KLM flight delay compensation

KLM owes €250, €400 or €600 per passenger when the flight arrives three or more hours late, is cancelled at short notice, or boarding is denied. KLM offers a larger voucher instead of cash; you are entitled to refuse it and be paid.

What KLM owes, by distance

When it applies: Arrival 3+ hours late, cancellation notified less than 14 days ahead, or denied boarding. The figures come from EU Regulation 261/2004 and are per passenger, including children on their own ticket.

How to claim, in four steps

1. Work out what KLM owes. Enter the route, the date and how late you arrived. A flight from Amsterdam is often covered by two statutes at once, and the calculator shows which of them pays more.
2. Write the demand. The letter is dated, cites EU Regulation 261/2004 by article, and is addressed to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
3. Send it to KLM. Use “Claim form” below, and keep a copy of what you submitted. A claim that exists only in a phone call cannot be proved afterwards.
4. Escalate to the Netherlands' Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport. If KLM refuses or says nothing, the calculator writes the chaser and then the escalation letter, naming that regulator and citing the article the airline ignored.

Where to send it — KLM's own claim pages

• Claim form
• Compensation and reimbursement for a delayed KLM flight
• Passenger rights

KLM advertises a voucher at a higher face value than the cash figure — for the shortest band, €350 in credit against €250 in cash. The cash is worth more: it does not expire and is not tied to KLM.

The refusals KLM sends, and what answers them

Each of these has a settled answer in case law — the EU261 page sets out the judgments, names the cases, and quotes what the airline has to prove instead.

Other things that go wrong on a KLM flight

• When the airline blames a technical fault — when KLM blames a technical fault
• “Extraordinary circumstances” — what actually counts — when KLM calls it weather or “extraordinary”
• Your flight was cancelled — when KLM offers a voucher instead of money
• Should you use a claim company? — when KLM ignores you — and why you still do not need a claim company
• You missed your connection — a missed connection on a KLM itinerary
• Denied boarding and overbooking — being bumped from an overbooked flight by KLM
• They moved you to a lower class — being moved to a lower class by KLM
• Your bag did not arrive — a bag KLM delayed or lost
• Stuck at the airport: what the airline owes you now — meals and a hotel while KLM leaves you waiting

Questions

Open the calculator with KLM selected →

Claiming from KLM in practice

Which band your route falls into, from AMS

Distance decides the amount, and it is measured as the great-circle distance between the two airports — not the miles flown. These are real distances from KLM's main base, so you can see where the thresholds sit before you measure your own route.

If KLM refuses or says nothing

The regulator for KLM is the Netherlands' Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (ILT) (ilent.nl). Take the claim there once the airline has had its chance to answer and has either refused or gone silent — bring the dated letter, the airline's reply, and your booking reference. Stage 3 of the calculator writes the escalation letter that names this body.

How long you have: Two years in the Netherlands — the shortest window of any major EU carrier, so do not sit on a KLM claim.

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