Do award tickets qualify for EU261? Four regimes compared

One sentence in Article 3(3) pulls award tickets back in

Article 3(3) of Regulation (EC) 261/2004 has two sentences, and the second one settles the question. The first says the Regulation "shall not apply to passengers travelling free of charge or at a reduced fare not available directly or indirectly to the public." A ticket bought with miles is easy to read into that exclusion: nobody can buy the seat for cash on that fare, and the traveler may have paid nothing but taxes. The second sentence closes the gap: "However, it shall apply to passengers having tickets issued under a frequent flyer programme or other commercial programme by an air carrier or tour operator." The exclusion is aimed at fares that no member of the public can get, a fare sold only to airline staff, for instance. An award seat is the opposite case, since anyone who earns or buys miles can redeem them, and the Regulation names the arrangement.

The same words appear in the version of the Regulation that legislation.gov.uk publishes for the United Kingdom, where Article 3(3) survived Brexit untouched. The amending Regulation (EU) 2026/2202, published in the Official Journal on 2 October 2026, rewrites the article and states the rule more firmly: passengers with frequent flyer or other commercial programme tickets are carved out of the exclusion, and the Regulation applies to them fully. The sentence has now outlived a legislative overhaul on each side of the Channel.

What the sentence does not do matters as much. It never mentions miles, points or award tickets, and it says nothing about what happens to the miles themselves when a flight is cancelled. It also leaves the amount alone. Article 7(1) sets compensation at EUR 250 for flights of 1,500 km or less, EUR 400 for intra-Community flights over 1,500 km and for other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km, and EUR 600 for everything longer, with distances measured along the great circle route (Article 7(4)). Price does not appear anywhere in the article. A traveler who paid 30,000 miles and EUR 95 for a 5,889 km flight is owed the same EUR 600 as the traveler beside them who paid EUR 640 in cash.

Article 15(1) adds a safeguard that matters for award terms and conditions: obligations under the Regulation "may not be limited or waived, notably by a derogation or restrictive clause in the contract of carriage." A loyalty program's rule that award passengers have no claim for delays cannot override the Regulation where it applies, and Article 15(2) lets a passenger who accepted less because they were not correctly informed still go to the courts or competent bodies for the difference.

Four regimes on one page, as of November 3, 2026

Three of the four rows describe law in force today. The EU row has a second life, because the amending Regulation applies from 23 October 2027, and the cells say where it changes anything. The US row is the odd one out: it is a refund rule, not a compensation rule, and the only text of the four that mentions miles.

Two of the four texts name loyalty tickets and two do not. Silence is not exclusion, but it is not coverage either, and the sections below spell out exactly what Canada's regulations and the US rule do and do not say. For the EU row, the 2004 text stays the law for every disruption before 23 October 2027; the 2026 amendment does not reach back.

Scope comes first: which flights each regime reaches

Every regime starts from the flight, not the ticket. Article 3(1) of the EU text covers passengers departing from an airport in a Member State on any carrier, and passengers arriving from a third country only when the operating carrier is a Community carrier, unless they already received benefits, compensation and assistance in that third country. The UK text swaps in UK airports and adds UK carriers: departures from a UK airport on any carrier, arrivals into the UK from elsewhere when the operating carrier is a Community or UK air carrier, and flights into an EU Member State when the operating carrier is a UK air carrier. Canada's Act authorizes regulations for "flights to, from and within Canada, including connecting flights." US Part 260 reaches scheduled flights "to, from, or within the United States."

The table applies those rules to seven routes. Each row assumes the carrier licence stated in it.

The London to Toronto row is covered twice, and Canada's Act is written to stop a double payment. Section 86.11(3) says a person shall not receive compensation under the Canadian regulations if they have already received compensation for the same event under a different passenger rights regime, while APPR section 3(3) says a carrier may not refuse compensation merely because the passenger is also eligible under another regime. The UK text has its own overlap rule in Article 12(1): the compensation granted may be deducted from any further compensation the passenger is owed. File under the regime that suits the flight, and expect the carrier to ask whether another claim is open.

The Boston to Frankfurt rows show why the operator matters more than the program that issued the miles. A United States-licensed carrier flying that route sits outside EU261 entirely, award or cash, while the same seat on an EU-licensed carrier is inside it.

UK261: the same sentence, pounds, and a delay clause added in 2023

The UK version of the Regulation, as legislation.gov.uk publishes it, pays GBP 220 for flights of 1,500 km or less, GBP 350 for flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km, and GBP 520 for the rest (Article 7(1)). The intra-Community middle band that exists in the EU text is gone, so the band depends on distance alone. The 50 percent reduction for a late rerouting survives in Article 7(2), with thresholds of two, three and four hours by distance band. Payment is in cash, bank transfer, order or cheque, or, with the passenger's signed agreement, in travel vouchers or other services (Article 7(3)).

On delays the two texts took opposite routes. The 2004 EU Article 6 gives assistance for a delay but says nothing about compensation, and the right to EUR 250, 400 or 600 for a delay of three hours or more at arrival comes from the Court of Justice in Sturgeon v Condor and Böck v Air France (joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07, 19 November 2009), as recital 17 of the 2026 amending Regulation itself recalls. The UK wrote the rule down. Statutory Instrument 2023/1370 inserted Article 6(3) from 14 December 2023: "In case of a delay of three hours or more in reaching the final destination, the passengers concerned have the right to compensation laid down in Article 7." Article 6(4) adds the extraordinary-circumstances defence. Article 2(n) fixes the clock: arrival time is when passengers are permitted to exit the aircraft at the final destination.

Two other UK insertions from the same instrument touch award itineraries. Article 3(1A) treats a flight made of more than one leg as a whole if it was booked as a single unit, and as departing from the first leg's point of departure. Articles 3(7) to 3(9) say a claim is not a damages claim under the Montreal Convention and send the time limit to section 9 of the Limitation Act 1980.

As to status, legislation.gov.uk reports no known outstanding effects on the UK text. A separate Bill is before Parliament: the Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill [HL], whose long title covers the protection of purchasers and users of air transport and airport services. It passed the House of Lords on 20 July 2026, had its Commons second reading on 9 September and its Commons committee stage on 20 and 22 October 2026, and on 3 November 2026 stood at Commons report stage with no report sitting shown. It is not yet an Act (UK Parliament Bills API, last updated 29 October 2026). A Regulatory Policy Committee opinion dated 6 August 2025 on the Department for Transport's options assessment for the Bill describes a proposal to restore powers to make and amend air passenger rights rules by secondary legislation. That description comes from the 2025 opinion, and the Bill's clauses are not summarized here. A power to change the rules later would not itself change them, and no UK amount or threshold has moved.

The EU amending Regulation: signed 16 September 2026, applies from 23 October 2027

The long-running revision of Regulation 261/2004 ended in conciliation. The European Parliament approved the joint text on 7 July 2026, the Council adopted it on 13 July, the act was signed on 16 September, and it was published as Regulation (EU) 2026/2202 on 2 October 2026 (European Parliament Legislative Observatory, procedure 2013/0072(COD)). It enters into force on the twentieth day after publication, 22 October 2026, and applies from 23 October 2027. Until that date the 2004 text and the Court of Justice's reading of it govern every disruption.

The amounts did not move. Article 7(1) of the new text keeps EUR 250, EUR 400 and EUR 600 on the same distance bands. Earlier positions in the procedure would have changed that: the Parliament's second-reading position of January 2026 proposed EUR 300, 400 and 600, and the Council's position proposed amounts between EUR 300 and 500 with delay thresholds of four to six hours, according to the Observatory's summary. None of that survived. The three-hour arrival threshold is now written into Article 6(4), in the words "a delay at arrival exceeding three hours," and the frequent flyer rule is kept as Article 3(3)(a).

For a traveler holding an award, the new procedure matters more than the new numbers. Article 7(9) sets a claim window of nine months from the actual date of departure shown on the ticket, requires the carrier to acknowledge the request, and gives it 30 calendar days to pay or to justify not paying, naming the extraordinary circumstance it relies on. Article 7(4) requires the carrier to send, within 96 hours of the end of the journey, information on the right to compensation and instructions on how to claim. Article 7(7) makes electronic bank transfer the default, with other means only if the passenger explicitly agrees on a durable medium, and Article 8a makes vouchers voluntary. The 2004 text sets no claim deadline at all, so the nine-month window is a new constraint, not an inherited one.

Two details bear directly on miles tickets. Article 3(2) now requires only "a ticket for the flight concerned"; the old check-in condition is gone. And the reimbursement clause in Article 8(1)(a) promises "automatic reimbursement within seven calendar days" of "the full price of the tickets and the intermediation fees," by bank transfer unless the passenger agrees otherwise. The word miles appears nowhere in the Regulation, so what "full price" means for a ticket bought with 30,000 miles is a question the text leaves open. Article 7(2) lets the carrier cut the EUR 600 band in half, to EUR 300, when the arrival is no more than four hours late, whether the passenger was rerouted or simply arrived late on the original flight.

Canada: what the APPR text says about tickets, and what it leaves out

The Air Passenger Protection Regulations define very little. Section 1(1) defines two terms used in Part II of the Act, mechanical malfunction and required for safety purposes. Section 1(2) defines the Act, arrival, large carrier and small carrier. Ticket and passenger are not defined, and the words loyalty, frequent flyer, points, miles and reward do not appear anywhere in the text. The regulations use "ticket" mainly as a reference point, as in the destination "indicated on the original ticket," and in the duty to "refund the ticket."

Liability follows the operator. Under section 2(1) the carrier operating a flight answers to passengers for sections 7 to 22 and 24. Section 2(2) makes two carriers jointly liable when one carries passengers for another under a commercial agreement, but only for sections 7, 22 and 24, none of which is a compensation or refund section. Section 2(3) makes the issuing carrier of a ticket liable for sections 5 and 6, the duties to publish terms and conditions and to see that ticket sellers do the same. So for a partner award, the compensation claim sits with the airline flying the plane.

The compensation rules are narrower than Europe's. A large carrier owes CAD 400 when the arrival at the destination on the original ticket is three to under six hours late, CAD 700 for six to under nine, and CAD 1,000 for nine or more; a small carrier owes CAD 125, 250 or 500 (section 19), except that under section 1(4) a small carrier carrying passengers on behalf of a large carrier under a commercial agreement has the same obligations as the large carrier, which matters on itineraries with a regional partner leg. But that applies only when the delay or cancellation is within the carrier's control and not required for safety (section 12), and for compensation under paragraphs 12(2)(d) and (3)(d) the passenger must have been told 14 days or less before departure. Where the cause is outside the carrier's control, section 10 gives alternate travel arrangements or a refund and no compensation. A passenger must file before the first anniversary of the delay or cancellation, and the carrier has 30 days to pay or explain (section 19(3) and (4)). Compensation must be paid in money unless the carrier offers a non-expiring form worth more, tells the passenger the monetary value in writing, and the passenger confirms the choice in writing (section 21).

The refund provisions assume a ticket with a monetary value. Sections 17 and 18 require a carrier to "refund the unused portion of the ticket" or the whole ticket, and section 18.2(1) says refunds go to the person who purchased the ticket, "using the method used for the original payment," unless that person was informed in writing of "the monetary value of the original ticket" and chose another non-expiring form in writing. Nothing carves out a ticket bought with points, and the compensation formula never looks at price, so the text gives no reason an award would pay less. But no provision says a points ticket is covered, and none describes a refund in miles. Coverage of award tickets under the APPR is a question the text does not answer, and anyone claiming should expect to argue it from the structure of sections 2, 12, 19 and 18.2 rather than from a line that names them.

All of this describes the regulations as they stand. The Justice Laws Website lists amendments to the Canada Transportation Act from 2023 (S.C. 2023, c. 26, sections 460 to 465) as not in force. Section 465 would add a power to specify exceptions to the minimum-compensation obligation, and section 460 would presume an exception does not apply unless the carrier proves it. If those provisions are brought into force and the regulations rewritten, the three-way split between situations within, outside and safety-related control, and with it the strike contrast in the section on extraordinary circumstances, would change. The Canadian Transportation Agency also pre-published proposed amendments to the regulations in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on December 21, 2024 (volume 158, number 51). Its impact analysis statement says that for all flight delays or cancellations an air carrier "must provide compensation for inconvenience to an entitled passenger, except when the disruption was due to an exceptional circumstance", and the proposed list of exceptional circumstances includes "a labour dispute involving the carrier or an essential service provider". The Justice Laws consolidation current to October 19, 2026 shows no amendment since September 8, 2022, so the regulations described above are the ones in force.

United States: a refund right with a named form of payment, and no delay compensation

Part 260 applies to covered carriers and to flights to, from or within the United States. Section 260.6(a) requires a covered carrier that is the merchant of record to give "a full and prompt refund of the airfare, including any taxes and ancillary fees" to a consumer holding a nonrefundable ticket when a flight is cancelled, or significantly delayed or changed, and the consumer chooses not to fly the new flight or accept rebooking or a voucher. Section 260.2 defines a significant delay by hours: a scheduled departure three hours or more earlier than the original, or a scheduled arrival three hours or more later, on a domestic itinerary, and six hours on an international one, plus a different airport, an extra connection point or a downgrade in class of service. Section 260.6(a)(2) makes the refund automatic in the cases it lists, which the definitions describe as a refund issued without waiting for an explicit request.

Section 260.10 is the only line in the four texts that mentions miles. A refund must be issued "in the original form of payment (i.e., money is returned to an individual using whatever payment method the individual used to make the original payment, such as a check, credit card, debit card, cash, or airline miles)," unless the consumer agrees to a cash equivalent, and carriers may not keep a processing fee. The guide to airline-initiated changes on award tickets walks through how that works on a real award, including why miles refunded to an airline program do not travel back to the bank that supplied the points. One timing detail sits in the definitions: a prompt refund means 7 business days for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for cash, check, debit card or other forms, and the text does not say which bucket a miles refund falls into.

What Part 260 is not: a rule that pays for delay. On December 11, 2024, the Department of Transportation issued an advance notice on airline passenger rights that considered cash compensation, free rebooking and meals and lodging for significant disruptions. It withdrew that notice on November 17, 2025 (90 FR 51230, RIN 2105-AF20), reading section 512 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 as authorizing it to direct carriers to establish reimbursement policies for lodging, transportation to it and meals, and not to require compensation. The notice records that the ten largest US carriers keep voluntary commitments in their customer service plans, that all ten guarantee a meal and free rebooking on their own airline for controllable disruptions, that nine guarantee hotel and ground transportation for controllable overnight delays, and that four have committed to compensation in credits, vouchers or frequent flyer miles. Those are airline promises recorded on the Department's dashboard, not rights an award passenger can enforce under a regulation.

Part 260 itself is stable on delays. The eCFR shows no change to it since August 12, 2024, and the Department's only later actions are notices of enforcement discretion, most recently on July 7, 2026 (91 FR 41556), which pauses enforcement until July 7, 2027 for flights that are merely renumbered while it completes a pending rulemaking on the definition of a cancelled flight. The notice describes that rulemaking (Refund III, RIN 2105-AF36) as aiming, among other things, to modify the definition of a flight cancellation that entitles consumers to a refund. It does not say the three-hour and six-hour delay thresholds or the original-form-of-payment rule are under review, and a flight number change that comes with a significant delay still carries the refund right.

Who pays when the miles came from one program and the seat from another

In every regime that pays compensation, the payer is the carrier flying the plane. The EU text defines the operating air carrier as the one that performs the flight "under a contract with a passenger or on behalf of another person" who has that contract (Article 2(b)), and Article 3(5) applies the Regulation to "any operating air carrier" and says that a carrier with no contract with the passenger performs its duties on behalf of the person who has one. The UK text is identical on both points. The amending Regulation says it more briefly: "Unless otherwise specified, the operating air carrier shall be responsible for meeting the obligations pursuant to this Regulation." Canada's section 2(1) points the same way.

Take an award issued by one program on a flight operated by another carrier. A delay compensation claim for a Frankfurt departure goes to the operating carrier, with the booking reference and e-ticket number from the issuing program as proof of the contract. Article 13 protects the operating carrier's right to seek reimbursement "from a tour operator or another person with whom the operating air carrier has a contract," which leaves the carriers free to settle a partner arrangement between themselves.

The awkward piece is the ticket itself. Article 8 puts the offer of reimbursement on the operating carrier, but the miles sit in the issuing program's ledger. None of the four texts spells out how the two fit together. In practice the issuing program's own terms decide whether miles are redeposited, which taxes and fees come back, and whether a partner cancellation triggers the program's fees; the guide to cancelling an award flight sets out several programs' rules, and the guide to taxes and surcharges on awards covers the cash side. Bank points add one more layer: no regime mentions the bank that transferred the points, so a refund lands in the airline program and does not return to the issuer.

What comes back when the ticket was paid in miles

The reimbursement wording differs across the four texts, and only one of them contains the word miles. The table quotes the operative phrase from each.

Only the US text tells an airline to put miles back as miles. The other three speak of the price at which the ticket was bought or the method used to pay for it. An airline that redeposits miles and refunds the cash taxes is plainly acting within that language, since the original payment was in miles, but the EU and UK texts do not say so, and a program that offered the cash value of the miles instead would be making a choice the text does not clearly forbid or require. The practical protection is in the consent rules: the EU's current text lets the airline use vouchers or other services only with a signed agreement, the 2026 text requires explicit consent on a durable medium, and Canada requires a written confirmation. Do not click acceptance on a voucher offered in place of miles unless the voucher is what you want.

Downgrades are a second place where price matters. Article 10(2) of the EU text reimburses 30, 50 or 75 percent of "the price of the ticket," by distance band, when the carrier seats a passenger in a lower class than the one booked. A business award flown in economy raises the same unanswered question about what the price of an award is.

Where the hours start counting

Thresholds read alike at a glance and differ in the details. The table puts the triggers for a payment or a refund side by side, with the notice line that can defeat a cancellation claim.

The wording gap in the middle rows can decide a claim. The UK text pays at "three hours or more" and the 2026 EU text at "exceeding three hours." A delay of exactly three hours at the arrival gate would qualify in London and, on a literal reading, fall short in Frankfurt after October 2027. Real delays rarely land on the minute, but the time on the airport board and the time the doors opened can differ. Screenshot both.

Extraordinary circumstances and the same strike with two outcomes

None of the exceptions asks how the ticket was paid for, so an award holder loses a claim for exactly the reasons a cash buyer does. The EU defence is in Article 5(3): no compensation if the carrier "can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken." Recital 14 of the 2004 text gives political instability, weather incompatible with the flight, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes affecting the operating carrier as examples. The UK text defines the term in Article 2(o), including an air traffic management decision that could not have been avoided.

The 2026 amendment replaces case-law guesswork with a list. Article 6c(2) puts the burden on the carrier to prove a direct causal link between the event and the disruption and that it took all reasonable measures, and Article 7(9) requires the carrier to name which listed circumstance it relies on. The Annex covers natural and environmental disasters, weather incompatible with safe operation, war, serious cross-border health threats, unruly passenger incidents, sabotage and terrorism, hidden manufacturing defects revealed by the manufacturer or an authority, air traffic management restrictions beyond the carrier's control, airport closures, and strikes at essential service providers such as airports, air navigation and ground handlers. Strikes at the operating carrier itself count only if they "originate from demands that only public authorities can satisfy."

Canada draws the line elsewhere. Section 10(1) lists situations outside the carrier's control, and item (j) is "a labour disruption within the carrier or within an essential service provider such as an airport or an air navigation service provider." Under the regulations as they stand today, a strike by the airline's own crew is therefore outside its control, and a late flight caused by it pays no compensation. Under the 2026 EU Annex the same strike is generally not extraordinary. Section 11 separately covers delays within the carrier's control but required for safety, a category the Act says includes mechanical malfunctions (section 86.11(1)(b)(ii)), and neither section 10 nor section 11 leads to compensation. Only section 12, within control and not required for safety, does.

Connections, single tickets and separate bookings

Award itineraries often stitch several carriers into one ticket, and the regimes treat a single booking as one unit. The amending Regulation defines a journey as "a flight or connecting flights transporting the passenger from the initial point of departure to the passenger's final destination in accordance with a single air transport contract," and Article 7(5) measures distance between the initial departure and the final destination only. Recital 8 recalls Wegener v Royal Air Maroc (C-537/17), where the Court held the Regulation applies to a part of any flight within one journey, wherever that flight took place. Article 6b makes the operating carrier of the disrupted flight responsible for rerouting and care when a connection is missed, and for compensation when the final arrival is more than three hours late. The UK's Article 3(1A) does the same job for UK law.

Separate bookings break the chain. A cash ticket to a gateway city plus a different award from the gateway are two contracts, and a delay on the first leg is not a disruption of the second. The traveler whose positioning flight runs late faces the award program's no-show rules, not a compensation claim; the guide to missed award flights covers what each program does in that case. The first flight can still earn compensation on its own if it falls inside a regime, but it will be measured on its own distance and its own delay.

Distance, not the number of legs, sets the band. A Madrid to Frankfurt flight of about 1,420 km pays EUR 250 on a three-hour delay, whatever the ticket cost. A Frankfurt to Boston flight of about 5,889 km pays EUR 600. The two figures tell a points traveler where the money is: long-haul legs, not short positioning hops.

What EUR 600 is worth against the ticket you paid for

Compensation is flat by distance, so it covers very different shares of different tickets. The table uses assumed prices for one transatlantic flight in two cabins, bought with cash or with miles. These are arithmetic illustrations, not quotes or live award space.

Cents per mile are the cash fare less the fees that survive, divided by the miles. The EUR 600 column shows the share of the cash fare, and the last column shows the traveler's cash position once EUR 600 arrives: the cash they paid less EUR 600, so a cash ticket leaves them out of pocket by the difference, and an award leaves them ahead by EUR 600 less the EUR 95 in fees.

The business rows are the instructive ones. EUR 600 is 15.4 percent of a EUR 3,900 cabin, so the money is not what makes a long-haul premium award delay worth chasing. What matters in that cabin is what Article 8 and Article 10 promise around the money: rerouting "under comparable transport conditions," and a partial refund if the carrier seats you lower than the cabin you booked. The same flat amount that nearly repays an economy cash fare is a small slice of a business ticket, and on the award version the 80,000 miles are the real exposure.

In the economy award, the cash outlay was only EUR 95 in taxes and fees, so EUR 600 more than covers the cash the traveler spent, while the 30,000 miles are a sunk cost valued at EUR 545 on the cash comparison. Valued that way, the traveler has recovered EUR 600 against EUR 640 of total value spent, 93.8 percent, the same share the cash buyer recovers. The amount is neutral on payment method; only the traveler's own view of what a mile cost changes how the result feels.

Claim windows and who may file

The windows differ more than the amounts. The 2004 EU text sets no claim deadline. Article 16 separately requires each Member State to designate an enforcement body, and a passenger may complain to any such body about an infringement at an airport in the EU. The UK text sends the time limit to section 9 of the Limitation Act 1980 (Article 3(9)). The 2026 amendment sets nine months from the actual date of departure on the ticket, with a 30-day answer. Canada requires a request before the first anniversary of the delay or cancellation, and a carrier answer within 30 days (section 19(3) and (4)). In the US, an automatic refund needs no request, because "automatic refund" is defined as one issued without waiting for an explicit refund request.

A passenger may use a claims company, but none of the four texts requires one. Article 7(9) of the amending Regulation expressly lets a third party submit a request on a passenger's behalf and allows the carrier to ask for proof of a valid mandate. Whoever files, the carrier needs the same things: the booking reference, the e-ticket number, the flight number and date, the scheduled and actual arrival times, and the reason the carrier gave.

For an award, add the issuing program's confirmation alongside the e-ticket number. It shows the carrier that the ticket was issued under a frequent flyer programme, which is the wording of Article 3(3). Fees charged by a claims company are a matter between the passenger and the company; none of these texts limits them.

Reimburse, reroute or fly late: the order of decisions on an award

The first question is the route table: does one of the four regimes reach this flight at all? If none does, the program's own terms are all that remain. The second is the clock: how late did the flight arrive or how soon was the cancellation notified? The third is the cause. Only then does the choice between refund, reroute and flying late arise.

Under the EU and UK texts, reimbursement and compensation are separate rights. Article 5(1) lists assistance under Article 8 (reimbursement or rerouting) and compensation under Article 7 as distinct consequences of a cancellation, so choosing a refund of the ticket does not by itself forfeit the cash payment. Canada reaches a similar result in section 19(2), a fixed CAD 400 for large carriers or CAD 125 for small ones when the ticket is refunded after a within-control cancellation. The US has no compensation to preserve.

A self-arranged reroute is where award travelers meet the unanswered question again. Under the 2026 text, if the carrier has not offered a comparable reroute within three hours of the passenger's choice, the passenger may book their own, limited to expenses that are necessary, reasonable and appropriate, and the carrier reimburses them up to 400 percent of the full price of the ticket (Article 8(3)). A ticket whose price is 30,000 miles and EUR 95 has no obvious full price for that cap, which is a reason to keep every receipt and ask for the cap in writing.

Finally, do not cancel the award yourself in the program's app before the airline has recorded its own cancellation, because a voluntary cancellation follows the program's fee rules, set out in the cancellation guide, and not the airline-initiated rules above. If a program's agent offers a reroute that you decline, say so in writing and ask for the miles back and the compensation form in the same message.

The record to build before the plane lands

Disruption claims turn on timestamps and paperwork that disappear within hours. At the gate, photograph the departure board with the original and the new time, screenshot the airline app notification, and note when the doors opened at the destination. Keep the boarding passes and the e-ticket receipt showing the ticket number. For a cancellation, save the message that tells you about it with the date sent, since the 14-day and one-week lines run from the moment you were informed, and the burden of proving when rests with the carrier.

Status credit is a separate ledger from compensation, and which award tickets earn miles or status shows where each program draws that line. For a trip into Europe, the Europe award planning guide covers the booking side that comes before any disruption, and the points rules hub collects the other rules that decide what an award is worth once the trip goes wrong.

The next page to open depends on what the airline just did. If it cancelled and you want the miles back, the program-by-program redeposit rules show what each program charges and what it returns, which is the half of the question that none of the four regimes answers. Expenses during a long delay are a separate ledger again: what card trip delay insurance says about a flight booked with points quotes the wording from three issuer documents.

Papers to have in hand when you file

• Confirm the regime from the route table: departure airport, operating carrier and its licence, not the program that issued the miles.
• Record the scheduled and actual arrival times, with screenshots, and note when the doors opened.
• Keep the booking reference, the e-ticket number and the award program confirmation together in one folder.
• Save the cancellation message and the time it was sent; the carrier has to prove when you were told.
• Decline any voucher offered in place of miles or compensation unless a voucher is what you want.
• File with the operating carrier, in writing, for compensation; ask the issuing program separately for the miles and taxes.
• Note the claim deadline for your regime: nine months under the 2026 EU text, one year under the APPR.