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Airline Ignoring Your Compensation Claim? Here's How to Force a Reply

You sent the claim. You got the auto-reply with a reference number. Then — nothing. Weeks pass. Your follow-ups vanish into the same void. This isn't incompetence. Silence is one of the cheapest claim-denial strategies an airline has: a meaningful share of passengers simply give up. Here's how to make giving up their problem instead.

First: how long is "too long"?

Airlines don't owe you an instant answer, but the norms are clear:

  • EU/UK: most National Enforcement Bodies consider 6 weeks a reasonable response time. Past that, you're entitled to escalate.
  • US: DOT rules require airlines to acknowledge consumer complaints within 30 days and respond substantively within 60 days.
  • Your claim letter should have set its own deadline — 14 days is standard practice. If you didn't set one, set one now in a follow-up.

If you're past these windows with no substantive reply (an auto-reply doesn't count), stop waiting and start climbing.

Step 1: The "final notice" letter

Before escalating externally, send one crisp final notice. This letter exists to create a paper trail — every regulator and court below will ask "did you give the airline a final chance?" Keep it short:

  • Reference your original claim (date, reference number, flight number).
  • Note the days elapsed without a substantive response.
  • State the regulation (EU261 / UK261) and the amount owed.
  • Give a final 14-day deadline.
  • State plainly what happens next: complaint to the National Enforcement Body / AviationADR / DOT, and court action if necessary.

Send it to the same channel as the original claim and, if you can find it, the airline's customer-relations postal address. Keep copies of everything. Our claim letter guide has the structure; the final notice follows the same bones with a harder edge.

Step 2: The National Enforcement Body (EU/UK)

Every EU country has a National Enforcement Body (NEB) for air passenger rights — usually the civil aviation authority. The UK's is the CAA (via its PACT service). Filing is free. You file in the country of departure (or the airline's home country for arrivals).

What the NEB does: investigates whether the airline breached the regulation and can sanction it. What it doesn't always do: order your payment directly — enforcement practice varies by country. But here's why it works anyway: airlines track NEB referral volumes, and a referral on your file changes the economics of ignoring you. Claims that reach NEB level get settled far more often than claims that don't. Find your NEB via the EU's official NEB list.

Step 3: Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

In the UK, many airlines are signed up to an approved ADR scheme — AviationADR or CEDR. Filing is free for passengers, the process is mostly online, and decisions can bind the airline (check the scheme's terms for your carrier). This is the step airlines genuinely dislike: it's cheap for you, expensive for them to contest, and the adjudicators know EU261 case law cold.

Check whether your airline is in a scheme at aviationadr.org.uk or cedr.com. If it isn't, the CAA's PACT service is the fallback route.

Step 4: DOT complaint (US)

For US itineraries, file an air travel consumer complaint with the DOT. Be clear-eyed about what it does: the DOT forwards your complaint to the airline (which must respond), logs it, and uses complaint volumes to spot patterns for enforcement. It doesn't order your individual payment. But a DOT complaint on file transforms you from "ignorable email" into "federal record" — and airlines' executive customer-relations teams monitor these.

Step 5: Small claims court — the step that ends silence

Here's the open secret of flight compensation: airlines settle the overwhelming majority of small-claims filings before the hearing. Defending a €600 claim costs them a lawyer's day rate — the math doesn't work, especially when the case law (Sturgeon on the 3-hour rule, Wallentin-Hermann on technical faults) is settled against them.

  • UK: Money Claim Online — £35–£115 fee depending on amount, recoverable if you win.
  • EU: the European Small Claims Procedure covers cross-border claims up to €5,000 with standardized forms.
  • US: state small-claims courts for refund and contract disputes.

You don't need a lawyer. You need your booking confirmation, proof of the delay, your unanswered claim letters (this is why the paper trail matters), and the regulation text. Our escalation guide covers the full ladder in order.

How to document the silence (your paper trail is the weapon)

Every escalation step above works better with a clean record. From today:

  • Log every contact: date, channel (email/form/phone), reference number, what you sent, what they said. A simple dated list beats a folder of unsorted emails.
  • Prefer writing over phone. Phone agents can promise things that vanish. If you must call, follow up with an email: "Per our call today at [time], you confirmed [X]." Now it's in writing.
  • Screenshot the claim portal. Airlines' online claim trackers sometimes "lose" submissions or reset status. Screenshot your submission confirmation and the status page every couple of weeks — "payment in progress" for three months is evidence, not progress.
  • Keep the auto-replies. They prove the airline received your claim, which kills the later "we have no record of your complaint" defense.

This file is what makes NEB complaints and small-claims filings nearly automatic: "Claim filed [date]. Auto-reply received [date]. Final notice sent [date]. No substantive response in [X] days." Adjudicators see dozens of these; the documented ones win.

When to skip straight to court

The ladder above is the standard route, but two situations justify going directly to small claims:

  • The limitation deadline is approaching. Filing a court claim stops the clock; waiting for ADR doesn't always. If you're within months of the deadline (see our deadline guide), file first and negotiate later.
  • The airline has a documented pattern of ignoring NEB/ADR outcomes. Some ultra-low-cost carriers treat ADR as optional. Check forums for your airline's name + "ADR" — if the pattern is clear, save yourself the months and file.

Either way, the economics favor you: filing fees are small (£35–£115 in the UK, similar in most EU small-claims procedures), recoverable on winning, and airlines settle the vast majority before a hearing because defending costs them more than paying.

The honest part: every step above works, but each one costs the airline more than the last — which is exactly why most claims settle at step 2 or 3. The passengers who get paid aren't the ones with the strongest cases. They're the ones who didn't stop at the silence. The airline's entire strategy is attrition. Refuse to attrit.

Don't make these mistakes

  • Don't re-send the same email weekly. One final notice, then escalate. Repeated identical emails just train their filters.
  • Don't accept a voucher to "close" the silence. A voucher isn't compensation — see our voucher vs. cash guide.
  • Don't let them restart the clock. "We're still investigating" for the fourth month isn't a response. Escalate anyway.
  • Don't go to a claims company out of frustration. That's exactly the moment AirHelp wants — 35% of your money for doing what the steps above do free.

Our free eligibility checker confirms your flight qualifies and what you're owed. The $29 AirClaimKit includes the final-notice template, the NEB/ADR filing walkthrough, and the small-claims checklist — everything above, done for you, with 100% of the compensation staying yours.

NEB procedures per Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Article 16. UK ADR via CAA-approved schemes (AviationADR, CEDR). US DOT complaint handling per 14 CFR 259.5 (30/60-day response rules). Last verified October 2026.