How to Claim Air France Compensation

How much compensation are you entitled to for your delayed flight?

The compensation amount you are entitled to depends on the distance of your disrupted Air France flight.

If your flight was shorter than 1,500km you could claim €250 in compensation. Journeys between 1,500 and 3,500 km are eligible for €400. If your flight’s distance exceeded 3,500km, you could claim up to €600 in Air France delay compensation.

There are two exceptions. If your flight began and ended from airports within EU member states, the maximum amount you can claim is €400, even if your trip’s distance exceeds 3,500 km. These cases tend to be very rare.

The second exception only applies to flights of over 3,500 km. If your long-haul flight arrived at its final destination between 3 and 4 hours late, the airline would have the right to reduce your compensation by half.

When can you claim compensation from Air France?

All flights departing from the European Union as well as all flights to the EU that operated by European carriers are covered by the provisions of EU Regulation 261/2004. Therefore, most Air France flights delays, cancellations and cases of denied boarding could be subject to compensation.

Air France Flight Delay

You could be entitled to compensation if your flight meets the following conditions:

1. Your flight arrived at its final destination more than three hours late.
2. Your flight was not delayed due to any extraordinary circumstances.

Is My Flight Eligible?

According to EC261, passengers can claim compensation if they reach their final destination with a delay of over three hours. Please note that the duration of a flight delay is determined as the difference between the actual and the scheduled time of arrival. For example, if your flight was set to arrive at 3:00 pm but instead landed in 6:43 pm, the duration of the delay would be 3:43 hours. Since the flight is more than three hours late, passengers would be eligible for Air France delay compensation.

It is important to remember that it is the arrival time which is important, and not the time of departure. Imagine your flight took off more than 3 hours behind schedule. However, the flight crew managed to make up for enough of the delay during the flight, so you arrived with a delay of 2:53 hours. Unfortunately, according to EU flight rules, you would not be entitled to Air France compensation.

The second important condition for claiming delay compensation is that your flight disruption was not due to any extraordinary circumstances. This would mean that the reasons for the delay were outside of Air France’s ability or responsibility to prevent.

Common examples of extraordinary circumstances include:

• Bad weather (including hailstorms, snowstorms, strong crosswinds, low visibility)
• Air Traffic Control restrictions (e.g. runway closures or airport shutdowns)
• Airport personnel strikes
• Bird strikes
• Hidden manufacturing defects

All of the examples above would be beyond the airline’s capabilities to prevent or mitigate. Therefore, in these instances Air France would not be required to compensate passengers for any flight disruptions.

However, certain circumstances may appear extraordinary, but they are not. These include:

• Bad weather, affecting a previous flight (knock-on effects)
• Airline wildcat strikes
• Technical problems with the aircraft

In all of the above, SkyRefund can help you claim compensation for your delayed Air France flight. You can check if you can claim a refund by using our free compensation calculator. We will immediately get in touch and fact-check any information coming from the airline against our databases. We are even ready to take the airline to court  to ensure your air passenger rights are protected.

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Air France Cancelled Flight

Passengers could be entitled to compensation if their flight is cancelled and the airline fails to notify them of the disruption sufficiently early. Specifically, you can claim Air France compensation if all of the following conditions are met:

• You were informed of the cancelled flight less than a week before the flight
• You arrived at your final destination with a delay of over 2 hours
• Air France did not cancel the flight due to any extraordinary circumstances

Even if the airline informed you of the cancellation within two weeks of your flight’s departure, you could still be eligible for compensation. In this case, however, your alternate flight should have arrived more than 4 hours late.

Is My Flight Eligible?

Passengers whose flights have been cancelled also have the automatic right to either a replacement flight to their final destination or a full refund of the ticket price. This right is retained even if the passengers do not have a valid claim for an Air France compensation claim.

 Denied Boarding

Passengers are also protected in case the airline denies them boarding to the aircraft. You could be entitled to compensation if you were involuntarily bumped from a flight. However, the following requirements have to be met:

• You presented yourself to the gate on time
• You did not present any security or safety risk
• You had all of the necessary travel documents.

The most common reason for denied boarding is overbooking, which is done by the airline. Since the disruption to your travel plans would be the air carrier’s fault, you could claim overbooking compensation.

As with flight delays and cancellations, the size of your Air France denied boarding compensation will be determined by the distance of your flight. However, passengers who have been bumped are immediately entitled to a refund. In this case entitlement is not dependent on their delay at their final destination.

In addition to reimbursement, the airline is also required to provide you with one of the following:

• A full refund of your ticket price or
• An alternate flight to your final destination (at your convenience).

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About Air France

Air France, one of Europe’s largest air carriers in terms of passengers and revenue, was founded in 1933. In 1953 it became the first air carrier to use jetliners for passenger travel. Air France was also the first customer of Airbus Industrie’s A300, the manufacturer’s first commercial airliner. The airline was the French flag carrier for more than seventy years before the company merged with KLM in 2004.

Today, the company’s fleet serves nearly 170 destinations in more than 90 countries across six continents. Both of its main hubs are located in Paris; they are the Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), Europe’s second busiest airport, and the Paris Orly Airport (ORY).

Air France Rankings

Air carrier review website Skytrax has awarded Air France an aggregate score of 6/10 for their flights’ overall passenger comfort as well as value for money.

In addition, according to the flight data website FlightStats, nearly 25% of Air France flights experience a delay with an average delay duration of 45 minutes.

Luggage and Fare Information

Light/Basic and other Economy Fare passengers are permitted to bring in one piece of carry-on luggage with them onboard their Air France flights and Economy Fare passengers on non-Light/Basic services can check-in a bag that weighs no more than 23 kg.

Business Class travellers are allowed to take two pieces of hand luggage with them into the cabin and to check-in two bags up to 32 kg.