You can pursue an EU 261 claim in Poland in two ways. Either you do it yourself — free, you handle the work and keep the full amount. Or you hand the case to a claims service such as AirHelp or Flightright, which works the file for you in exchange for a slice of the payout, usually 25-35% plus VAT. This page puts the two routes head to head: real costs in PLN, real timelines for Polish passengers, and the legal risk you actually carry.
The short answer first. If the claim is simple and recent, doing it yourself is usually worth the hour of work. If it is complex, old, already rejected, or you simply do not have the time, a service can earn its fee. The rest of the page shows why, with the Polish institutions and the CJEU rulings that govern the decision.
Disclosure: Lotzwrot is an independent information site. We earn a commission if you sign up with AirHelp through a link on this page, but it does not change what we write. We recommend the free route too — and we recommend it first.
The DIY route: what it costs and what it asks of you
The DIY route is free up to the courthouse door. There is no charge to file an internal complaint with the airline. There is no charge to escalate to the Rzecznik Praw Pasażerów (RPP), the passenger ombudsman housed at the Urząd Lotnictwa Cywilnego (ULC). Only the final escalation — a civil suit — carries a fee, and in the simplified procedure before a Sąd Rejonowy that fee starts at 30 PLN for claims up to 4 000 PLN. On a winning judgment the court orders the airline to reimburse it, so your net cash cost is effectively zero.
What it asks of you is time and persistence. A clean Wizz Air or Ryanair file takes about 30 minutes online. A LOT or Lufthansa case can take longer because their forms ask for more detail. If the airline pays within 14-30 days you are done. If they refuse, you draft an RPP complaint (a one-page form on the ULC website) and wait roughly 60-90 days for the ombudsman to act. If that also fails, you file a pozew at the local Sąd Rejonowy. A typical Polish small-claim hearing in the simplified procedure lands within 3-6 months.
The CJEU has done most of the legal heavy-lifting for you. In Sturgeon (joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07, 2009), the court ruled that a 3-hour-plus delay at the final destination triggers the same compensation as a cancellation. In Folkerts (C-11/11, 2013) the court confirmed that the relevant delay is measured at the final destination of a connecting itinerary, not at the missed connection point. In Wegener (C-537/17, 2018) the court treated a multi-leg itinerary on a single booking as one unit of transport. These three rulings cover a large share of the cases a Polish passenger will ever bring.
Read our companion piece how to file an RPP complaint at ULC step by step before you write the cover letter — the structure is simple and free.
The service route: how it works in practice
When you sign with AirHelp, Flightright, Skycop or RefundMe, you assign the claim to them under a cesja (assignment of receivables). The firm then sues, settles or negotiates with the airline using its own lawyers. You provide the documents and you wait. The firm absorbs every legal risk: a lost case costs you nothing.
The model is no win, no fee. If they recover money, they take their cut and wire you the rest. If they lose, you pay nothing. They handle:
- the airline complaint and all written escalations,
- the cesja paperwork and the airline's legal pushback,
- if needed, a Polish or German court action (most services have Polish counsel on retainer for Sąd Rejonowy filings),
- enforcement against airlines that ignore judgments — a real issue with several non-EU and low-cost carriers.
Typical headline cuts in 2026:
- AirHelp — 25-35% commission, scaling with case difficulty, court fees included if litigation is required.
- Flightright — 30-50% including court fees.
- Skycop — flat 35%, no hidden surcharges.
- RefundMe — flat 25%, the lowest on the Polish market, no court-fee surcharge.
On a 600 EUR claim (about 2 600 PLN at current rates), that is roughly 650 to 1 300 PLN that does not reach your account. The trade is real money for zero legal exposure.
Get a free claim assessment from AirHelp in 3 minutes
What the service actually charges — the numbers in PLN
Let us put the commission in real money for a Polish passenger in 2026. We assume EUR/PLN around 4.35.
| Compensation | Service | Commission % | Service keeps (PLN) | You keep (PLN) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 EUR (≈1 090 PLN) | AirHelp 35% | 35% | 380 | 710 |
| 400 EUR (≈1 740 PLN) | Flightright 40% | 40% | 700 | 1 040 |
| 600 EUR (≈2 610 PLN) | Skycop 35% | 35% | 915 | 1 695 |
| 600 EUR (≈2 610 PLN) | RefundMe 25% | 25% | 650 | 1 960 |
| 600 EUR (≈2 610 PLN) | DIY | 0% (30 PLN court fee, refunded) | 0 | 2 610 |
For a clean 250 EUR case on a Polish or EU carrier, the math is brutal: a 380 PLN commission for what is realistically two hours of typing. For a complex 600 EUR refusal on a non-EU carrier that needs cross-border enforcement, paying RefundMe 650 PLN to make the case disappear is a bargain.
"Is it a scam?" — what the real worry usually is
When people ask whether AirHelp or Flightright is a scam, what they usually mean is one of three things:
- "Is the commission fair?" — It is the published price for a service. There is no concealment. The price reflects no-win-no-fee risk: the service absorbs hundreds of refused cases for every one that pays out.
- "Will they actually pay me?" — Yes. The Polish and German consumer-protection regulators have not flagged any of the four major services for non-payment. They live or die on bank transfer reliability.
- "Are they better than going to court myself?" — Sometimes yes, often no. For a clean Polish-departure delay against an EU carrier, DIY wins on net cash. For a refused, foreign-court or non-EU case, the service wins on risk-adjusted return.
None of this turns into a scam. It is a service priced for the risk it absorbs.
Side by side — the comparison
| Dimension | DIY (Polish passenger) | Service (AirHelp, Flightright, Skycop, RefundMe) |
|---|---|---|
| Out-of-pocket cost | 0 PLN (30 PLN court fee refunded on win) | 25-50% of payout |
| Time investment | 2-5 hours over 30-180 days | 15 minutes to upload documents |
| Legal risk | You carry it — costs if you lose at court (limited in simplified procedure) | Zero — they pay everything |
| Speed when airline pays voluntarily | 8-30 days | 60-120 days (batch processing) |
| Speed when airline refuses | 90-180 days (RPP + Sąd Rejonowy) | 6-18 months |
| Best for | Clean cases, recent flights, EU carriers, claims up to 1 000 PLN | Complex refusals, non-EU carriers, old claims, language barriers |
| Polish 10-year prescription | Full advantage — you can file up to a decade after the flight | Same window, but the firm does the math for you |
Who should pick which route — the verdict
Pick DIY if any of the following are true:
- The flight departed from a Polish airport (WAW, KRK, GDN, KTW, WRO, POZ, RZE) and the carrier is an EU airline.
- The delay is clear-cut and recent: 3+ hours at final destination, in the last 12-24 months.
- The carrier has not yet replied or has issued only a generic auto-reply.
- The compensation is 250 EUR — every PLN of commission stings on a small payout.
- You speak Polish or English well enough to fill an online form and write a 200-word ombudsman letter.
Pick a service if any of the following are true:
- The airline has refused in writing, citing a "technical defect" or a "wildcat strike". These are not extraordinary circumstances under Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07, 2008) and Krüsemann (C-195/17, 2018) respectively — but rebutting them takes legal pressure.
- The airline is a non-EU carrier flying out of the EU under a wet-lease — see Wirth (C-532/17, 2018) for the operating-carrier rule.
- The flight is 3-9 years old. You still have the 10-year window (see III CZP 111/16, 2017) but documents and memory are fading.
- You need to sue in another EU member state and would have to deal with a foreign court yourself.
- You simply do not have the bandwidth, and turning 65% of a payout into a confirmed bank transfer this quarter is worth more than 100% in 12 months.
For the broader strategic context read airline complaint vs RPP vs lawsuit — which order, which deadline and the Polish-language original of this guide at reklamacja samemu czy przez firmę .
The Polish jurisdiction advantage — why the 10-year window matters
This is the single point where Polish passengers are luckier than most. The Sąd Najwyższy resolution III CZP 111/16 (2017) confirmed that EU 261 compensation claims are not bound by the 1-year Montreal Convention limit but by the general 10-year civil prescription under the Polish Civil Code. The CJEU left the question of limitation periods entirely to national law in Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11, 2013), so the 10-year rule is binding in any Polish court.
What this means in practice. If you flew out of WAW in 2020 with a 4-hour delay on Lufthansa and never claimed, you can still file a pozew in 2030. Most German, Belgian and French claimants ran out of time after 3 years. Polish passengers have the longest practical window in the EU. Use it.
The official text of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 is on EUR-Lex: see Regulation 261/2004 on common rules for compensation and assistance to passengers for the binding statutory wording.
The bottom line for Polish passengers
If the case is clean and the carrier is European, file it yourself. The math wins, the law has been settled by the CJEU, and the Polish small-claim procedure is built for exactly this. If the case is messy, old, or you are out of patience, a service is a legitimate way to convert effort into a smaller-but-certain payout. There is no wrong choice — only the one that fits your case.
When in doubt, run the airline complaint yourself first. It is free, it takes 30 minutes, and if it works you keep the full 250-600 EUR. If it does not, you have lost nothing, and a service can still take the file from there.
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