Last updated: October 27, 2025
Choosing the right flight compensation company can feel overwhelming. With pushy ads, a plethora of options, and often unclear terms, it can be difficult to narrow down your choices.
To help you pick the right one to represent your rights, we've created a comprehensive guide covering the common “red flags” you need to look for in choosing a flight compensation company. Our goal is to clear the confusion and help you confidently pick the right partner in claiming flight compensation.
Flight compensation makes the process of claiming compensation from airlines a lot simpler and stress-free. The passenger’s only requirement is to check eligibility and input flight information in their easy-to-use platform. After this, the flight compensation company handles all communication and legal proceedings with the airlines, applying international regulatory frameworks.
Flight compensation companies operate strictly on a “no win, no fee” model, taking a percentage of the compensation only after you have successfully received your payment.
When picking a flight compensation company, it's essential to find a reliable partner. Our experts analysed over 20 companies, investigated gray practices, reviewed passenger feedback, and studied EU compensation standards to highlight the key factors and common pitfalls to avoid.
We've made a list of the 10 things in a flight compensation company to watch out for:
To help you pick the right flight compensation company, we've answered some of the most pressing questions below. Let's dive in.
The industry standard for flight compensation companies is around 35%, including VAT. This information should be clearly displayed on the company's website or in their pricing policy.
To make it easier, some flight compensation companies even provide an estimate of how much you should receive after they've taken their fee.
You can verify this yourself by:
If you can’t easily understand how much their commission is, that’s a clear red flag.
Some companies try to attract clients by advertising very low fees — around 25–30% — and claiming to be the cheapest option. However, these figures often don’t include VAT, which makes the total cost look lower than it really is. Since VAT applies in the EU (where most EC261 claims are made), this can be misleading.
In some cases, companies even say in their ads that VAT is included but add a note in small print stating it isn’t required in certain EU countries.
Also keep in mind that some companies charge a small fixed administration fee on top of their percentage.
Green flag: The company has a dedicated pricing page and also clearly shows fees on main pages, explaining their model.
The universal rule “read the Terms and Conditions” is especially important here, as you're authorizing the company to claim compensation on your behalf. It is often in these terms where misleading clauses appear. Sometimes these clauses are borderline illegal, as they can violate consumer rights typically protected by the EU.
Here are a few examples of clauses that can be considered misleading:
Green flag: The Terms and Conditions are clear and free of such traps. The company promotes transparency and provides a contract overview before finalizing the agreement.
The company’s registration and address are important signs of its legitimacy. If a company doesn’t have a real address and instead uses a purchased virtual address (like a mailbox), this can be a clear sign that it’s not a major player on the market. It may also mean the company has few employees and possibly lacks professionalism. Additionally, customers won’t have a direct contact if they need to reach out.
It’s also important to check if the company is registered outside the EU, for example, in the USA or in countries with tax benefits. This might be a way for the company to avoid paying VAT and other taxes, reducing their costs when providing services. Here’s what to watch for:
This information can help you judge the company’s credibility and reliability.
Green flag: The company doesn’t hide its address, and it is real. You can easily find who works at the company.
It’s important to verify the founders, directors, and the entire team you’ll be working with. Look on the company’s website for this information—check who the staff are, whether they have photos, how professional they appear, and whether they have experience in law or related fields. Here’s how to go about it:
Green flag: It’s simple—if you can easily find who represents the company, it’s probably trustworthy. You can look for an “About Us” page with the team’s bios and photos.
Pay attention to whether the reviews all sound the same and don’t mention any details about the experience or service benefits; they might be fake, though this can be difficult to prove.
Check if the company replies only to positive reviews; this could mean something is not quite right.
It’s important not only to read the content of reviews but also to consider the platform where their reviews are posted. Some review sites are easier to manipulate, so it’s safer to trust reputable platforms like Trustpilot or Google Reviews.
Always verify the rating shown on a company’s website against a trusted review platform. Some companies display higher scores on their site than they actually have on platforms like Trustpilot.
Also, watch out for suspiciously rapid growth in the number of reviews—like gaining 1,000 new reviews in a week. This is often a ‘red flag’.
Green flag: The flight compensation company openly integrates its real score and reviews directly from authoritative, independent platforms like Trustpilot or Google Reviews on their website.
Make sure the company properly protects your personal data. Check who the official data controller is—especially if they operate through multiple entities—and whether they are GDPR compliant by having a clear Privacy Policy.
If the company is based outside the EU, confirm that they’ve appointed an EU representative or Data Protection Officer (DPO) as required under GDPR.
Green flag: Companies with public Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy.
You can usually tell at a glance if a website is well-maintained and regularly updated. Check the dates of their articles and see if they cover current events and analysis related to the sector, such as upcoming changes to Regulation EC261. Look for the date of their latest article, for example, in their blog (if they have one).
Green flag: The company’s website features regularly updated articles and guides, which are fact-based, and clearly supported by external sources.
Make sure to find out how many successful cases the company has handled or how many people they’ve helped receive compensation. Also, take a look at how many years they’ve been working in this field. Another useful indicator are customer reviews that mention whether the company actually helped them get results.
Green flag: Positive reviews from clients who received compensation from various airlines, including low-cost carriers—showing that the company can successfully handle even the more challenging claims.
The common practice for flight compensation companies is to offer legal representation to their clients. If the company you're looking for is focusing only on “easy cases,” where compensation is almost guaranteed, this might be a red flag. It can be a sign that the team behind the company doesn't have legal experience.
Additionally, what this company does, in these cases, is no different from the passenger submitting the claim themselves, reducing the value they add.
Some companies claim they have won court cases against airlines, but this is not always true. You can always check if there is public information on this if you want to be sure about their expertise.
Green flag: The company provides legal representation in all supported languages and has a proven record of taking cases to court when necessary to secure compensation.
If a company is frequently cited in reputable, typically international, media, it is more likely to be legitimate. You can judge their expertise by the opinions and analyses they share in these media.
Also, be mindful when reading comparison guides that a company has written about their own service versus competitors. Since they write these themselves, the information might not be fully objective—so it’s worth double-checking any claims with an independent source.
Green flag: The company is regularly featured in respected international media outlets, where they are quoted as experts on passenger rights and air travel industry trends.
To make sure your choice of flight compensation company is even easier, we've come up with a few additional things to check out:
When you sign a contract with a flight compensation company, you authorize them to represent you. This is called a power of attorney and is one of the legal obligations for flight compensation companies, according to a special document from the European Union.
Some companies claim to handle your case quickly, but realistically, it typically takes at least 2 to 3 weeks to officially escalate your claim to the airline. If anyone says it happens faster than that, be cautious.
A smooth, user-friendly claim submission process saves time and effort for passengers and increases the chances of a successful claim. The best companies invest in intuitive platforms that guide you step-by-step from start to finish.
When it comes to choosing a flight compensation company, there are some things passengers value more than others. Based on their reviews, we have a breakdown of the top criteria:
Transparent pricing builds trust and helps passengers feel confident that a company is legitimate.
Passengers want a smooth, streamlined process. Companies that handle the complex paperwork and speed up the claim journey are highly valued.
For example, here is one of SkyRefund’s recent reviews on Trustpilot: “This is the 2nd time I have used SkyRefund and I found the process very straightforward and simple.”
Quick, clear communication about next steps, required documents, and the status of the claim is essential to customers.
“They got back to me quickly in response to my questions. That's important to me. I received my funds very quickly after they said the payout was available”, says one of SkyRefund reviews on Trustpilot.
Passengers want to know the company understands the regulations and has the expertise to win a case, especially if a dispute with an airline arises.
Customers appreciate a service that allows them to submit their claim and then let the company handle everything, sometimes even forgetting about it until they receive their compensation.
SkyRefund is a flight compensation company with a mission to inform passengers about their rights and empower them to use them. We provide full legal support as a standard.
With a global network of lawyers, SkyRefund protects passengers' rights in over 180 countries. We work with multiple regulations, including EU261, UK261, and regulations in countries like Turkey, Brazil, Canada, and Saudi Arabia.
SkyRefund is a legaltech company helping air passengers claim compensation. We operate on a “no win, no fee” basis. Our fee is a flat 35% of the compensation, including VAT. With over 8 years of experience, we've helped over than 1M people to claim their compensation.
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