What Compensair takes out of your compensation

How much does Compensair take from your compensation?

Thirty percent. Clause 4 of its payment policy reads The rate is 30 % (thirty percent), and the same clause adds that where Compensair incurs additional legal costs, naming external lawyer fees, court fees and official document translation costs, it reserves the right to charge a legal fee of 10 percent of the compensation in addition to the Compensair fee. We read the document on 15 September 2026. Its own footer says it was updated on 23 June 2023.

So there are two rates, not one. A claim the airline settles after a letter costs 30 percent. A claim that has to be pushed costs 40 percent, because the legal fee is calculated on the compensation and not on what is left after the first deduction. The policy does not set a threshold for when legal costs count as incurred, and it does not say who decides, so plan around 40 percent if your airline has already refused you once.

Compensair is a Fareband partner. We are publishing the rate because the rate is the rate, and because the cheapest route in this cluster is the one that pays us nothing.

What is left of a 600 euro claim after the fee?

The compensation bands survived the July 2026 reform. The European Parliament's press release of 7 July 2026 confirms 250 euro for journeys up to 1,500 km, 400 euro for intra-EU journeys over 1,500 km and other journeys between 1,500 km and 3,500 km, and 600 euro for all longer journeys. Applying clause 4 to those bands gives the net at each stage.

Both columns are before bank charges. Clause 10 puts any bank fees for the transfer on the client, so the figures below are a ceiling rather than a payout. One more thing moves the starting number rather than the fee, the Parliament text lets carriers halve compensation on their longest journeys where re-routing is offered or the arrival delay does not last more than four hours.

What else does the payment policy take out?

The rate is the part every review page quotes. The rest of the document is where the money actually moves, and it sets deadlines that are yours to meet rather than theirs. All of the following was read from the same policy on 15 September 2026.

The last one matters if you are tempted to sign up and then chase the airline yourself in parallel. Under clause 9 the fee is owed either way. Clause 1 is worth reading too, it says bank details may be disclosed to the airline, a consumer protection body, a court and other third parties. Ordinary for a claim filed in your name, and better known before you upload the passport page.

• Thirty business days to pay you. Clause 5 allows 30 business days to transfer your share, counted from the point where the compensation has been received and you have supplied passport and bank details.
• Bank fees are yours. Clause 10 states that any bank fees for the transfer of funds shall be paid by the client.
• No interest for the wait. Clause 11 removes any claim to interest for the period between the airline paying Compensair and Compensair paying you.
• Six months, then the money is theirs. Clause 7 states that if the client does not provide the requested information for the transfer within six months, the right to the compensation passes to Compensair Business Group Pte. Ltd. Miss the email asking for a passport copy and the loss is the whole amount, not 30 percent of it.
• Three months to say it never arrived. Clause 10 also requires you to notify Compensair if the transfer has not reached you within three months. Otherwise the transfer is considered to be completed.
• Three days if the airline pays you direct. Clause 9 requires you to tell Compensair within three days if the airline or a third party pays compensation into your account after the agreement was signed, and to transfer the fee anyway.

Is it cheaper to claim EU261 compensation yourself?

Yes, by 30 or 40 percent of whatever you recover, and the deadlines are not tight. The European Parliament's release of 7 July 2026 confirms that passengers will have nine months to file a compensation request, that airlines will have 30 days to pay or to explain a refusal, and that carriers must send claim instructions within four days of the journey ending. Those rules enter into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal, with a further year to prepare, so check which version covers your flight before leaning on a date.

For a first letter to an airline that has not yet refused you, the arithmetic is one sided. You keep the whole amount and the only cost is an hour. Our EU261 guide sets out the amounts, the three-hour threshold and the conditions that decide eligibility.

If the airline ignores you and you decide to sue in England or Wales, the cost of that is published too. The GOV.UK court fee table, read on 15 September 2026, charges 70 pounds to issue a money claim between 500.01 and 1,000 pounds, and 50 pounds in the band from 300.01 to 500 pounds, and the same page notes you may be able to claim the fees back if you win. Set that against a legal fee of 10 percent, which on a 600 euro claim is 60 euro and can be triggered by translation costs without anyone reaching a courtroom.

When is handing the claim over worth 30 percent?

When the airline has already refused you, when it is a carrier that does not answer letters, or when the correspondence is in a language you do not read. Those are the cases where the legal fee buys something real, because the alternative is a court fee you pay up front and a process you run yourself.

It is not worth it on a clean, recent, intra-EU delay where the airline has a working claim form and has not turned you down. That claim is a form and a wait, and 30 percent is a large price for a number you were going to get anyway.

One piece of arithmetic before you decide. The fee is a percentage of the compensation, and Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 pays each passenger separately, so a family of four in the 600 euro band hands over 720 euro rather than 180 euro. Four separate forms is a dull evening, and it is worth 720 euro.

Check your flight with Compensair→Our partner, on the 30 percent its own payment policy publishes. Filing direct with the airline costs nothing.Tracked on mobile web only, the page works on desktop too.

Which document actually sets the Compensair fee?

The payment policy, and the copy worth opening is the one linked from the site you signed up through rather than a review of it. Rates quoted for this company elsewhere on the web do not all agree with clause 4, and several of the pages carrying them are affiliate listings written years apart. The policy is the document the agreement points at, it carries a footer date, and the copy we read on 15 September 2026 was updated on 23 June 2023.

A three-year-old policy is the weakest link in this page and we are not going to pretend otherwise. If clause 4 is republished at a different rate, the figure at the top of this page is wrong until we read it again. That is what the observation date is for, and how we handle every figure is written down rather than implied.

The same caution applies wherever somebody else is holding money owed to you. An agency does it with refunds, an insurer does it with the part the airline already paid. See who holds your refund, what the insurer deducts and, for the policy side of it, what travel insurance actually covers.