Denied boarding: when your seat has been given to someone else
Overbooking leaves the airline no weather or strike defence: if you are kept off the flight against your will, you are owed.
Your compensation · MUC · Munich → HER · Heraklion
€400
per passenger, no deduction · owed
- EU Regulation 261/2004€400 · owed
Denied boarding against your will: compensation owed at once, extraordinary circumstances do not apply.
- Great-circle distance
- 1,818 km
- Distance band
- 1,500 to 3,500 km
- Time limit in Germany (BGB s. 195, 199)
- 31 December 2029
Write the claim letter to the airline
Prepared by Radif Partners · Method · law as of October 22, 2026 · 4,008 airports (OurAirports)
If an airline refuses to carry you although you held a confirmed booking and presented yourself for check-in and boarding on time, that is denied boarding under Article 4 of EU261 and of UK261. The airline must first ask for volunteers willing to give up their seats in exchange for benefits agreed with them. If there are not enough, it may deny boarding against passengers’ will, but must then compensate them immediately: €250, €400 or €600 under EU261, or £220, £350 or £520 under UK261, depending on distance, halved if the replacement flight lands within two, three or four hours of the original arrival depending on the band. On top come the choice between a refund and rerouting, and care with meals, hotel and calls. Unlike delays and cancellations, overbooking cannot be excused by extraordinary circumstances. The only exceptions are reasonable grounds such as missing travel documents, health, safety or security. Volunteers receive what they agreed instead of the fixed compensation. Canada has its own scale of up to C$2,400.
An example from Heathrow
The flight to Palma is overbooked and you are turned away at the gate. The great-circle distance is 1,348 km, the first band. If your replacement lands five hours late, UK261 gives you £220. If the airline gets you to Palma within two hours of the original arrival, it may halve that to £110. Departing from Munich to Heraklion instead, as in the calculator above, the EU text applies and the band changes, because that route is 1,818 km long.
| Distance | EU261 | UK261 | Halved if the replacement lands within |
|---|---|---|---|
| up to 1,500 km | €250 | £220 | 2 h |
| 1,500 to 3,500 km (or intra-EU) | €400 | £350 | 3 h |
| over 3,500 km | €600 | £520 | 4 h |
Bumped: what your route pays
EU261 today (up to 1,500 km)
€250
| UK261 | £220 |
| Long haul, 3 to 4 h late | – |
What Article 4 requires, step by step
The airline first calls for volunteers. What they get is negotiable: vouchers, cash, a better seat on the next flight. Volunteers also keep the Article 8 choice between a refund and rerouting. If not enough people come forward, the airline may refuse boarding to others against their will, and those passengers are owed full compensation, the refund or rerouting choice, and care under Article 9, including meals, a hotel and transfers if needed. Under Article 14 the airline must hand each of them a written notice setting out these rights.
When being turned away is not denied boarding
The regulation leaves out cases with reasonable grounds: missing or invalid travel documents, health, safety or security. Turning up without the visa your destination requires gives you nothing. “Operational reasons” or an aircraft change, on the other hand, are not a valid excuse.
EU after 2027, and Canada
Regulation (EU) 2026/2202 leaves the core rule unchanged: involuntary denied boarding is compensated with no extraordinary-circumstances defence. UK261 has not been amended. In Canada the APPR pay by length of delay: $900, $1,800 or $2,400, within 48 hours. See flight compensation in Canada.