Can I claim compensation on an Avios flight

Can I claim compensation on an Avios flight

Yes. Regulation 261/2004 covers a seat paid for with Avios, Virgin Points or any other airline currency in the same way it covers a seat paid for in cash. The rule is Article 3(3), read on EUR-Lex on 17 September 2026. Its first sentence removes a group of passengers, This Regulation shall not apply to passengers travelling free of charge or at a reduced fare not available directly or indirectly to the public. Its second sentence puts award tickets back, However, it shall apply to passengers having tickets issued under a frequent flyer programme or other commercial programme by an air carrier or tour operator.

The pages ranking for this question say yes and stop. None quotes the clause, and that matters, because the sentence that lets you in sits beside the one that keeps other people out. If an airline agent tells you a redemption is a free ticket and free tickets are excluded, the reply is the second sentence of Article 3(3).

The retained UK text, which governs most flights a British reader takes, keeps the paragraph unchanged. Article 3 on legislation.gov.uk carries the same two sentences word for word. The EU261 flight compensation guide covers the rest of the eligibility test. This post is only about the ticket type.

Does EU261 apply to free tickets

Not to genuinely free ones. The exclusion is for fares not available directly or indirectly to the public. That is the test, not the price. A staff travel ticket, an industry discount, a standby seat given to an employee's family, a seat the airline handed out without ever selling it, those are fares the public could not have bought, and the Regulation leaves them out.

An Avios booking is different in kind. Anyone can join the programme, anyone can earn or buy the points, and the airline issues the ticket under that programme. That is the phrase the second sentence uses, tickets issued under a frequent flyer programme or other commercial programme. The words other commercial programme stretch it further, so a seat taken with a credit card companion voucher, a hotel scheme's airline partner or a tour operator's loyalty club sits inside the Regulation as well.

How much does a delayed award ticket pay

The same as the cash ticket in the next seat. Article 7(1) fixes compensation by distance, not by fare. On EUR-Lex the amounts read EUR 250 for all flights of 1500 kilometres or less, EUR 400 for all intra-Community flights of more than 1500 kilometres, and for all other flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres, and EUR 600 for all flights not falling under (a) or (b). The ticket price is not mentioned anywhere in the Article. A passenger who redeemed points and a passenger who paid full fare for the seat beside them receive the same amount for the same delay.

The UK text has the same shape in pounds. Article 7 on legislation.gov.uk reads £220 for all flights of 1500 kilometres or less, £350 for all flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres and £520 for all flights not falling under (a) or (b). The CAA's delays page adds the trigger, you must arrive more than three hours late at your destination, and notes that on flights over 3,500 kilometres a delay of between three and four hours pays £260 rather than £520.

What can cut the payout on a points booking

Two things, and neither is the fare. Article 7(2) lets the carrier halve the amount when it re-routes you and you arrive within two, three or four hours of the original schedule, in the same distance bands as the table above. The point is that the distance still governs. The value of the Avios you spent never enters the calculation.

The other is the extraordinary circumstances defence in Article 5(3), which applies to every ticket type and has nothing to do with how the seat was bought. A refusal that leans on the weather is a separate argument, covered in EU261 winter weather refusals. A refusal that says the ticket was free is not, and the second sentence of Article 3(3) answers it. Travel insurance does not cut the airline's payment either, it works the other way round, see insurance deducts what the airline paid.

Is it UK261 or EU261 for an Avios booking

The route decides, not the programme. Since the UK left the EU there are two texts with identical paragraph numbering. The EU Regulation applies to flights departing an EU airport and to flights into the EU on a Community carrier. The retained UK version applies, in its Article 3(1), to passengers departing from an airport located in the United Kingdom, and to passengers arriving in the UK from elsewhere if the operating air carrier of the flight concerned is a Community carrier or a UK air carrier.

So a British Airways Avios redemption from Heathrow to New York is a UK261 claim in pounds. The return from New York to Heathrow is UK261 as well, because the operating carrier is a UK carrier. An Iberia redemption from Madrid to London is an EU261 claim in euros, and the flight back from London to Madrid is UK261 again. A partner redemption on an American Airlines flight from Dallas to London falls outside both texts, the case set out in US airline into Europe, no EU261.

Article 3(5) of both versions puts the obligation on the operating carrier even where it has no contract with you. A points booking flown by a partner is claimed from the airline that flew the plane, see two airlines, one booking, who pays.

How do I claim on a ticket booked with points

The same way as any other ticket, with one extra document. Keep the confirmation that shows the booking was issued under the programme, because that is the sentence of Article 3(3) you are relying on if the airline pushes back.

• Check the trigger. A delay pays only if you arrived more than three hours late at the final destination, a cancellation pays unless you were told at least two weeks before departure, and denied boarding pays at once. Article 3(2) also requires that you presented for check-in on time, or not later than 45 minutes before departure where no time was stated.
• Find the band. Article 7(4) measures the distance by the great circle route from the departure airport to the last destination the delay affected, not by the flight's routing.
• File with the operating carrier's own compensation form, quoting the flight number, the arrival delay and the booking reference. If the reply calls the ticket free, quote the second sentence of Article 3(3) back.
• Ask for money. Article 7(3) says compensation is paid in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank orders or bank cheques, and in vouchers or other services only with your signed agreement. An offer of Avios back in place of the cash amount is a voucher, and you can decline it.
• If the airline refuses or goes quiet, escalate to its alternative dispute resolution body or the CAA in the UK, or hand it to a claims company once you have read what it keeps, see what a claims company fee takes.

Check if your Avios flight qualifies→Useful after the airline has replied or stayed silent, and only once you have read the fee it keeps.Tracked on mobile web only, the page works on desktop too.

Do I also get my Avios back

A different pot. Article 7 compensation is paid on top of whatever happens to the redemption, not instead of it. If the flight is cancelled and you take reimbursement under Article 8, the programme's own terms say how the Avios and the cash charges come back. Nothing in the Regulation lets the airline net one against the other.

The figures in this post come from the two official texts and the CAA page named below, read on 17 September 2026. How we date and source every number is on the methodology page.