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How long airlines take to pay compensation

Checked 11 min read

How long do airlines take to pay compensation? Passengers who posted about their own claims waited a median of 4 days for Ryanair compensation and 112.5 days for British Airways compensation, counted from the claim. Each row below rests on 3 to 6 self-reported forum posts. None is an airline or regulator statistic.

How long a delay must last sits at flight delay threshold rules; how long you have to claim sits at flight compensation time limits.

Dataset build 2, built 15 September 2026. Legal clocks checked 2026-09-15.

Methodology

208 datapoints from 172 public web pages feed build 2 of this dataset, built on 15 September 2026, and 7 airline rows clear the bar of 3 separate posts. Each figure is a passenger describing their own claim; none comes from an airline, a regulator or a court.

Download CSV · 7 rows · 3 KBHow this dataset was collected

Airline compensation payout times, passenger-reported

Airline

Passenger-reported finding

Median (days)

Range (days)

n (posts)

Posts dated

Still waiting when posted

Regimes named in posts

Platforms

Air Canada

Reported by passengers on public forums: compensation received a median of 14.5 days after the claim was approved (n = 3 posts, Sep 2025–May 2026).

14.5

1–88

3

Sep 2025–May 2026

1 (up to 30 d)

APPR, EU261, other

Reddit

American Airlines

Reported by passengers on public forums: first reply or decision on a compensation or refund claim after a median of 1.5 days (n = 6 posts, May 2026–Sep 2026).

1.5

under 1–8

6

May 2026–Sep 2026

0

DOT, EU261, UK261

FlyerTalk, Reddit

American Airlines

Reported by passengers on public forums: compensation received a median of 8.5 days after submitting the claim (n = 4 posts, Jun 2025–Sep 2026).

8.5

7–11

4

Jun 2025–Sep 2026

0

EU261, not stated

FlyerTalk, Reddit

British Airways

Reported by passengers on public forums: first reply or decision on a compensation or refund claim after a median of 2 days (n = 4 posts, Dec 2024–Feb 2026).

2

under 1–5

4

Dec 2024–Feb 2026

1 (up to 122 d)

UK261

FlyerTalk, Reddit

British Airways

Reported by passengers on public forums: compensation received a median of 112.5 days after submitting the claim (n = 4 posts, Jan 2025–Sep 2026).

112.5

7–214

4

Jan 2025–Sep 2026

0

EU261, UK261, not stated

FlyerTalk, Reddit

Delta Air Lines

Reported by passengers on public forums: refund or expense reimbursement received a median of 42 days after requesting it (n = 3 posts, Sep 2024–Aug 2026).

42

7–60

3

Sep 2024–Aug 2026

0

DOT, not stated

Reddit, TripAdvisor forum

Ryanair

Reported by passengers on public forums: compensation received a median of 4 days after submitting the claim (n = 3 posts, Jan 2025–Sep 2026).

4

3–21

3

Jan 2025–Sep 2026

0

EU261

Reddit

Source: passenger-report dataset, build 2 — reddit.com, flyertalk.com, tripadvisor.com, built 2026-09-15.

A fast first reply does not mean a fast payment: British Airways answered in a median of 2 days and paid in a median of 112.5 days, in separate sets of posts. Download this airline comparison table as CSV.

#How long do airlines have to reply to a compensation claim?

30 days is the reply deadline under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations: the carrier must pay or explain why compensation is not payable. Under US DOT rules, airlines must acknowledge a complaint within 30 days and answer it in writing within 60. UK261 and EU261 set no reply deadline, and UK ADR opens after 8 weeks without a response.

Legal reply and payment clocks by regime

Regime

What the law times

Clock

Legal basis

Canada APPR

Carrier's answer to a compensation request: pay, or explain why not

30 days from receiving the request

APPR s.19(4); Canada Transportation Act s.85.01(2)

Canada APPR

Denied boarding compensation

As soon as operationally feasible, not later than 48 hours after denial of boarding

APPR s.20(2)

Canada APPR

Refund

Within 30 days after the carrier becomes obligated

APPR s.18.2(2)

US DOT

Complaint to the airline

30 days to acknowledge; 60 days to respond in writing

14 CFR 259.7(c)

US DOT

Prompt refund, where a refund is owed

7 business days (credit card purchases); 20 calendar days (cash, check, debit card or other payment methods)

14 CFR 260.2

UK261

Answer to a compensation claim

No deadline in the Regulation; ADR, or the CAA's complaints team for airlines outside ADR, after 8 weeks without a response

CAA ADR page; CAA How the CAA can help

UK261 and EU261

Reimbursement of the ticket

Within seven days

Art. 8(1)

UK261 and EU261

Compensation for denied boarding against your will

Immediately

Art. 4(3)

Source: APPR ss.18.2, 19(4), 20(2); Canada Transportation Act s.85.01(2) — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca; 14 CFR 259.7(c), 260.2 — ecfr.gov; Regulation 261/2004 arts. 4, 8 (EU and UK texts) — eur-lex.europa.eu, legislation.gov.uk; CAA ADR page — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-15.

These are legal clocks, not averages.

Once a written request to a Canadian carrier has gone unresolved for 30 days, you can complain to the Canadian Transportation Agency.

The US figures cover complaints, not compensation: federal rules require no compensation when a domestic itinerary is delayed. A refund is owed after a cancellation or significant delay or change only if you do not accept the alternative offered. If you neither respond nor fly, it is still owed.

In the UK, the CAA’s 8-week ADR trigger is the practical clock.

Write the date you sent your claim and its reference number at the top of your file, and count 30 days (Canada) or 8 weeks (UK) from it.

#How long do UK and European airlines take to pay?

112.5 days is the median British Airways payout in 4 passenger posts dated January 2025 to September 2026, counted from claim submission, with a range of 7 to 214 days. Ryanair’s 3 posts, all about EU261 claims, give a median of 4 days and a range of 3 to 21 days.

Source: passenger-report dataset, build 2 — reddit.com, flyertalk.com, built 2026-09-15.

The British Airways reply row puts the first response time at a median of 2 days, and two of those four answers were refusals; one more post reported no reply beyond an automated confirmation after four months (recorded as 122 days).

The slowest British Airways payment value, 214 days, runs from the cancellation because the poster gave no claim date, so it is an upper bound. MoneySavingExpert estimates “four to 12 weeks” for the whole process; these two rows sit at 4 and 112.5 days.

UK261 fixes the form of payment but no deadline: cash, electronic bank transfer, bank orders or bank cheques, and travel vouchers only with your signed agreement. On the CAA’s ADR list, British Airways belongs to CEDR and Ryanair to AviationADR.

Source: UK261 art. 7(3) — legislation.gov.uk; CAA ADR page — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-15.

For a UK261 claim with no answer after 8 weeks, send it to the airline’s ADR scheme, if it has one, rather than keep chasing an airline that has gone silent. For an EU261 claim, complain to the enforcement body of the departure country, or of the arrival country for a flight into the EU.

#How long do US airlines take to pay EU261 or UK261 claims?

8.5 days is the median American Airlines payout in 4 passenger posts dated June 2025 to September 2026, counted from claim submission, with a range of 7 to 11 days. US federal rules require no compensation when a domestic itinerary is delayed.

Source: passenger-report dataset, build 2 — reddit.com, flyertalk.com, built 2026-09-15.

EU261 reaches a US airline only on flights departing an EU airport. UK261 covers every departure from a UK airport, but flights into the UK only when a UK or EU-licensed carrier operates them.

The American Airlines reply row has a median of 1.5 days across 6 posts and counts the first answer whatever it said: two were refusals.

Delta Air Lines' row times refunds, not compensation. Refunds or expense reimbursements arrived a median of 42 days after the request, and the period start, September 2024, is approximate. The row records reported waits, not which refunds US rules required, so it cannot test DOT’s prompt-refund deadline of 7 business days for credit card purchases or 20 calendar days for cash, check, debit card or other payment methods.

DOT’s Cancellation and Delay Dashboard (last updated 11 September 2025) lists “No” for cash compensation at all nine airlines shown.

Source: EU261 and UK261 art. 3(1) — eur-lex.europa.eu, legislation.gov.uk; DOT Fly Rights and Cancellation and Delay Dashboard — transportation.gov; 14 CFR 260.2 — ecfr.gov, checked 2026-09-15.

Before you claim from a US airline, check where the disrupted leg departed: only a departure from an EU or UK airport brings those rules into it.

#How long do Canadian airlines take to pay APPR claims?

14.5 days is the median time to Air Canada payment in 3 passenger posts dated September 2025 to May 2026, counted from approval, a decision or a settlement rather than from the claim. The Regulations give a carrier 30 days to pay or explain why not.

Source: passenger-report dataset, build 2 — reddit.com, built 2026-09-15; APPR s.19(4) — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.

The Air Canada row starts its clock late on purpose. Its posts time the wait after a settlement, a ruling in Air Canada’s dispute-resolution pilot, a CTA order and an email accepting an EU261 claim; one post covers two claims, so the median runs over 4 values. No row times Air Canada from claim to payment.

The pilot is run by Air Canada with CTA consent to file transfers; Canada Aviation Dispute Resolution, an independent ADR firm and subsidiary of The CDRL Group, decides the cases. Air Canada announced the pilot on 8 April 2026 and invited 500 randomly selected customers with outstanding APPR claims at the CTA. A decision comes within 90 days of a complete file and binds Air Canada, but binds you only if you accept it.

Source: Air Canada release, 8 April 2026 — aircanada.com; CADR service rules — cadr.ca, checked 2026-09-15.

Send your request in writing, mark day 30, and file with the CTA if it is still unresolved.

#How much longer do ADR, CTA and court routes take?

3 months is the CAA’s figure for most UK ADR decisions, and ADR opens after 8 weeks without an airline response. CEDR then gives the airline 20 working days to comply once you accept. At the Canadian Transportation Agency, mediation must start by day 30 after filing, and failing that, an order is due by day 60 after mediation starts.

Source: CAA ADR page — caa.co.uk; CEDR aviation overview — cedr-assist.com; Canada Transportation Act ss.85.05, 85.06 — laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, checked 2026-09-15.

Stack the UK clocks for a claim that never gets a reply: 8 weeks (56 days) before ADR, about 3 months (91 days) for a decision in most cases and about 28 calendar days for a CEDR airline to comply make about 175 days.

ADR is free. An accepted decision binds the airline, and a CEDR award approved but not paid 20 working days after your acceptance is overdue, unless the decision set another date.

For airlines outside ADR, the CAA’s Passenger Advice and Complaints Team can take up the complaint after the same 8 weeks, but cannot impose a solution. Its guideline is about one week to assess, four weeks for the airline’s response and five weeks to a final answer once it has everything; the CAA says it currently takes longer.

In Canada, the Act’s deadlines put an order no later than day 90 after filing, against a complaints backlog that Transport Canada’s release of 1 May 2026 put at “more than 97,000”. No official source here sets a court timetable, and no court, ADR body or regulator has 3 resolved reports in the dataset.

Source: CAA, How the CAA can help — caa.co.uk; Transport Canada release, 1 May 2026 — canada.ca, checked 2026-09-15.

Open the airline refused compensation map and pick the route whose clock suits your claim.

#How was this dataset collected?

208 datapoints from 172 public web pages feed build 2 of this dataset, built on 15 September 2026, and 7 airline rows clear the bar of 3 separate posts. Each figure is a passenger describing their own claim; none comes from an airline, a regulator or a court.

Source: passenger-report dataset, build 2, built 2026-09-15; method at how we verify.

Pages came from Reddit, FlyerTalk, the MoneySavingExpert and TripAdvisor forums, Trustpilot and boards.ie, fetched on 14 and 15 September 2026, with posts dated September 2023 to September 2026. About 1,300 of 3,768 records were read by hand.

A post counts only when its author names the carrier, gives a duration or dates that fix one, and describes their own claim. Reply rows time claim to first answer, refusals included. A payout time runs from claim to money or from approval to money, never both in one row. Durations become calendar days, and a passenger still waiting is a lower bound kept out of the median.

Second-hand stories, an airline’s stated processing time, baggage claims, travel-agent refunds and duplicates are out. Claim-company rows are withheld because they rest mostly on a Trustpilot sample drawn by star rating. Their published fees, which can be checked, are set side by side in claim companies compared.

Treat every row as indicative. Adding one post in build 2 moved the British Airways payout median from 45 to 112.5 days. Each re-collection of forum posts rebuilds the table and logs the old and new n and median per row.

These airlines have timed reports, but no step has 3 resolved posts. No timing is shown for them:

  • Aer Lingus, Air France, Condor, Corendon Airlines, easyJet, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Eurowings
  • Gulf Air, Iberia, Jet2, Kenya Airways, KLM, LATAM Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa
  • Norse Atlantic Airways, Norwegian, Qatar Airways, Saudia, SAS, Scoot, Spirit Airlines, Swiss
  • TAAG Angola Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Vueling, WestJet, Wizz Air

An airline joins the table once 3 separate posts give a resolved time for one step.

Keep the date you sent your claim, each claim status update and the date the money arrived, so you can set your wait against the matching row.

General information, not legal advice. For your specific case: the Civil Aviation Authority, the Canadian Transportation Agency, the US Department of Transportation, Citizens Advice or a solicitor.

#Sources

#FAQ

How quickly should an airline pay compensation?
30 days is Canada's deadline: the Air Passenger Protection Regulations give the carrier 30 days from receiving your request to pay or explain why not. UK261 and EU261 set no payment deadline for delay compensation, though a ticket refund is due within seven days. In the UK, ADR opens after 8 weeks without a reply.
How long does British Airways take to pay compensation?
112.5 days is the median in 4 passenger posts on public forums dated January 2025 to September 2026, counted from claim submission, with a range of 7 to 214 days. First replies came faster, at a median of 2 days in 4 other posts. These are self-reported posts, not British Airways figures.
How long does it take for Jet2 to pay compensation?
3 separate posts are the minimum for a published timing, and Jet2 has fewer resolved posts, so this dataset gives no Jet2 payout figure. Jet2 is not on the CAA's ADR list: after 8 weeks without a reply to a UK261 claim, the CAA's Passenger Advice and Complaints Team can take up the complaint.
Is 8 weeks normal for a flight compensation claim?
8 weeks is the UK point at which ADR, or the CAA's complaints team for airlines outside ADR, can take over an unanswered claim; it is not a payment deadline. In this dataset, passenger posts differ widely: a median of 4 days to Ryanair payment and 112.5 days to British Airways payment, from 3 and 4 posts.
How long does Air Canada take to pay compensation?
14.5 days is the median wait for Air Canada payment after approval, a decision or a settlement, in 3 passenger posts dated September 2025 to May 2026, with a range of 1 to 88 days. Before that step, the Regulations give the carrier 30 days from receiving your request to pay or explain why not.

Spotted a wrong figure, a changed rule or a dead link? Tell the editorial team. How fixes are handled: corrections.