Last updated: November 13, 2025
As you probably know if your flight has been delayed, you can claim compensation of up to $700 per passenger. But did you know that depending on your travel itinerary, the time limit for claiming your compensation changes?
So, the question is up to, how many years after your flight delay can you claim flight compensation?
We've broken down the time limits for you so you can easily submit your claim for compensation by the end of this article.
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The time limit for claiming flight delay compensation depends on your departure or destination airport. They determine which law protects your passenger rights. Let's break down the laws governing the air passenger rights of Americans.
All flights from the United States or operated by a US-based airline, like Delta or United, are protected by the regulations of the Department of Transportation (DOT).
While you can't claim cash compensation for delays or cancellations, DOT's regulation ensures that your refunds are automatically issued by the airline within 7 (with credit cards) to 20 days (other payment methods), depending on the payment method.
The time limit for claiming compensation is determined by the state, but generally, you have up to 6 years to claim compensation.
If you were flying from the EU or to the EU with a European airline, you can claim up to $700 in compensation under EU Regulation 261/2004 (EU261). The regulation protects you in cases of flight delays of more than 3 hours and cancellations within 14 days of departure. These rules extend to all members of ECAA: the 27 members of the EU, Norway, Switzerland, and the outermost regions like Madeira, Canary Islands, and the Azores.
Time limits for submitting your claim and initiating court actions vary between 1 and 10 years after the flight disruption, depending on the country. “In many countries in the European Union, the claims are barred after 1 to up to 5 years after the flight disruption. In light of this, we encourage air passengers to file their claims as soon as possible to assure that their claim will be properly reviewed by the airline without objections regarding the time passed”, advises SkyRefund's legal counsel Tsvetelina Botseva.
Countries like the UK, Turkey, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia have their regulations similar to EU261. Their time limits vary depending on the country.
For your convenience, we have prepared a list of the varying time limits for filing flight delay compensation claims depending on the country where the airline is based in.
| Limit | Country |
|---|---|
| under 1 yr | Sweden* |
| 1 year | Canada, Poland, Belgium, Italy* |
| 2 years | Italy*, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Croatia, Turkey |
| 3 years | Austria, Bulgaria, Germany*, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Czech Republic*, Romania |
| 4 years | Iceland |
| 5 years | Greece, France, Hungary*, Spain, Scotland, Brazil |
| 6 years | the UK (excl. Scotland), Ireland, Cyprus, the US |
| 10 years | Luxembourg, Switzerland |
For flights within Europe, you can file your claim either with the country of origin or the destination country.
For example, your flight between London and Rome was delayed 3 years ago. Since the time limit for claiming compensation is 2 years in Italy, it's better to initiate court actions in the UK, as you still have 3 years to claim compensation there.
Under European law, the origin of the air carrier is also important, as it may provide an additional opportunity to assert your rights.
Imagine you were flying from Paris to New York with British Airways. Under French law you can claim compensation within 5 years, but because you flew with a UK-based carrier you have one more year to receive your compensation.
EU Regulation 261 determines the amount of the compensation in relation to the flight distance.
All flights from the Europe to the US are eligible for compensation of up to $700 as they're longer than 2,175 miles (ca. 3,500 km).
The same applies to all flights from the US to Europe with a European airline. You can use our free compensation calculator below to check how much you can claim depending on the departure and arrival airports.
In addition to the above, in case of long delays, passengers have the right to care and assistance under EU261. Basically, your food and drink expenses have to be covered by the airline. And if their delay extends overnight, the airline has to pay for your accommodation.
As this right is also determined by the distance of your flight, your right to care on flights to the US kicks in after a 4-hour delay at the airport.
Keep your boarding pass and the booking confirmation letter. All the information needed to claim your flight compensation is on your boarding pass, so make sure you hold on to it!
You can either claim compensation directly from the airline, or skip the struggle and let us handle the hard work. To help you, we've broken down the claiming process in 4 simple steps below:
Depending on your travel itinerary, different regulations protect your rights: DOT's flight regulations, EU261, Montreal Convention, Canadian Transportation Act to name a few. You can check our guide to flight delay compensations to see under which regulation you can claim compensation.
Regardless of the regulation, you need certain documents to prove your right to compensation. These include:
Once you've checked your eligibility and gathered your documents, it's time to apply for compensation. All you need to do is fill in your departure and arrival airports below and click on “Check your compensation”.
We will then ask you to fill in additional information like the booking reference, how long the delay or cancellation was, which airline you flew with and the reason for the disruption.
Once you've submitted your claim, our legal experts will start working on it. Usually, this can take from a few weeks to a few months, depending on the airline and the nature of your case. We will keep you informed every step of the way.
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