Best EU261 Claim Companies in 2026: Five Services Scored, Fees Verified
On a €600 EU261 claim, AirAdvisor and Compensair leave you €420, Flightright about €407, AirHelp €390 and Skycop €336 — and claiming yourself keeps all €600. AirHelp still scores highest overall, at 88 of 100, because it is the one most likely to actually litigate your route: it takes 20 of 20 on reach while scoring only 29 of 35 on fee. ClaimCompass no longer operates independently — AirHelp acquired it in November 2024 and its website now redirects to AirHelp. Fees below were re-checked against each company's own price list on 14 September 2026; none of the five has changed since the last edition.
The 2026 index
Flight compensation companies, scored out of 100
Five criteria, weights published below, and every company's component scores shown in the table so the total can be checked rather than taken on trust. "You keep" is the net on a €600 claim at each company's standard fee, then if the case goes to court. Claiming direct is the reference row, not a competitor.
| # | Service | Component scores | You keep of €600 | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Claim it yourselfFree · the step-by-step | Not scored — the reference row | €600 | ref. |
| 1 | AirHelp35% incl. VAT · 50% if legal · check a flight → | fee 29/35 · court 14/20 · clarity 15/15 · reach 20/20 · scale 10/10 | €390 → €300 in court | 88 |
| 2 | AirAdvisor30% incl. VAT · 50% if legal · price list | fee 35/35 · court 14/20 · clarity 15/15 · reach 12/20 · scale 7/10 | €420 → €300 in court | 83 |
| 3 | Flightright20–30% + VAT · +14% + VAT if legal · costs page | fee 32/35 · court 15/20 · clarity 9/15 · reach 15/20 · scale 10/10 | ~€407 → ~€307 in court | 81 |
| 4 | Compensair30% · 40% if legal · payment policy | fee 35/35 · court 20/20 · clarity 7/15 · reach 11/20 · scale 6/10 | €420 → €360 in court | 79 |
| 5 | Skycop44% incl. VAT · 50% if legal · price list | fee 20/35 · court 14/20 · clarity 13/15 · reach 13/20 · scale 7/10 | €336 → €300 in court | 67 |
Scored 6 September 2026 against each company's published fee page and re-verified, unchanged, on 14 September. AirHelp's price list is version PL2.26 of 11 August 2026; Skycop's is dated 1 May 2024; Compensair's payment policy is dated 23 June 2023 and its separate price-list PDF could not be read on the verification date. Note what the components show: AirHelp leads while charging the second-highest standard fee of the five, because reach and price clarity carry it — a cheap service that will not litigate your route pays nothing at all. Compensair is the mirror image, best-in-class on the court net and weakest on the transparency of getting there. EUclaim, Flight-Delayed.com and ClaimFlights are not scored this edition: Flight-Delayed.com publishes 35% including VAT plus 15% if legal, the same structure as AirHelp; ClaimFlights states a flat 25% plus VAT on its homepage with no price page; EUclaim's homepage says you receive 69% after a €33 administration fee and has no price page. They are noted for the next re-run — read the fee page before you sign anything.
What clients say, as of 14 September 2026, on Trustpilot: AirHelp 4.5 from 243,545 reviews; Flightright 4.9 from 34,946; Compensair 4.5 from 1,676; AirAdvisor 4.4 from 2,540; Skycop 2.5 from 8,236, rated "Poor", with 37% of reviews at one star. Review records are not a scored criterion, because the product is a legal claim rather than a service experience, but a 2.5 on 8,000 reviews is a fact a reader should have before signing a 44% fee.
What are you owed — and what would each service actually leave you?
Five questions. We calculate your EU261 entitlement and the net from every scored service. No email required.
| Route | You keep | They take |
|---|---|---|
| Claim it yourself (free) | — | €0 |
| AirAdvisor (30%, VAT incl.) | — | — |
| Compensair (30%) | — | — |
| Flightright (~27% + VAT) | — | — |
| AirHelp (35%, VAT incl.) | — | — |
| Skycop (44%, VAT incl.) | — | — |
How the scores are built
The product every company sells is identical — the same legal claim, against the same airline, for the same fixed sum set by Regulation EC 261/2004. So the index scores the only things that differ: what each one takes, how honestly it says so, and whether it will really take your airline to court. Weights are fixed, each company's component scores are printed in the table above, and the same rubric is re-run whenever a fee page changes. Who EU261 covers is the prior question, and the checker above answers it for your flight.
A cheap service that will not litigate your route pays €0 — which is why reach carries a fifth of the score even though every reader's first question is the fee. It is also the whole explanation for the table: AirHelp is fourth of five on what it charges and still first overall.
The uncomfortable truth
You will pick your claim route in the next ten minutes — the fee menus are built so you pick wrong
Most passengers choose a compensation company the way they grab a taxi at arrivals: the first one in sight. The companies know it. One quotes "35% including VAT". Another quotes "from 20%" and adds VAT on top. A third publishes a flat-fee menu in whatever currency your booking used. A fourth keeps its fee in a PDF payment policy. None of these numbers is comparable as written — and that is the point.
The only number that matters is the one that lands in your account. So that is the number the index weights most heavily, at 35 of 100.
Why the fees look so different — and why that's deliberate
Your compensation was fixed twenty years ago: €250 under 1,500 km, €400 to 3,500 km, €600 beyond. When products are identical, firms compete on how their price is presented, not what it is.
AirHelp's 35% includes VAT: on €600 you receive €390, full stop, and its price list says so in a dated, versioned document — the current one is PL2.26 of 11 August 2026. AirAdvisor's 30% also includes VAT — €420 to you — and carries a €90 minimum that applies only to payouts under €225, so it never bites on the standard EU261 amounts. Compensair's 30% sits in a payment policy dated June 2023 that says nothing about VAT and deducts bank charges on the way out; a separate price-list PDF exists on its site but could not be read on the verification date. Flightright's "20 to 30 percent" sounds cheapest, but VAT lands on top — their own worked example on €800 pays the customer €533.44, an effective 33%. Skycop's flat menu, unchanged since May 2024, works out at 44%: €264 taken from a €600 claim, €176 from €400, €110 from €250. Two years ago Skycop was the budget option at roughly 30%; it is now the most expensive of the five. Any comparison still quoting Skycop at 30% — and most do — is stale.
None of this makes the services a rip-off. It makes them a convenience purchase — and convenience is worth paying for exactly once you know its price.
The verdict, by situation
Maximum moneyClaim it yourself€600
EU261 is one of the few consumer claims genuinely built for ordinary people. The airline is legally required to respond; national enforcement bodies exist for silence; the sums are fixed, so there is nothing to negotiate. It costs 30 minutes and a firm letter. Our step-by-step guide with a template letter walks the whole route, and the claims-company-vs-DIY comparison goes deeper on when a fee is justified.
Zero effort, or you live outside the EUAirHelp — 88/100€390
AirHelp is the scale player — 30+ countries, the largest claims volume in the industry, a Trustpilot record of 4.5 from more than 243,000 reviews, and since absorbing ClaimCompass the widest legal reach. It is the only service here to take full marks on both reach and price clarity, which is what carries it to first place from a fee score of 29. The 35% has VAT inside it, so the number you see is the number you pay; AirHelp+ members pay no fee at all, on plans from $32.99 a year, which is worth the arithmetic for anyone who flies often. For a US resident chasing a European airline, or a disruption involving codeshares and connections, it is the practical choice. Check your flight against their eligibility engine — it takes about three minutes and costs nothing unless they win. Our full AirHelp review covers how their cases actually run.
Lowest honest fee, straightforward caseAirAdvisor — 83/100€420
AirAdvisor's 30% is the lowest all-inclusive rate of the five and its price list is a model of clarity, worked example and minimum threshold included — full marks on both fee and clarity. The catch is reach, where it scores 12 of 20: a smaller network behind it, 4.4 from 2,540 Trustpilot reviews against AirHelp's quarter of a million, and 50% if external lawyers are needed, the same as AirHelp. Good for a clean claim against a major carrier likely to pay without a fight.
A German airline won't payFlightright — 81/100~€407
Flightright litigates in German courts more than anyone, which is the 15 of 20 on reach, and its 20–30% band can beat AirHelp on simple DACH cases; its Trustpilot record, 4.9 from nearly 35,000 reviews, is the best of the five. Read the costs page carefully, since VAT is added on top and the legal surcharge is another 14% plus VAT — that opacity is the 9 of 15 on clarity, and the only thing keeping it off second place. Strongest inside Germany and Austria, ordinary elsewhere.
Likely to end in courtCompensair — 79/100€360 after legal
Compensair caps its legal surcharge at 10%, so a claim that goes to court leaves €360 — €60 more than anyone else, and the only full 20 of 20 on the court criterion. Weigh that against a fee policy that lives in a PDF last updated in June 2023, says nothing about VAT and deducts bank charges, while the company's separate price-list document could not be opened on 14 September — 7 of 15 on clarity, the lowest here. If you expect the airline to dig in, it is the arithmetic winner; confirm the fee in writing before you sign, because the policy on file is three years old.
A Baltic or Central European carrierSkycop — 67/100€336
Skycop knows the airBaltic, Wizz and LOT landscape and handles 30+ languages, and its published menu is clearer than Flightright's or Compensair's. But at 44% it scores 20 of 35 on fee — the lowest single component in the index — and its Trustpilot record is 2.5, rated "Poor", from 8,236 reviews with 37% at one star. It needs its regional edge to justify itself. If your case is straightforward, DIY first; if you want it handled, price AirAdvisor and AirHelp against it before signing.
What happened to ClaimCompass?
ClaimCompass — the Bulgarian-founded service many older comparisons still recommend — was acquired by AirHelp, announced on 27 November 2024, with the terms undisclosed, and no longer takes new claims independently; as of September 2026 claimcompass.eu redirects straight to airhelp.com. If you arrived here searching for ClaimCompass, AirHelp is where the business went; the 35%-including-VAT structure above is what now applies. If you have an open ClaimCompass claim, contact AirHelp directly to confirm its status rather than assuming it transferred.
The 2026 reform: what actually changed, and why you should file the old claims now
Brussels spent the spring fighting over EU261. The Council pushed to raise the delay threshold well above three hours; analysts estimated that would have stripped 60–70% of currently eligible passengers. It lost. The European Parliament adopted the compromise on 7 July 2026 by 646 votes to 12 with three abstentions, and the Council gave final clearance on 13 July. The three-hour threshold survives; so do €250, €400 and €600. As of 14 September 2026 the act is awaiting signature and has not yet been published in the Official Journal, so it has no regulation number and no fixed dates.
Three changes matter for anyone reading this page. Airlines will have to answer a compensation request within 30 days, or explain why they are invoking extraordinary circumstances. Passengers will have a nine-month window to file, and must be given clear instructions on how to claim within 96 hours of the journey ending. And airlines may still halve compensation on the longest routes where they reroute you or the arrival delay stays under four hours. The Council's release puts entry into force at twelve months and twenty days after publication in the Official Journal — so not before the second half of 2027 on any reading. Until then, today's national deadlines stand: six years in England and Wales, five in France, three in Germany, set out country by country in claim deadlines by country. A 2023 disruption is still claimable this year; it may not be once the nine-month clock replaces those deadlines. What you forfeit by not claiming is spelled out separately.
Three things no claim company will tell you
First: the airline's rejection is an opening bid, not a verdict. Carriers reject valid claims citing "extraordinary circumstances" knowing most passengers stop there. A strike by the airline's own crew is not extraordinary — the courts settled that. Our extraordinary-circumstances guide lists what genuinely counts, and what to do after a rejection takes it from there. The airline-by-airline tactical guide says which carriers pay and which stall.
Second: "no win, no fee" still has a price in the win. Every company on this page is paid only from your compensation — which is why the fee carries 35 of the 100 points. How no-win-no-fee really works and real payout examples show the arithmetic on actual claims.
Third: the clock is national until 2027. Amounts and bands are unpacked in EU261 amounts explained, post-Brexit differences in EU261 vs UK261 — the UK bands are unchanged at £220, £350 and £520 — and timings in how long a claim takes.
Decision in one paragraph
Run your flight through the checker above. If you're owed money and can spare half an hour, claim direct and keep every euro. If you'd rather never think about it again, hand it to AirHelp — the fee is steep but honest, and 65% of something beats 100% of a claim you never file. Take AirAdvisor for a clean claim where the extra €30 matters, Flightright for a German one, Compensair if you expect a court fight. And treat any site still quoting ClaimCompass, a 30% Skycop or a "deadlocked" reform as your cue to close the tab: their numbers are a year old.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best EU261 claim company in 2026?
AirHelp scores highest overall in 2026 at 88 of 100: full marks on reach (20/20) and price clarity (15/15), coverage in 30+ countries, and a flat 35% fee with VAT included. It leads despite scoring only 29 of 35 on the fee itself, because a cheaper service that will not litigate your route pays nothing. AirAdvisor is second at 83 and charges less at 30%, Flightright third at 81 and can beat AirHelp on simple German cases, Compensair fourth at 79 with the best court net, and Skycop fifth at 67 on a 44% fee. Claiming directly yourself is free and keeps 100%.
Which flight compensation company has the lowest fee in 2026?
AirAdvisor and Compensair both take 30% at the standard stage, leaving €420 of a €600 claim, and both take full marks on the fee criterion. AirAdvisor's 30% includes VAT and its €90 minimum applies only to payouts under €225, so it never affects a standard EU261 amount; Compensair's payment policy, dated June 2023, does not mention VAT and deducts bank charges. If the case goes to court, Compensair's 40% cap leaves €360, the best net of any service; AirAdvisor rises to 50%.
How much does AirHelp charge in 2026?
AirHelp charges 35% of the compensation, VAT included, on a no-win, no-fee basis, under price list PL2.26 of 11 August 2026. If the case needs legal action, a further 15% applies, taking the total to 50%. On a €600 claim you receive €390, or €300 if it goes to court. AirHelp+ members pay no fee, on plans from $32.99 a year. That fee scores 29 of 35 in this index — second-highest of the five — and AirHelp still finishes first on reach and clarity.
How much does Skycop charge in 2026?
Skycop's published price list, dated 1 May 2024 and unchanged since, takes €110 from a €250 claim, €176 from €400 and €264 from €600 — a 44% standard fee with VAT included. With legal escalation it rises to 50%, at €125, €200 and €300 respectively. Older reviews quoting Skycop at around 30% are out of date, and the 44% is why it scores 20 of 35 on fee, the lowest single component in this index. Its Trustpilot score is 2.5 from 8,236 reviews.
Does ClaimCompass still exist?
No. AirHelp announced its acquisition of ClaimCompass on 27 November 2024 on undisclosed terms, ClaimCompass no longer takes new claims as an independent service, and its website now redirects to airhelp.com. New claims that would have gone to ClaimCompass are handled under AirHelp's 35%-including-VAT fee structure. If you have an open ClaimCompass claim from before the acquisition, contact AirHelp directly to confirm its status.
Should I use a claims company or claim directly with the airline?
Claim directly if you can spare 30 minutes: the amounts are fixed by law, airlines must respond, and you keep 100%. Use a claims company when the airline has already rejected you, the case involves connections or non-EU residence, or you simply won't file otherwise — 65% of something beats 100% of nothing. That is why claiming direct sits at the top of the index as the reference row rather than as a competitor.
How long does an EU261 claim take to pay out?
A clean direct claim typically settles in 4–8 weeks. Through a claims company, expect 8–12 weeks for out-of-court cases. If the claim goes to court, 6–18 months is normal depending on the country. Deadlines to file are long today — six years in England and Wales, five in France, three in Germany — but the 2026 reform replaces them with a nine-month window once it applies, which will not be before the second half of 2027.
Is the EU261 three-hour rule changing?
No. The reform adopted by the European Parliament on 7 July 2026 by 646 votes to 12 and cleared by the Council on 13 July keeps the three-hour delay threshold and the €250, €400 and €600 amounts. It adds a 30-day deadline for airlines to answer a claim, a nine-month window for passengers to file, and a requirement that passengers receive claim instructions within 96 hours of the journey ending. Airlines may still halve compensation on the longest routes where they reroute you or the arrival delay stays under four hours. As of 14 September 2026 the act is awaiting signature and has not been published in the Official Journal; it enters into force twelve months and twenty days after publication — not before the second half of 2027.
Which flight compensation company pays out the most?
Per euro claimed, AirAdvisor and Compensair leave the most on straightforward cases (€420 of €600), followed by Flightright at about €407, AirHelp at €390 and Skycop at €336. But payout also depends on whether the company will actually litigate your route, which is scored separately as reach: AirHelp takes 20 of 20 there against AirAdvisor's 12 and Compensair's 11, which is why weaker cases often only get paid at AirHelp even though its fee is higher.
Read next
How to claim EU261 yourself, step by step · The EU261 calculator · Cancellation rights · Denied boarding · Missed connections · Lufthansa claims · British Airways claims · Ryanair claims, tactically · easyJet claims · US flights