Cancelled flights at Birmingham Airport: know your rights

When a flight is cancelled, deal with the airline first, because it is the airline, not the airport, that owes you a refund, a seat on another flight, and care while you wait. Speak to its desk or app straight away: the earlier you ask, the better the choice of alternative flights. If the airport is in the middle of wide disruption and staff are stretched, you have the right to arrange reasonable care yourself (a meal, a nearby hotel if you are stuck overnight) and claim it back later, so keep every receipt and do not overspend. These rules come from UK law (the retained EU261 regulation), and they apply to any flight leaving Birmingham and to flights back to Birmingham on a UK or EU airline.

A cancellation gives you two options, and you choose between them. You can take a full refund of the parts of your ticket you have not used, paid within seven days by the original payment method (an airline can offer a voucher, but it cannot force one on you in place of cash). Or you can take a rebooking onto another flight to your destination, either at the earliest opportunity or on a later date that suits you. If you are already part-way through a journey and the cancellation makes it pointless to carry on, you can be flown back to your original departure point as well.

The rebooking does not have to be on the same airline: if a rival gets you there sooner, the airline should book you onto it. In practice you may have to be firm about that, so it helps to arrive at the desk already knowing the alternatives.

Separately from any refund or compensation, the airline must look after you while you wait for the rebooked flight. That right to care starts after 2 hours for short flights (under 1,500km), 3 hours for medium ones (1,500 to 3,500km) and 4 hours for long-haul (over 3,500km), and it covers food and drink appropriate to the wait, a means to communicate, and, if you are delayed overnight, a hotel and transport to it. This care is owed regardless of what caused the cancellation, so you keep it even when compensation is ruled out by bad weather or a strike. Airlines usually hand out vouchers or book the hotel for you; if they cannot, buy what is reasonable and claim it back, keeping receipts and avoiding alcohol and luxury spending, which they will not reimburse.

Compensation is separate again, and it is not automatic. Two tests decide it. First, notice: you can only claim if you were told less than 14 days before departure. Second, fault: the cancellation has to be something within the airline's control. Problems it could have avoided (crewing, most technical faults, overbooking) qualify; genuine extraordinary circumstances (extreme weather, air traffic control or airport strikes, security alerts) do not.

When both tests are met, the amount is fixed by the flight distance, per person:

• £220 for flights under 1,500km (the nearer European destinations, such as Dublin, Amsterdam or Paris).
• £350 for flights between 1,500km and 3,500km.
• £520 for flights over 3,500km (the Gulf, India, the Caribbean).

On the longest flights the sum drops to £260 if the airline rebooks you and you still reach your destination only three to four hours late. Claim from the airline first, in writing, quoting the flight and the reason. If it refuses and you believe you qualify, you can take the claim to the Civil Aviation Authority or the airline's approved dispute-resolution body. You do not need a claims company, and you should never pay one a percentage of a fixed sum you can claim yourself for free.

If the flight is delayed rather than cancelled, the picture is close but not identical. The same right to care applies on the same 2, 3 and 4-hour thresholds. If the delay reaches 5 hours you can abandon the trip and take a refund instead. And if you still travel but arrive at your destination more than 3 hours late, the same £220 to £520 compensation applies (again halved to £260 on the longest flights when you land three to four hours late), subject to the same fault test. The live picture of what is delayed sits on the boards, not here.

To see whether your flight is running, use the departures board for a flight you are catching or the arrivals board for one you are meeting; a delay or a cancellation shows on the board as it happens. This guide stays put whatever today's schedule looks like: it is here for the rights, not the running order. If you are collecting someone whose flight has gone wrong, the arrivals guide also covers where to wait.