Refund, re-routing or voucher after a cancelled flight
Refund vs voucher for a cancelled flight in the UK turns on two separate articles of UK261. Article 8 gives you a choice between your money back and a replacement flight; article 7 decides whether a fixed payment is owed on top.
UK turns on two separate articles of UK261. Article 8 gives you a choice between your money back and a replacement flight; article 7 decides whether a fixed payment is owed on top.#What choice must the airline offer after a cancellation?
UK261 article 8(1) gives you 3 options after a cancellation: reimbursement of the full ticket cost within 7 days, re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity, or re-routing at a later date at your convenience. The choice is yours, and picking one closes the other two for that flight.
Source: UK261 art. 8(1) (reimbursement and re-routing) and art. 8(3) (alternative airport) — legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-15.
Your choice after a cancellation: what each option gives and gives up
If you choose | What article 8(1) gives you | What you give up for this flight | Article 7 compensation |
|---|---|---|---|
Reimbursement (refund) | Full ticket cost within 7 days, plus a return flight to your first point of departure when relevant | Re-routing | Owed if the cancellation qualifies |
Re-routing at the earliest opportunity | Transport to your final destination at the earliest opportunity | The refund | Owed if the cancellation qualifies, subject to the article 7(2) cut |
Re-routing at a later date | Transport to your final destination on a later date that suits you | The refund | Owed if the cancellation qualifies, subject to the article 7(2) cut |
No row switches compensation off: the choice decides how you travel, or whether you travel at all, not whether the cancellation itself earns a payment.
Re-routing can land you somewhere other than the airport on your booking. When a town, city or region is served by several airports and the airline offers you a flight to an alternative one, article 8(3) makes the airline bear the cost of transferring you. The transfer runs either to the airport you booked or to another close-by destination you agree with the airline.
Name your option in writing before you book anything yourself: reimbursement, re-routing at the earliest opportunity, or a later date.
#What do you give up when you accept a refund?
Accepting a UK261 refund closes re-routing for that flight, because article 8(1) makes reimbursement within 7 days and re-routing alternatives, not a package. What comes back is the full ticket cost, plus a return flight to your first point of departure when relevant. The price of a journey you rebook yourself is not part of it.
Source: UK261 art. 8(1) (reimbursement or re-routing), art. 5(1)(b) and art. 9 (care after a cancellation) — legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-15.
Care after a cancellation comes in two parts under article 5(1)(b). Meals and refreshments, plus 2 phone calls or emails, are offered because of the cancellation itself. A hotel and the transfer to it come with a new departure the day after or later, and a refund leaves no new departure to attach them to. The duty of care page covers each item.
Example, with illustrative prices rather than entitlements: your evening flight is cancelled and you accept the refund on the spot. The airline repays the full ticket cost within 7 days. You then buy a next-morning seat at £180 and a hotel room at £90. That £270 is your own spending, and none of it is part of the article 8(1)(a) reimbursement. Choose re-routing instead and getting you to your destination stays the airline’s job, with a hotel and transfer owed if the new departure is the next day.
The refund covers the unused ticket, so it is not a cash refund of everything the disruption cost you. Chargeback and Section 75 are card-payment routes outside UK261; their conditions are on the section 75 and chargeback page.
Before you accept a refund at the airport, price a next-day seat and a night’s stay, and weigh that total against re-routing.
#Does taking a refund end your compensation claim?
No: the £220, £350 or £520 under UK261 article 7 depends on the notice you got and the cause of the cancellation, not on your article 8 choice. A refund leaves it untouched. Re-routing can only shrink it, because article 7(2) lets the airline halve the amount when the replacement lands close to your original arrival time.
Source: UK261 art. 5(1)(c), 5(3) and 5(4) (notice, extraordinary circumstances, burden of proof), art. 7(1)-(2) (amounts, 50% reduction) — legislation.gov.uk; CAA, Cancellations — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-15.
CAA, Cancellations — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-15.Refund vs compensation is two claims under two articles. With 14 days' notice or more, no compensation is owed. Between 14 and 7 days, none is owed if the airline offered re-routing departing no more than 2 hours before and arriving less than 4 hours after your original times. Inside 7 days, that tolerance tightens to 1 hour before and 2 hours after. Outside those windows, £220, £350 or £520 is due by distance, unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances that all reasonable measures could not have avoided. The airline must prove when it told you, and extraordinary circumstances never remove the refund or re-routing.
The article 7(2) cut is the airline’s option: it may halve the amount when the re-routed flight arrives no more than 2 hours late on routes up to 1,500 km, 3 hours on 1,500-3,500 km, or 4 hours beyond. The CAA’s table for 7 to 14 days' notice with a replacement leaving more than 2 hours early applies it only below those marks (£110, £175, £260); the statute also allows it at exactly 2, 3 or 4 hours.
Distance bands and rejection reasons sit on the flight delay compensation page. Booked a package holiday? A package holiday refund is a question for your organiser, covered in package holiday cancellations and delays.
Send the refund request and the compensation claim as 2 separate messages, citing article 8 in one and article 7 plus your notice date in the other, after checking your band on the compensation calculator.
#Can you ask for a refund when the flight is delayed, not cancelled?
5 hours of delay beyond the scheduled departure opens the article 8(1)(a) refund under UK261 article 6(1), even though the flight was never cancelled. Care starts earlier, at 2, 3 or 4 hours depending on distance, with a hotel added when the new departure is the day after the original one.
Source: UK261 art. 6(1) (care thresholds, hotel, reimbursement at 5 hours) and art. 6(3) (delay compensation) — legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-15.
The care thresholds run by distance: 2 hours or more on routes up to 1,500 km, 3 hours or more on 1,500-3,500 km, and 4 hours or more on anything longer. The 5-hour refund line has no distance band at all. It is also a different test from compensation, which article 6(3) sets at a delay of three hours or more in reaching your final destination, unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances.
That arrival test is why the order of decisions matters. Article 6(3) measures compensation by the delay in reaching your final destination. A refund means the airline no longer carries you there.
Once the delay reaches 5 hours, choose in writing: the article 8(1)(a) refund if the trip is no longer worth making, or staying with the flight, with the scheduled and actual times noted down.
#Can the airline pay your compensation in vouchers?
Only with your signed agreement: UK261 article 7(3) lists cash, electronic bank transfer, bank orders or bank cheques as the payment means, and travel vouchers or other services come in only when you sign for them. EU261 article 7(3) uses the same words, with amounts in euros.
Source: UK261 art. 7(3) and EU261 art. 7(3) (form of payment) — legislation.gov.uk; eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-15.
| UK261 £ | EU261 € | |
|---|---|---|
Amounts | £220 / £350 / £520 | €250 / €400 / €600 |
Default payment | Cash, electronic bank transfer, bank order or bank cheque | Cash, electronic bank transfer, bank order or bank cheque |
Voucher allowed only if | You sign your agreement to it | You sign your agreement to it |
Legal basis | Article 7(3) | Article 7(3) |
The rule reads the same in both laws: an airline can offer a voucher, but without your signature the voucher is not the payment.
A flight credit is neither cash nor a bank payment, so article 7(3) treats it like any other voucher, valid only with your signed agreement. The refund follows the same rule, because article 8(1)(a) sends reimbursement through the means listed in article 7(3). A cash refund or bank payment is the default, and a voucher in its place needs your signature.
A voucher issued without any request for your signature does not meet either version of article 7(3). An unanswered voucher email is not a signed agreement. If the airline stops flying before you use a credit, refunds when an airline goes bust covers the card and bankruptcy routes.
If a voucher arrives before you agreed to one, reply in writing that you do not accept it and ask for payment by one of the article 7(3) means.
#How do you request the refund and chase it after 7 days?
7 days is the article 8(1)(a) window for a UK261 refund. If it passes, complain to the airline in writing; after 8 weeks with no response, AviationADR or CEDR can take the complaint for their member airlines, and the CAA’s Passenger Advice and Complaints Team may help with an airline in neither scheme.
AviationADR or 
CEDR can take the complaint for their member airlines, and the Source: UK261 art. 8(1)(a) (reimbursement); Civil Aviation Authority, Alternative Dispute Resolution and How the CAA can help — legislation.gov.uk; caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-15.
Write to the airline rather than phoning, giving your flight number, the date, the notice you were given and your choice of reimbursement under article 8(1)(a). Keep the cancellation message: it records how much notice you got, which also decides whether compensation is due.
Complain to the airline first; with no response within 8 weeks, take the complaint to your airline’s ADR scheme. It is free, you have 12 months from the airline’s final response to submit, and most decisions arrive within 3 months. An accepted decision binds the airline, and you can still go to court.
Jet2 and Loganair are on neither scheme’s member list. For an airline outside ADR, the CAA team may take up a valid complaint after 8 weeks with no reply, but it has no legal powers to impose a solution on the airline, so court stays open.
Jet2 and 
Loganair are on neither scheme’s member list. For an airline outside ADR, the Not your situation? A flight departing an EU airport falls under EU261, in euros; routes to, from or within Canada fall under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations. Unsure which law fits? Work it out here. Flying in the US? US federal rules differ — see US DOT rules.
EU airport falls under 
Canada fall under the 
US? Log the date you sent the refund request and the date you sent the compensation claim; the 8-week ADR clock runs from your written complaint.
General information on refund vs voucher for a cancelled flight in the UK, not legal advice. For your specific case, contact the CAA, Citizens Advice or a solicitor.
Citizens Advice or a solicitor.#Sources
- Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as it forms part of UK law, arts. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 - legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-15.
- Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, art. 7 (EU text) - eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-15.
- Civil Aviation Authority, Cancellations - caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-15.
- Civil Aviation Authority, Alternative Dispute Resolution for air passengers - caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-15.
- Civil Aviation Authority, How the CAA can help - caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-15.