Eligible for Flight Compensation in Poland? A Four-Question Check

"Am I eligible for flight compensation?" is the single most common question Polish passengers ask after a delayed or cancelled flight — and the honest answer turns on four concrete things, not on how angry the wait felt. This page is not a recital of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004. It is a practical check: answer four questions about your trip and you will see straight away whether you are likely entitled to the fixed compensation of EUR 250 to EUR 600 (roughly PLN 1,100 to PLN 2,700), and which Polish institution — the Rzecznik Praw Pasażerów (RPP) at the Civil Aviation Authority (ULC), or the Sąd Rejonowy — is the right next stop for your case.

One quick clarification before we begin. Compensation is a fixed flat-rate sum paid for the inconvenience of the disruption. A refund is getting the ticket price back. These are two separate rights, and they can run at the same time or independently. This guide is about the compensation. The mix-up is common, and Polish carriers sometimes lean on it when they offer a voucher instead of cash.

The four questions in one place

You are normally eligible for EU 261 compensation in Poland if the answer is yes to all four of these:

1. Did the flight depart from an EU airport — or land in the EU on an EU-based airline?
2. Did you arrive at least 3 hours late at the final destination, was the flight cancelled, or were you denied boarding?
3. Was the cause within the airline's control (not an extraordinary circumstance)?
4. If the flight was cancelled — did you get the notice less than 14 days before departure?

If any one of those is no, the right to the fixed compensation usually falls away — though, as you will see, other rights (duty of care, refund, rerouting) can still apply. We take the four in order.

Question 1 — Is your trip covered by EU 261?

Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 applies in either of two situations:

• the flight departed from an airport within the EU (plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland) — regardless of the airline; or
• the flight landed at an airport within the EU and was operated by an airline based in the EU.

For a passenger flying out of Warsaw Chopin, Kraków Balice, Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa or Katowice Pyrzowice, the first leg of practically every itinerary is covered, whatever the carrier. The trickier case is the return: a flight Dubai–Warsaw is covered if it is operated by LOT, Lufthansa or another EU-licensed carrier, but not if it is flown by a non-EU airline such as Emirates or Qatar Airways. On those itineraries, only the local rules of the third country or the airline's own contract of carriage may apply, and the protection is normally weaker.

You can read the consolidated text of the regulation directly on EUR-Lex: Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 . This is the foundation document for every claim discussed on this page.

Question 2 — Was the disruption large enough?

Three kinds of disruption can trigger compensation under EU 261:

• Delay. You arrived at least three hours late at the final destination.
• Cancellation. The departure did not take place at all.
• Denied boarding. You were refused a seat despite a valid confirmed booking, usually because of overbooking.

Here is where many travellers go wrong: the 3-hour rule is measured at arrival, not at departure. What counts is how late you stepped off the aircraft at your final destination. The Court of Justice of the European Union settled this in the Sturgeon case (joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07, 2009). An aircraft can leave four hours late and still claw back time in the air — if the arrival delay ends up under three hours, no compensation is owed, however painful the wait at the gate felt.

Denied boarding deserves a special note: the CJEU in Finnair (C-22/11, 2012) confirmed that denied-boarding rules apply even when there is no overbooking — for example, when the airline reshuffles passengers after a strike or operational issue. If you held a valid booking and were turned away, the regulation still bites.

If your case is a cancelled flight, our companion guide cancelled flight compensation in Poland goes deeper into the rerouting and refund mechanics. If it is a long delay, see flight delay compensation . For the original Polish-language version of this eligibility check, see Czy przysługuje mi odszkodowanie za lot? .

Question 3 — What caused the disruption?

This is often the question that tips the balance. The airline is exempt from paying compensation if it can prove the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances — events outside its control that it could not have prevented even with all reasonable measures. The dividing line is set by CJEU case law, not by airline marketing.

A rough but reliable map looks like this:

Three CJEU rulings anchor the right-hand side of this table for Polish passengers:

• Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07, 2008) — a technical defect that surfaces during normal aircraft operation is part of running an airline and is not an extraordinary circumstance. The carrier cannot hide behind "we had a fault."
• van der Lans (C-257/14, 2015) — confirmed and broadened Wallentin-Hermann: technical malfunctions discovered during routine maintenance, or that develop without warning during ordinary operation, do not exempt the carrier.
• Krüsemann (C-195/17, 2018) — a wildcat strike by the carrier's own cabin crew is part of the normal exercise of the airline's activity. It is not an extraordinary circumstance, even when management calls it that.

The bird-strike line was drawn separately in Pesková (C-315/15, 2017), which held that a bird strike can in principle be extraordinary — but the airline still has to show it took every reasonable measure (post-strike inspection time, no rebookable alternative) before the exemption fully bites.

And whatever the cause: the duty of care — meals, refreshments, communications, and where needed a hotel and transfers — never falls away. Not even when an Icelandic volcano grounds half the continent (see McDonagh, C-12/11, 2013). If your flight is heavily delayed at a Polish or any EU airport and the airline simply leaves you sitting there with no vouchers, that is a separate breach of EU 261, regardless of the cause of the delay.

Question 4 — When did you get the cancellation notice?

This question only applies if your flight was cancelled. The rule is set out in Article 5(1)(c) of the regulation:

• If the airline notifies you of the cancellation at least 14 days before the scheduled departure, the fixed cash compensation falls away. You still keep the right to choose between a refund of the ticket and rerouting under reasonable conditions — but no flat-rate compensation.
• If the notice comes less than 14 days before departure, compensation can be due. The exact figure may be reduced if the rerouting offered gets you to your final destination within tight time windows defined by Article 5(1)(c)(ii) and (iii) — broadly, departing no more than a couple of hours earlier and arriving within two to four hours of the original time, depending on how late the notice was.

In practice, most Polish passengers who receive an SMS or email the day before the flight, or at the airport itself, fall on the compensable side of that line. Keep the notification — screenshot, printout, email header — because the burden of proving timely notice sits squarely with the carrier.

Tricky cases that do not fit the simple template

Some situations need a closer look before the four-question test gives a clean answer:

• Only one leg of a connection was delayed. If you booked the entire trip on one ticket, the delay is counted at the final destination — and if you arrived three hours or more late, the claim is assessed across the whole connected journey, even if only one connection broke. The CJEU confirmed this principle in Folkerts (C-11/11, 2013) and reinforced it in Wegener (C-537/17, 2018), which treats a multi-leg booking as a single transport unit. If you bought the legs separately, your position is weaker — see missed connection compensation for the full breakdown.
• Cancelled more than 14 days in advance. No fixed compensation, but you choose freely between a full refund (within seven days) and rerouting at the earliest opportunity or at a later date of your convenience.
• Standby or staff ticket. A standby seat, or a heavily discounted ticket not sold to the general public, normally gives no right to compensation — EU 261 requires a confirmed booking on the disrupted flight.
• Wet-lease / operating carrier different from marketing carrier. Per Wirth (C-532/17, 2018), the operating air carrier — the one whose aircraft and crew actually performed the flight — is the one liable, even if you bought the ticket from a different airline. This matters when LOT is the marketing carrier but the flight is actually flown by a wet-lease partner.
• You accepted rerouting on the spot. You keep the right to compensation if the resulting delay at the final destination still ended up at three hours or more. Never sign anything at the gate that "waives all claims" in exchange for a meal voucher — read it first.

Working out the amount — and the Polish next step

If your four answers are pointing the right way, the next question is how much. The Article 7 ladder is fixed by distance:

• EUR 250 (around PLN 1,100) — flights of up to 1,500 km.
• EUR 400 (around PLN 1,750) — intra-EU flights over 1,500 km, and all other flights between 1,500 km and 3,500 km.
• EUR 600 (around PLN 2,700) — flights over 3,500 km that fully or partly leave or enter the EU.

The amount is paid per passenger, in cash, bank transfer or — only with your express agreement — vouchers. If the airline pays late or short-pays, interest can be added under Polish civil law for the period of delay.

If the airline refuses or stays silent, the Polish pathway has two clearly defined stages.

First, file a complaint with the Rzecznik Praw Pasażerów (RPP) at the Urząd Lotnictwa Cywilnego (ULC) — the Polish Civil Aviation Authority. The RPP runs a free out-of-court mediation procedure for EU 261 disputes. You will need a prior written claim to the airline (giving it the usual 30 days to respond) and copies of your boarding pass and booking. The RPP's recommendations are not binding on the carrier, but they carry weight in any subsequent court file.

Second, if mediation fails or the airline simply ignores the recommendation, the route is the Sąd Rejonowy — the Polish district court — under the simplified small-claims procedure (postępowanie uproszczone). EU 261 compensation claims fall comfortably within that procedure's value threshold. Under Polish civil law, the general prescription period is 10 years from when the claim arose (formerly 10 years for "old" claims, currently 6 years under Article 118 of the Polish Civil Code for new claims as of July 2018 onward, with the Sturgeon-line of CJEU rulings — confirmed in Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11, 2013) that national limitation periods apply to EU 261 — meaning Polish courts apply Polish prescription rules). In practice this is far more generous than the two-year window used by some other EU member states, and it gives you real time to build the file.

On jurisdiction, Rehder (C-204/08, 2009) is the key authority for Polish passengers: you can sue either at the airport of departure or at the airport of arrival. For a Warsaw–Madrid flight that gives you the choice between a Polish court (Sąd Rejonowy dla m.st. Warszawy) and a Spanish one — Polish almost always wins on language, cost, and convenience.

If the do-it-yourself route feels heavy, the alternative is a no-win-no-fee claim handler that takes a percentage of the final pay-out and absorbs the legal cost itself. Check your flight in 3 minutes with AirHelp — no win, no fee .

This is not legal advice

This page draws on published institutional sources — Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, CJEU case law, and Polish ULC / RPP guidance. It has not been expert-reviewed for your individual case. For advice on a specific dispute, contact the Rzecznik Praw Pasażerów at the Civil Aviation Authority (ULC) or a Polish lawyer specialising in passenger-rights law.

Frequently asked questions

Am I eligible for compensation if my Warsaw–London flight was 3.5 hours late on arrival?

Most likely yes. Warsaw departure means EU 261 applies, the arrival delay clears the three-hour Sturgeon threshold, and unless the airline can prove an extraordinary circumstance (which it must document — weather notams, ATC bulletins, etc.), you are entitled to EUR 250 on this route, since the flight distance is under 1,500 km.

Can I claim if only one of my connecting flights was delayed but I still arrived on time?

No. EU 261 compensates the arrival delay at the final destination, not any individual leg in isolation. If a delayed first flight still let you make the connection — or your rerouting got you to the final destination within three hours of the original arrival time — there is no compensable delay under the Folkerts logic. See missed connection compensation for the full rules.

What if the flight was cancelled more than 14 days in advance?

No fixed compensation. You retain the right to choose freely between a full refund of the ticket (paid within seven days) and rerouting under comparable conditions. If the notice came less than 14 days before departure, compensation can be due, calibrated by the rerouting times set out in Article 5(1)(c)(ii)–(iii).

Is the 3-hour rule counted at departure or at arrival?

At arrival. What counts is how late you reached your final destination, not how late the aircraft pushed back. The CJEU settled this in the Sturgeon case (joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07, 2009). An aircraft can take off four hours late but still arrive under three hours late — and then no compensation is triggered.

How long do I have to file a claim in Poland?

Polish civil law applies — and the prescription period is generous compared with most EU member states. The CJEU in Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11, 2013) confirmed that national limitation rules govern EU 261 claims. In Poland this means you have well over a year to act; in practice, Polish lawyers and the RPP work on the basis of multi-year prescription. Do not wait, though — evidence (boarding passes, departure/arrival times, weather data) ages quickly.

Does it matter why the flight was delayed?

Yes, the cause is often what decides eligibility. Technical faults, missing crew and the airline's own staff strikes lie within the carrier's control and normally give rise to compensation (per Wallentin-Hermann, van der Lans and Krüsemann). Extreme weather, ATC strikes, bird strikes and safety decisions count as extraordinary circumstances and normally do not — but the duty of care (meals, refreshments, hotel where needed) always applies regardless of cause.

Sources and further reading:

• EUR-Lex — Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 (consolidated text)
• CJEU — Sturgeon and Others, joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07 (the 3-hour rule, delay measured at arrival)
• CJEU — Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07), van der Lans (C-257/14), Krüsemann (C-195/17) — what counts as an extraordinary circumstance
• Urząd Lotnictwa Cywilnego (ULC) — Rzecznik Praw Pasażerów — the supervisory authority and out-of-court mediator in Poland
• Polish Civil Code, Article 118 — prescription periods for civil claims

Last reviewed: June 2026.