer

Signing changes what you can still do yourself. AirHelp’s terms say you “must cease negotiations with the Airline” and may not authorise another third party on the same claim; Skycop’s say you will not keep “any direct contact” with the carrier or accept its payment. Bott and Co’s first step is a letter giving the airline 30 days before court, and its fees page says “We issue court proceedings within 30 days”. For Ryanair flights, Bott and Co’s terms say you must first claim with Ryanair directly; Ryanair’s own terms ask for 14 days and easyJet’s for 28 days before a third party is engaged, in each case or less where the law sets a shorter time.

Scope differs too. Flightright says it currently enforces only delay, cancellation and denied boarding claims. Bott and Co takes flights leaving or arriving in England or Wales, or on an English or Welsh airline, and does not handle costs such as parking, taxis or food.

Read the settlement clause before you sign: with AirHelp and Skycop, the decision on an airline’s offer is no longer yours.

#How does the compensation reach you, and what if the airline pays you directly?

10 days is the time Skycop’s terms give you to pay its fee if the airline pays you instead of Skycop. All four companies whose terms were read have the airline pay them first and pass on the balance after their fee, and each still expects its fee when the airline pays you directly.

Source: AirHelp terms, fee page and help pages; Flightright costs page, terms and FAQ; Skycop terms and FAQ; Bott and Co terms and FAQ, checked 2026-10-14.

Payout route and timing, in each company’s words

Bott and Co’s FAQ gives its own transfer times twice and they differ: once the money arrives it aims to transfer it “within 14 days”, while another answer says “Please allow at least 14 working days for payment to be processed via BACS”. It also says the airline can take “anywhere from 7 to 42 days” to pay Bott after agreeing to settle.

If the airline pays you instead, the fee still falls due. AirHelp will invoice you for its fees; Flightright will invoice you for its remuneration; Skycop expects its share within 10 days. Bott and Co’s FAQ says a client who cancels because the airline paid them directly still pays “our agreed fees” plus “a per passenger administration fee”. How long airlines themselves take to pay, from passenger reports rather than company statements, is at airline compensation payout times.

Tell the company straight away if the airline pays you directly, and keep the payment record: the fee is owed even though the money never passed through its account.

#Can you cancel a claim company contract, and what does it cost?

14 days is the cancellation period the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give for a service contract, ending 14 days after the day it is entered into. All four companies offer 14 days but start the clock in different places, and three of them can still charge their fee after you leave.

Source: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, regs 30 and 36 — legislation.gov.uk; each company’s terms, withdrawal page and FAQ, checked 2026-10-14.

Cancellation terms, as each company words them

Source: AirHelp, Flightright, Skycop and Bott and Co terms and FAQ, checked 2026-10-14.

The Regulations set the floor. The right to cancel ends once the service is fully performed, if you asked for it to start early and acknowledged that you would lose the right; cancel after asking for an early start and you pay “in proportion to what has been supplied”. Bott and Co’s terms build in that request: by agreeing to them, you “expressly request and authorise” it to start before the cancellation period ends. AirHelp counts its 14 days from the start of the service, where the Regulations count from the day the contract is entered into; this page sets the two wordings side by side and makes no finding on the difference. Flightright and Skycop both say the right ends early if they have fully performed the contract. Flightright adds that it does not take part in consumer arbitration. Bott and Co’s FAQ also warns that if you cancel once court proceedings have begun, you “may be liable for any court fees and fixed costs we have paid on your behalf”.

Cancel in writing within 14 days and keep the company’s reply; for Bott and Co, the confirming email is the day the clock starts.

#Does using a company change how the airline treats your claim?

2022 produced two UK court rulings on this question. The Court of Appeal held that barring a claims company from filing through an airline’s online portal could be a material obstacle to compensation; the Supreme Court held that an airline on notice of a solicitor’s lien can be ordered to pay its fee.

Source: Dore & Anor v EasyJet Airline Company Ltd [2022] EWCA Civ 1553; Bott & Co Solicitors Ltd v Ryanair DAC [2022] UKSC 8 — caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-22.

For UK261 claims, in Dore & Anor v EasyJet Airline Company Ltd [2022] EWCA Civ 1553, the Court of Appeal held that passengers who used easyJet’s own online portal had made a valid claim, and that a claims company, or anyone else, may submit that claim through the portal in the passenger’s name; barring it could be a material obstacle to compensation. The decision binds lower courts in England and Wales. Separately, in Bott & Co Solicitors Ltd v Ryanair DAC [2022] UKSC 8, the UK Supreme Court held, by a 3-2 majority, that a solicitor has an equitable lien over the compensation it claims for a client, so an airline that pays the passenger directly after notice of that lien can still be ordered to pay the solicitor’s fee. Neither ruling stops an airline disliking claims companies. The CAA’s own advice is to complain to the airline directly first, and it warns that “not all airlines will deal with your complaint if you use services such as Resolver or Claims Management Companies.”

Send your own claim to the airline before you involve any company, so a refusal to deal with agencies never closes a door you needed. If the airline still says no, airline refused compensation covers what comes next, with or without a company.

#How are the companies on this page compared?

5 companies appear in this page’s tables in alphabetical order: AirHelp, Bott and Co, Compensair, Flightright and Skycop. Their fee pages were read on 22 September 2026 and re-read on 14 October 2026; the terms of all but Compensair were read on 14 October 2026.

Source: each company’s own published fee page and terms, checked 2026-10-14.

A company’s own statement about its own price or terms is the only primary source for that price or those terms; it is never a source for any legal fact on this page, which comes from legislation, the SRA and German registers, the CAA and the courts. Compensair’s terms beyond its fee were not re-read, so it has no row in the tables on who runs each company, settlements, payouts and cancellation. Refusal rates, success rates and review scores are not on this page, because none of them could be checked against a primary source; payout times appear only as each company states them. The full method for how claim-company pages are checked and re-checked sits at how we verify.

Every fee and term above was read directly from the company’s own live page, not from a marketing email, a review site or a search snippet. The CAA’s own advice, to complain to the airline yourself before involving any agency, shaped the page’s order: free route first, then fees and what is left, then the court stage, then the contract itself. A fee page can change between two checks, which is why the fee table carries the date it was read. Fee arithmetic stays in the currency of the amount it is applied to, £ on the UK261 scale and € on the EU261 scale; neither is converted into the other, and a figure after a fee is not a statement of the currency a company pays out in.

Re-read a company’s own fee page and terms before you rely on any figure here: a percentage, a VAT position or a cancellation rule can change without notice.

#Sources

• Civil Aviation Authority, Alternative dispute resolution — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-22.
• Civil Aviation Authority, How to make a complaint — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-22.
• Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001, articles 89F, 89G and 89N — legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-10-14.
• Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, regulations 30 and 36 — legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-10-14.
• Solicitors Regulation Authority, Solicitors Register: Bott and Co Solicitors Limited, SRA number 605593 — sra.org.uk, checked 2026-10-14.
• Bundesamt für Justiz, Rechtsdienstleistungsregister (legal services register): AirHelp Germany GmbH; Flightright GmbH — bundesjustizamt.de, checked 2026-10-14.
• AirHelp, Our fees — airhelp.co.uk; General Terms of Service — airhelp.co.uk; Imprint — airhelp.co.uk; Withdraw from contract — airhelp.co.uk; Help: fees and payout methods — airhelp.co.uk; Help: documents and privacy — airhelp.co.uk, checked 2026-10-14.
• Flightright, Costs — flightright.co.uk; Terms and conditions — flightright.co.uk; Imprint — flightright.co.uk; FAQ — flightright.co.uk, checked 2026-10-14.
• Bott and Co Solicitors, Flight delay compensation fees — bottonline.co.uk; Terms and Conditions (Flight Claims) — bottonline.co.uk; Frequently asked questions — bottonline.co.uk, checked 2026-10-14.
• Skycop, Price List — skycop.com; Terms and conditions — skycop.com; FAQ — skycop.com; UK 261 flight compensation — skycop.com, checked 2026-10-14.
• Compensair, Payment Policy — compensair.com, checked 2026-10-14.
• easyJet, Terms and conditions of carriage, 19.6 — easyjet.com; Ryanair UK terms and conditions, 15.2 — ryanair.com, checked 2026-10-14.
• Dore & Anor v EasyJet Airline Company Ltd [2022] EWCA Civ 1553 — caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-22.
• Bott & Co Solicitors Ltd v Ryanair DAC [2022] UKSC 8 — caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-22.
• Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as it forms part of UK law, art. 7 — legislation.gov.uk; Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, art. 7 — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-15.

#FAQ

Do I need a claim company to get flight compensation?

No. The CAA says: "You do not need to use a third-party claims management company (CMC) to take your complaint to ADR." Complain to the airline yourself, then use AviationADR or CEDR, both free. When compensation is owed, and no extraordinary circumstances apply, you keep the full £220, £350 or £520.

How much does AirHelp charge?

35% of the compensation, including VAT, is AirHelp’s standard fee on a successful claim. In what it calls "statistically 3% of all cases", a 15% Legal Action Fee, also including VAT, is deducted on top. AirHelp lists a separate fee of US$29.99 for goodwill claims.

Which claim companies include VAT in their fee?

2 of the 5 companies compared here state their fee inclusive of VAT: AirHelp (35%) and Skycop (fixed amounts on €250, €400 or €600). Flightright and Bott and Co both charge theirs "plus VAT" or "exclusive of VAT"; Compensair’s payment policy does not state a VAT position at all.

What is a legal action fee?

15% on top of the 35% service fee is AirHelp’s Legal Action Fee when a claim needs court action; Flightright adds 14% only on success and Compensair may add 10%. Skycop’s legal rate replaces its standard fee. Bott and Co pays court fees itself, but its terms pass it any fixed costs under the Civil Procedure Rules.

Is ADR free for flight delay complaints?

Yes. The CAA states ADR "is free to use and, in most cases, will provide you with its decision within three months." That applies whether you go to AviationADR or CEDR yourself once the airline turns you down or 8 weeks pass without a response, or a claims company takes the same route and deducts its fee.

Can you cancel a contract with a flight claim company?

14 days is the cancellation period the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give for a service contract. AirHelp counts its 14 days from the start of the service, Bott and Co from its confirming email. Leave later and AirHelp, Flightright and Bott and Co can still charge a fee or costs; Skycop can charge administration costs.