Denied boarding: overbooking and what you are owed

If you hold a valid ticket and a confirmed reservation, checked in on time, and were still refused boarding, compensation is due immediately. Unlike delays and cancellations, there is no three-hour wait.

More importantly: the extraordinary circumstances defence does not apply here. Weather, strikes, operational problems — none of them release the airline from paying.

The short answer

UK261 uses £220, £350 and £520. If the airline reroutes you onto a flight arriving close to your original time, the amount can be halved: within two hours on short flights, three on medium, four on long.

Volunteers are asked first

When an airline expects to have more passengers than seats, it must first call for volunteers to give up their reservations in exchange for benefits agreed with them: cash, a voucher, miles, accommodation.

Here is what matters. Volunteering gives up your right to the fixed compensation. What you negotiate is what you get. The first offer is usually low and is negotiable — you are not obliged to trade a €600 entitlement for a €200 voucher.

Even as a volunteer you keep the choice between a refund and rerouting. That sits on top of whatever you negotiated, not instead of it.

If not enough volunteers come forward

The airline may then deny boarding against your will. When it does, it owes you three separate things:

1. Cash compensation — the table above, paid immediately
2. A choice — a full refund within seven days, or rerouting at the earliest opportunity
3. Care — meals and communications, plus a hotel and transfers if you're kept overnight

These are cumulative. Putting you on the next flight does not discharge the compensation.

Not just overbooking

Contrary to common belief, these rights are not limited to oversold flights. In C-22/11 (Finnair v Lassooy) the Court held that a passenger denied boarding because of schedule changes made after a strike was still entitled to compensation.

So operational reasons, aircraft swaps and scheduling decisions are all covered. "It wasn't overbooking" is not, on its own, a defence.

When the airline is entitled to refuse you

Denied boarding does not always produce a claim. Reasonable grounds remove the entitlement:

• Inadequate travel documents — visa, passport validity, transit visa
• Health grounds, where you're assessed as unfit to fly
• Safety or security grounds
• Failing to check in on time — by the stated deadline, or 45 minutes before departure if none was given

Being turned away over the six-month passport validity rule falls squarely into this category and pays nothing.

What to do

1. Ask for the reason in writing. A verbal explanation at the gate is worth nothing later.
2. Keep your boarding pass and booking record. Evidence that you checked in on time is the decisive document.
3. Do the maths before volunteering. If the voucher is worth less than your entitlement, decline.
4. Accepting rerouting does not affect compensation. If the airline ties the two together, push back.
5. Escalate if refused — to the national enforcement body of the departure country, the CAA in the UK, or the DGCA in Türkiye.

Sources

• Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, articles 2(j), 4 and 7
• SHY-YOLCU regulation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Türkiye
• Court of Justice of the EU, C-22/11 Finnair v Lassooy — denied boarding is not confined to overbooking

This article is for information only and is not legal advice. For an actual dispute, rely on the current text of the applicable regulation.