EU261 Claim Company Fees Compared 2026: What Each Service Takes From a €600 Claim
On a €600 EU261 claim you keep between €336 and €457 when the airline settles — and between €300 and €360 once the case goes to court. Headline fees run from 20% to 44% and look like a real choice. They are not. The moment lawyers are involved, four of the five services converge on taking half, and only Compensair's 40% cap breaks the pattern.
What each service takes from €600
| Service | Score | Standard fee | Keep — settled | Keep — court |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claim it yourself | — | 0% | €600 | €600 less your own costs |
| AirHelp | 88 | 35% incl. VAT | €390 | €300 (50% all-in) |
| AirAdvisor | 83 | 30% incl. VAT | €420 | €300 (50% all-in) |
| Flightright | 81 | 20–30% + 19% VAT | €386–€457 | €286–€357 (~49% at 27%) |
| Compensair | 79 | 30% + 10% legal | €420 | €360 (40% all-in) |
| Skycop | 67 | Fixed €264 (44%) | €336 | €300 (50% all-in) |
AirHelp+ is the one route that escapes the table: members pay no service fee and no legal action fee, so they keep €600 in both columns, in exchange for an annual subscription of $32.99 to $99.99 on the worldwide plans. It is priced below in the ledger.
The full track is the €600 you are owed. The filled bar is what lands in your account. The gap is the fee.
Claiming direct fills the track completely: €600, no fee, no deduction. Every figure is repeated as text in the table above.
The finding: headline fees diverge, court fees converge
The market advertises a 24-point spread and delivers, in the cases that actually need a service, near-uniformity. AirHelp litigated: 50%. AirAdvisor litigated: 50%. Skycop litigated: 50%. Flightright, once its 14% solicitor surcharge and 19% German VAT land on a 27% base, lands at roughly 49%. Only Compensair's 10-point legal fee — capping the all-in at 40% — clearly undercuts the pack.
That is not a conspiracy, it is arithmetic. The thing being priced in the court column is identical everywhere: external lawyers, court fees, and the risk of losing, all advanced by the company and recovered only on a win. The advertised fee is a marketing number attached to the easy cases — the ones you could largely have handled yourself for free. The litigated column is the price of the thing you are genuinely buying: someone else's lawyers, someone else's court fees, someone else's patience.
Choose a service the way you would choose a litigator, not a discount code: on enforcement reach in the jurisdiction of your airline, not on three points of headline fee that evaporate the moment the airline says no. And if the airline was never going to say no — claim it yourself and keep all €600.
The ledger, service by service
Worked on the €600 long-haul maximum under EU261. "Settled" means the airline pays after the service's demand, with no court. "Court" means legal proceedings were required. All of them are no-win, no-fee: recover nothing, pay nothing.
If the airline pays, nothing beats free. Our step-by-step claim guide takes about twenty minutes, and how easy it really is sets expectations honestly. Escalate to a service only if the airline stalls or refuses.
Claim it yourself, step by step →Not the cheapest headline — but the litigated all-in of 50% matches or beats most cheaper-looking rivals once their surcharges land, and AirHelp's litigation capacity is what a resisting airline actually respects. Its price list is also the clearest in the category: one document, VAT included, no per-country surprises. Full assessment in our AirHelp review.
Check your flight on AirHelp — free →Members keep 100% of any compensation. Worldwide plans are $32.99 for Lite, $42.99 for Smart and $99.99 for Pro, with a single-trip option at $22.99; US plans are $179.99 for Comfort and $249.99 for Pro. One successful €600 claim saves €210 in fees — around five times the price of a Smart plan. The catch is the same as any insurance: you pay it in the years nothing goes wrong.
See AirHelp+ tiers →Five points cheaper than AirHelp when the airline pays, identical when it does not. VAT is stated as included, and a minimum fee of €90 applies on claims under €225 — which quietly makes it the most expensive option on a small short-haul claim. The one genuine differentiator: it files US, Canadian and Montreal Convention claims, which matters if your disruption sits outside EU261's coverage.
AirAdvisor price list →The best settled-case payout available if you land at the bottom of the band — but the advertised 20–30% excludes 19% German VAT, and Flightright's own worked example uses 27%, which on €600 means a €162 fee plus €30.78 VAT and €407.22 back. Add the 14% solicitor surcharge when lawyers are needed and the all-in reaches roughly 49%. Strong German-court pedigree, and the German claim window is longer than most of Europe's — check the deadline for your country before assuming yours has expired.
Flightright costs page →The one service whose court-case total stays clearly under the pack: its payment policy sets the rate at 30% and reserves a legal fee of 10% on top, capping the all-in at 40% — €60 more in your pocket than anyone else charges for a litigated €600 claim. The policy does not state VAT treatment, which is worth confirming at signup. The trade-off is reach: lighter legal infrastructure than the big two, and best suited to straightforward claims on major EU routes.
Compensair payment policy →Skycop is the only one publishing fixed euro amounts rather than percentages — €110 on a €250 claim, €176 on €400, €264 on €600, rising to €125, €200 and €300 with legal action. The fixed model reads as clarity and works out as the highest settled-case deduction in the audit: 44% where everyone else sits at 30–35%. Strongest presence on Eastern European routes, which is the case for using it despite the price.
Skycop price list →What happened to ClaimCompass
ClaimCompass, founded in Bulgaria and long treated as a separate competitor at around 35%, was acquired by AirHelp in November 2024 and no longer operates as an independent claim company. It has no 2026 fee schedule of its own, so it cannot honestly appear in the table above; anyone filing through it is inside the AirHelp business and AirHelp's published schedule applies — 35% including VAT, 50% with legal action. The practical effect is one fewer competitor in a market that had already converged on similar court-case pricing.
The rational claiming sequence
1. Check eligibility — two minutes, free
Confirm the disruption qualifies. Our EU261 compensation calculator gives the amount, extraordinary circumstances covers the airline's escape hatches, and the amounts guide explains the €250, €400 and €600 bands. AirHelp's free eligibility checker commits you to nothing and is the fastest way to find out where a specific flight stands.
2. Claim direct — keep 100%
Twenty minutes with our step-by-step template. Give the airline its statutory chance to simply pay; many do. It will not count against you later — see whether claiming annoys the airline.
3. Escalate on resistance — and pick for the courtroom
Ignored for six weeks, fobbed off with vouchers, or refused on a thin extraordinary-circumstances claim? That is the moment the 35–50% earns itself, and what to do after a rejection sets out the options. Pick the service with real legal reach against your airline — the full personality comparison is in claims companies vs DIY — and accept that the all-in will be about half, which is still €300 more than an unanswered email.
€600 if you claim it yourself and the airline behaves. Roughly €300 from almost anyone if it does not. The 20-to-44 per cent headline spread is the noise in between, and "no win, no fee" is true everywhere, which is exactly why it tells you nothing.
Compensation covers the flight, not the trip it wrecked. For the hotel night, the missed transfer and the rebooked leg, see the travel disruption recovery playbook — or insure the costs EU261 will never pay before the next trip.
Method and caveats
Worked example uses the €600 EU261 long-haul band — 3,500 km and above, with a delay of four hours or more at arrival; the same percentages apply proportionally to the €250 and €400 bands. Every fee figure was read on 8 September 2026 at the company's own published price document, each linked in its row above, rather than taken from a third-party fee round-up. Where a policy leaves something unstated it is flagged rather than filled in: Compensair's payment policy sets 30% plus a 10% legal fee but does not state VAT treatment, and Flightright's advertised band excludes VAT, so its settled range is computed at both 20% and 30% plus 19% German VAT, with its own 27% worked example shown alongside.
SkyRefund is not in this audit. It is a real service with unusual reach — Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Turkey among them — but it does not appear on our scored index yet, and adding a row here before it has been scored on the same rubric would put a company in a ranking on the strength of nothing. No-win-no-fee applies throughout the table: a failed claim costs nothing anywhere in it. Fee schedules are commercial decisions and change without notice; this ledger is a dated snapshot, and the signup page is the only binding number.
Frequently asked questions
How much do flight compensation companies charge in 2026?
Headline success fees in 2026 run from 20% to 44% of the compensation recovered. AirHelp charges 35% including VAT; AirAdvisor 30% including VAT; Flightright advertises 20–30% plus German VAT; Compensair 30%; and Skycop charges fixed fees that work out at about 44% on the standard EU261 bands. The number that matters more is the court-case total: AirHelp reaches exactly 50%, AirAdvisor 50%, Skycop 50%, Flightright roughly 49% once the 14% solicitor surcharge and VAT land, and only Compensair stays lower at 40%. All are no-win-no-fee: if nothing is recovered, you pay nothing.
How much of a 600 euro claim do you keep with each company?
If the airline settles without court: 600 euro claiming yourself, 420 euro with AirAdvisor or Compensair, about 407 euro with Flightright at its own worked 27% example, 390 euro with AirHelp, and 336 euro with Skycop. If the case goes to legal action: 360 euro with Compensair, about 307 euro with Flightright, and 300 euro with AirHelp, AirAdvisor and Skycop alike. AirHelp+ members keep the full 600 euro either way.
Which flight compensation company has the lowest fees?
On headline rates, Flightright's advertised 20–30% band before VAT and Compensair's flat 30% are the lowest, against AirAdvisor at 30% including VAT, AirHelp at 35% and Skycop at roughly 44%. On the court-case column the ranking inverts and Compensair is the only clear winner at 40% all-in, because AirHelp, AirAdvisor and Skycop all reach 50% and Flightright lands near it. Since contested claims are exactly where a service earns its keep, the court column is the honest basis for comparison.
Is it cheaper to claim EU261 compensation yourself?
Always, if the airline pays. Claiming directly costs nothing and you keep the full 250, 400 or 600 euro, and for a clearly valid claim against an airline that responds properly the DIY route is the right first move. The economics change when the airline ignores, stalls or refuses: pursuing it then means legal action, and taking an airline to court yourself involves fees, time and procedural risk most passengers reasonably decline. That is the real service being sold — not form-filling, but the willingness and infrastructure to litigate.
Do compensation companies charge anything if the claim fails?
No. AirHelp, AirAdvisor, Flightright, Compensair and Skycop all operate on a no-win-no-fee basis: if no compensation is recovered you owe nothing, and the service absorbs its own costs including any court fees it advanced. The commercial consequence is worth understanding — because they only earn on wins, they screen claims at intake and decline cases they judge weak or uneconomic. A rejection by a claim company is a judgement about their economics, not a legal ruling that you are owed nothing.
Is AirHelp Plus worth it to avoid the 35% fee?
It is a frequency bet. AirHelp+ members pay no service fee and no legal action fee, keeping 100% of any compensation, in exchange for an annual subscription priced at 32.99 dollars for Lite, 42.99 dollars for Smart and 99.99 dollars for Pro on the worldwide plans, or 179.99 and 249.99 dollars on the US plans. On a single successful 600 euro claim the standard 35% fee costs 210 euro, several times the price of a worldwide plan, so one qualifying disruption a year makes it profitable. For one or two trips a year, paying 35% only when something goes wrong is cheaper on expectation.
What happened to ClaimCompass?
ClaimCompass was acquired by AirHelp in November 2024 and no longer operates as an independent claim company, so it cannot be compared on fees in 2026. Anyone who filed through ClaimCompass is inside the AirHelp business, which means AirHelp's published schedule applies: 35% including VAT, rising to 50% if legal action is needed. The practical effect is one fewer competitor in a market that had already converged on similar court-case pricing.
Why do court-case fees end up the same at almost every company?
Because the cost being covered is the same in every case: external lawyers, court fees and the risk of losing, all advanced by the service and recovered only on a win. AirHelp adds 15 points to reach 50%, AirAdvisor moves to a flat 50%, Skycop's fixed schedule reaches 50%, and Flightright adds a 14% solicitor surcharge plus VAT to land near it. Compensair's 10 point legal fee, capping the all-in at 40%, is the exception. Choose on enforcement reach in your airline's jurisdiction rather than on a few points of headline fee that disappear the moment the airline says no.