What to do if your flight is delayed or cancelled
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Flight delays and cancellations are among the most common reasons people claim on travel insurance. But travel insurance is not your first port of call. Your airline, tour operator, credit card provider, and financial protection schemes such as ATOL should all be approached before your insurer. If you do not follow these steps, your claim is likely to be reduced or refused. This guide explains the steps you should take, what insurers typically require, where policies differ, and what the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has said about common disputes.
Immediate steps
1. Contact your airline or travel company. When a flight is delayed or cancelled, your first call should be to the airline, not your insurer. Airlines have their own passenger care obligations, including rebooking, providing meals and accommodation during long delays, and offering compensation under retained EU Regulation 261/2004 (now UK law). Your insurer will ask for written evidence of what the airline offered or refused, so document every exchange. Keep all boarding passes, emails, and written confirmations.
2. Exhaust all other recovery routes before claiming on insurance. Travel insurance is designed as a last resort. Before your insurer will consider a claim, you will need to show that you have already sought a refund or compensation from your airline or travel provider, your tour operator (if applicable), your credit or debit card provider (under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 or through a chargeback), and any applicable protection scheme such as ATOL or ABTA. If you booked a package holiday, you may also have rights under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018. Costs recoverable from any of these sources are excluded from insurance claims. All leading insurers include this requirement, and the wording is near-identical across policies.
3. Report to your insurer as soon as reasonably possible. Once you have contacted your airline and documented what they have offered, contact your insurer's claims line or online portal. For medical emergencies, use the 24-hour medical assistance line instead. Most policies require you to report claims "as soon as reasonably possible" without specifying a hard deadline in days. One notable exception is Oasis, which requires all claims to be submitted within 60 days of your return. Staysure requires submission within 28 days. These deadlines are unusual in consumer travel insurance and worth noting, because failure to comply could give the insurer grounds to reduce or refuse a claim.
4. If cancelling a trip, notify your travel provider immediately. As soon as you know you need to cancel, tell your airline, tour operator, and any separately booked accommodation. Cancellation charges increase the closer you are to departure, so prompt notification limits your losses. If you delay telling your provider, your insurer will typically limit the payout to the charges that would have applied at the point you should have notified them, not to the higher charges that accrued because you waited. Most insurers make this explicit in their special conditions. Oasis goes further, stating that if you are claiming following a medical diagnosis, you should contact your travel provider within 7 days of being made aware that cancellation is necessary.
What triggers the delay benefit?
Travel delay benefits are a fixed payment for each period your pre-booked transport is delayed beyond a set threshold. The payment is intended to help cover phone calls, meals, and refreshments while you wait. Most policies set the delay benefit triggers after a full 12-hour period. Most pay a set amount for each further 12-hour period up to a maximum. The amounts vary significantly between policies and cover levels.
All policies restrict the delay benefit to the first outbound or final return leg of your journey. Delays to connecting flights between two countries outside the UK are not covered as standard. Admiral and Oasis are particularly explicit about this restriction. Admiral offers an optional "Enhanced trip disruption" add-on (Section 15) which extends cover to onward connecting transport and mid-trip connections. Oasis similarly offers a "Trip Disruption Upgrade" for large-scale events. If your trip involves multiple flights, check whether your policy covers connecting legs or only the initial departure from the UK.
The reasons covered for a delay are broadly consistent: strike or industrial action, severe weather, and mechanical breakdown of the transport (including bird strikes). Some policies are broader: Aviva covers any reason the travel provider cancels or delays, provided the delay exceeds 12 hours and no suitable alternative is offered. Admiral and Oasis are narrower and list specific covered causes.
A delay benefit is only payable if you continue with the trip. If you abandon the trip instead, you claim under the abandonment section, not the delay section. You cannot claim both.
Abandoning your trip after a delay
Most policies allow you to abandon your trip if the outward departure is delayed or cancelled and no suitable alternative is provided. The trigger is typically a delay of 12 hours or more, or the cancellation of the transport with no alternative offered within that window. You can then claim for unused, irrecoverable travel and accommodation costs under the cancellation or abandonment section instead.
Abandonment cover generally applies only to the outbound journey. If your return flight is delayed, you will usually receive the delay benefit or additional travel costs to get home, but you cannot "abandon" a return journey in the same way.
One thing to watch: some policies treat abandonment as a sub-section of the delay cover, while others route it through the cancellation section. The excess, limits, and evidence requirements may differ depending on which section applies. Check your own policy to see which section governs abandonment and what the specific limits are.
What is not covered
All policies exclude costs that are recoverable from other sources. The cost of Air Passenger Duty (APD) is excluded by every insurer reviewed, whether or not it is irrecoverable. You should reclaim APD directly from your airline.
Known events are excluded. If a strike, severe weather event, or other disruption was publicly known or had been announced before you bought your policy or booked your trip (whichever is later), no cover applies. This is the most common reason delay and disruption claims fail. See our separate guide on known events for a detailed breakdown of how this exclusion works.
Government restrictions on travel are excluded. If a government closes borders, locks down a region, or makes travel illegal, this is not covered. COVID-19-related government restrictions remain specifically excluded by most policies.
Insolvency of the transport operator is excluded from the disruption sections by most policies. If your airline goes bust, your route to recovery is typically through ATOL, your credit card provider, or the airline's administrators, not through your travel insurer.
Costs arising from security delays, customs delays, or technical failures of airport computer systems are excluded by most insurers. Admiral specifically excludes "widescale technical issues" affecting airport systems. AXA excludes "failure of air traffic control, airport computer systems or any travel booking systems, including loss of access, use, loss of data and system failure caused by a cyber-attack."
Your own failure to allow enough time to reach the departure point is excluded universally. All policies require you to leave sufficient time to check in according to your itinerary, and to plan connections with at least the minimum recommended transfer time.
Connecting flights and mid-trip disruption
This is one of the most significant gaps in standard travel delay cover. Most policies only cover delays to the first leg of the outbound journey from the UK and the final leg of the return journey to the UK. Disruption to connecting flights between two countries outside the UK is not covered as standard.
Admiral makes this restriction very prominent and provides worked examples in the policy wording to illustrate where cover does and does not apply. For instance, if you book two international flights and the first connecting flight is delayed, causing you to miss the second, there is no cover under the standard delay section.
Some insurers offer optional add-ons to fill this gap. Admiral's "Enhanced trip disruption" (Section 15) extends cover to onward connecting transport, mid-trip connections, and return journey disruption. It also reduces the delay trigger from 12 hours to a shorter period. Oasis offers a similar upgrade. Staysure's optional "Travel Disruption Extension" (Section 12) provides extended delay benefits and covers trip continuation and enforced stay. These add-ons must appear on your policy schedule and typically require an additional premium.
If your trip involves connecting flights, particularly long-haul itineraries with layovers, check whether your base policy covers connecting legs. If it does not, consider whether the optional upgrade is worth purchasing.
Claims evidence
All insurers require broadly similar documentation. You will need written confirmation from the airline or carrier of the scheduled departure date and time, the actual departure date and time, the reason for the delay or cancellation, and any alternative transport offered. You will also need proof of booking, proof of payment, and evidence that costs are unrecoverable elsewhere.
AXA additionally requires confirmation from the carrier that compensation, assistance, or reimbursement will not be provided, and the reason why. Staysure requires written confirmation from the carrier stating the period and reason for delay as a precondition of any delay claim, and failure to provide this is listed as a specific exclusion.
All policies require you to retain unused travel tickets. All policies state that evidence must be supplied at your own expense.
Where you are claiming for a missed departure caused by a vehicle breakdown, most insurers require a repair or breakdown assistance report. Admiral requires evidence of a valid MOT certificate. AXA requires evidence of the vehicle's service history and/or MOT history and that it has been maintained in accordance with manufacturer's instructions.
EU Air Passenger Rights and your insurance claim
Retained EU Regulation 261/2004 gives you rights to care, rebooking, and financial compensation from the airline in certain circumstances. These rights apply to flights departing from a UK or EU airport, and to flights arriving at a UK or EU airport if operated by a UK or EU carrier.
Most insurers require you to pursue these rights before claiming on insurance. AXA and Admiral make this a specific condition of claims: you must seek compensation under EU Air Passenger Rights legislation and from your travel provider before making an insurance claim. Aviva does not reference EU 261 explicitly in the same way, but its general exclusions achieve the same result by requiring costs to be unrecoverable from the transport provider.
Any compensation or refund you receive from the airline will be deducted from an insurance claim for the same costs. However, the FOS has made clear that the airline's statutory compensation and a fixed delay benefit under an insurance policy are separate things. If your policy pays a fixed benefit of, say, £25 per 12 hours of delay, the insurer should not reduce that benefit simply because you also received airline compensation. The fixed benefit and the airline compensation serve different purposes.
Relevant Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) guidance
The following summarises published FOS guidance and decisions relevant to flight delay and cancellation claims. This is not legal advice. If you are unhappy with how your claim has been handled, you can complain to your insurer and, if unresolved, refer the matter to the FOS.
Delayed or cancelled: the FOS looks at impact, not labels
Some insurers decline delay claims on the basis that a flight was technically cancelled rather than delayed. The FOS considers this distinction unhelpful and assesses what actually happened to the customer and whether the policy should respond. If a cancellation left you stranded in the same way a delay would have, the FOS is likely to expect the insurer to treat it as a delay for benefit purposes.
Making your own arrangements to mitigate loss
In decision DRN-4415015, a policyholder arranged his own travel home after a cancellation rather than waiting over 24 hours at the airport. His insurer refused the delay benefit because he had not technically been "delayed" for the required period. The FOS found that the customer had reduced the insurer's potential loss by acting quickly and directed the insurer to pay the delay benefit that would have accrued had the customer waited. The principle is clear: if you mitigate your loss, your insurer should not be better off as a result. The FOS's published guidance states that where a customer makes their own travel arrangements sooner rather than later, it would usually consider it fair for the insurer to pay the travel delay amount the customer would have received if they had waited the full time.
You must try the airline first
The FOS consistently upholds the principle that travel insurance is a last resort. You should ask the airline for a refund or compensation and ask them to confirm in writing if they will not provide one. If you booked a package holiday, you may be entitled to a full refund under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018. The FOS will check whether you took these steps before deciding your complaint.
Connecting flights and policy restrictions
Most policies restrict delay cover for connecting flights. The FOS has said that if a connecting-flight restriction exists but was not clearly highlighted in the policy documentation, the insurer may not be able to rely on it. In decision DRN-4011758 (Admiral), the FOS found the policy documentation was sufficiently clear that only the first and last flights were covered, and there was no cover for international connecting flights. This means the clarity of the policy wording matters: if the restriction is buried or ambiguous, the FOS may side with the consumer.
Fixed benefit payments should not be reduced by airline compensation
The FOS has stated that if an airline has paid a customer for their costs, or compensation under EU 261, the insurer should not reduce any fixed benefit payment under the travel insurance policy. The delay benefit and airline compensation are separate entitlements.
Failure to contact the insurer before acting
Many policies require you to contact the insurer before curtailing or making return arrangements. The FOS has stated that a claim should not automatically fail because the customer did not call first. In decision DRN-2232629, the FOS found the insurer had placed too much weight on a prior-authorisation requirement when the policyholders had limited ability to comply. The test is whether the outcome would have been different if the customer had called.
Travel insurance complaints continue to rise
Travel insurance complaints referred to the FOS reached 4,553 in 2025, an increase of nearly 19% on the previous year. Travel insurance is now the third most complained-about general insurance product line. The FOS upheld more than one in three complaints in favour of the consumer. The rise comes alongside the FCA's response to a Which? super-complaint about travel insurance claims handling, which found evidence of poor outcomes particularly at the claims stage. Consumers should check policy terms carefully, understand exclusions, and remember that travel insurance is not a substitute for airline passenger rights.
How to escalate a complaint
If your complaint is not resolved within eight weeks, or you disagree with the insurer's final response, you can refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The FOS is free to use and its decisions are binding on the insurer if you accept them. You have six months from the date of the insurer's final response to refer your complaint.
Notes on this guide:
- This is general guidance based on selection of representative UK travel insurance policy terms from leading insurers.
- This is a summary of common terms. Always read your specific Policy Wording and IPID document. This guide is for information only and does not constitute financial or legal advice.
- This document is based on a detailed, expert review of UK travel insurance policies from March 2026.
- Always read your specific policy documents and contact your insurer or the FOS directly if you have a dispute.