ANSWER · UK 261 AND EC 261

What am I entitled to if I am denied boarding?

Art. 4(3) requires the airline to compensate you immediately under Art. 7, which is €250, €400 or €600 under EC 261 and £220, £350 or £520 under UK 261, and to assist you under Articles 8 and 9. Unlike delay and cancellation, denied boarding carries no extraordinary circumstances defence: overbooking is the airline's own commercial choice.

REVIEWED AGAINST RULE SET V5 AND THE CITED PRIMARY SOURCES · UPDATED 7 AUGUST 2026

What the airline must provide, and when

RIGHT	ARTICLE	TIMING
Fixed compensation of €250, €400 or €600	Art. 4(3) with Art. 7	Immediately
Refund or re-routing, your choice	Art. 8	Refund paid within seven days
Meals, communications, accommodation	Art. 9	While you wait

Art. 4(3) uses the word immediately, which is unusual in the regulation and is why denied boarding claims are the fastest to settle.

The bands

COMPENSATION BY DISTANCE BAND
DISTANCE BAND	EC 261	UK 261
Up to 1,500 km	€250	£220
1,500 to 3,500 km	€400	£350
Over 3,500 km	€600	£520

Bands and amounts read from rule set v5, the same data the free check evaluates. EC 261 figures are set by Art. 7(1); the sterling figures were substituted by SI 2019/278 for flights covered by the retained regulation.

Why there is no weather excuse here

Art. 5(3) attaches the extraordinary circumstances defence to cancellation. Art. 4 has no equivalent. Overbooking is a revenue management decision, and a shortage of seats caused by an aircraft swap is still an operational choice.

The one gateway that does exist is Art. 2(j): there is no denied boarding where there are reasonable grounds to deny, such as health, safety, security or inadequate travel documents.

The reduction that can apply

Art. 7(2) allows a 50 percent reduction where re-routing gets the passenger to the final destination inside the window for the distance band. On a bumped passenger rebooked onto the next flight an hour later, that reduction commonly applies.

SOURCES

Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Art. 4 · EUR-Lex · checked 7 August 2026
Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Art. 7 · EUR-Lex · checked 7 August 2026
Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Art. 2(j) · EUR-Lex · checked 7 August 2026