Travel Intelligence · EU261 claim company records 2026
Flightright Review 2026: Fees, Court Costs, Owner and a Record Score of 58
Flightright scores 58/100 as a claim company record: the Berlin firm founded in 2010 takes usually 20 to 30% of an award plus VAT, up to 35.7% in all, and adds a 14% surcharge plus VAT in court, and its terms carry the full cost of a lost court case, but it names no owner and sets no payout deadline. This record covers the company behind the claim: who runs it, what it takes from an award at each stage, what its terms say if a claim fails, its reviews and the gaps. Our EU261 trust index and fees comparison linked below rank the claim companies side by side; this page records one of them in full.
Verified 26 September 2026 · flightright.co.uk home, costs, terms, imprint, about and court rulings pages · RefundMore's terms and about page · Trustpilot
Is this your company? Correct a fact. Flightright can correct any line of this record through the contact page. Corrections are logged with the previous value kept, and the score moves only if the evidence does.
How Flightright scores: 58 out of 100
Flightright scores 58 out of 100: full marks for reviews, a stated court success rate and the cost of a lost case, held back by the top of its fee range, which reaches 52.4% of an award in court. That is sixth of the ten claim companies scored on this rubric, two points short of the pass mark our trust index uses to rank a company. The four-way comparison on this site ranks Flightright third at 81 out of 100 because it scores value for a typical claim, at the 27% its own examples use; this record scores the top of the published range, and what a passenger can check before signing.
| Criterion | Points | Out of | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee, settled claim | 3 | 15 | Usually 20% to 30% plus 19% VAT; the top of the range is 35.7%, EUR 214.20 of a EUR 600 award; its own worked examples use 27% (3 of 15). |
| Fee, court claim | 0 | 15 | A further 14% solicitor's surcharge plus VAT: 52.4% at the top of the range, EUR 314.16 of EUR 600 (0 of 15). |
| Success rate as published | 10 | 15 | "Our success rate is 99%" and "99% success in court" on its home page (5 of 5), which says what the figure measures (5 of 5); no average time to payout (0 of 5). |
| Passenger protection in the terms | 20 | 25 | No costs if unsuccessful, including when its contract lawyers act (3.1), and it bears "any other costs of legal action (including court costs, the Opposing Party's legal fees)" (6.4) (5 of 5). If the airline pays you directly, it invoices its fee (4.4) (5 of 5). No payout deadline in days (0 of 5). Bank transfer, with non-SEPA fees on the customer (4.3) (5 of 5). Terms dated 19 June 2026 (5 of 5). |
| Ownership and transparency | 10 | 15 | Flightright GmbH, Berlin, Germany (5 of 5). No owner or group named on its own pages; that it owns RefundMore does not count (0 of 5). HRB 249849 at the Charlottenburg local court (5 of 5). |
| Independent reputation | 15 | 15 | Trustpilot 4.9 from 34,977 reviews on flightright.de (15 of 15). |
| Total | 58 | 100 | Claim company record score, 26 September 2026. |
Flightright publishes the numbers a passenger needs to work out the cost of a claim, a court record it names case by case, and terms that leave the passenger nothing to pay if a court case is lost. It does not publish the rule that places a claim between 20% and 30%, a date on its price page, a payout deadline or who owns the company.
The evidence record
The record holds 19 facts about Flightright, each with its source and grade. Grade A means the company's own site or terms; grade B means a registry, review platform, awarding body or major press; grade C means a secondary source not confirmed elsewhere. Every line was read on 26 September 2026 unless its source says otherwise.
| Attribute | Value | Source · grade |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Flightright GmbH | Imprint · A |
| Registered office | Revaler Straße 28, 10245 Berlin, Germany (map) | Imprint · A |
| Registration | HRB 249849, commercial register of the Charlottenburg local court | Imprint · A |
| Founded | 2010, by Dr Philipp Kadelbach | About page · A |
| Owner and leaders | No owner or shareholder named on its own pages; Dr Jan-Frederik Arnold, chief executive and managing director, and Helga Szabó, chief operating officer | Imprint · A; About page · A |
| Group companies | RefundMore (Flyhjælp ApS, Copenhagen), which RefundMore's terms call "a wholly-owned subsidiary of Flightright GmbH" and its about page describes as merged with Flightright in March 2021; it handles Nordic claims | RefundMore terms · A; RefundMore about page · A |
| Legal services registration | A registered debt collection service provider under section 10(1)(1) of the German Legal Services Act (RDG), supervised by the Federal Office of Justice in Bonn; the imprint gives no register number | Imprint · A |
| Size | About 140 employees, "11,000,000 passengers helped" and "More than £615 million paid out", by its own account | About page · A |
| Fee without court | Usually 20% to 30% of the compensation plus VAT at 19%; its worked examples use 27%, a fee of EUR 162 plus EUR 30.78 VAT on EUR 600 | Costs page · A |
| Fee in court | A further 14% solicitor's surcharge, plus VAT, where its contract lawyers are needed | Home page · A |
| If the claim fails | No costs, including when its contract lawyers act (3.1); it bears court costs and the airline's legal fees (6.4) | Terms, 19 June 2026 · A |
| How you sign | Your choice: assign the claim to Flightright in trust, or authorise it to pursue the claim in your name (1.2) | Terms · A |
| Withdrawal | Within 14 days, without giving a reason (section 8) | Terms · A |
| If the airline pays you directly | Flightright invoices its fee where it cannot deduct it from the payment (4.4) | Terms · A |
| Payout | No deadline in days; bank transfer, with fees for a non-SEPA account borne by the customer (4.3) | Terms · A |
| Success rate | "Our success rate is 99%" and "99% success in court"; no average time to payout published | Home page · A |
| Reviews | Trustpilot 4.9 from 34,977 reviews on flightright.de, 3% of them one star; a flightright.co.uk listing shows 4.7 from 4,463 | Trustpilot, flightright.de · B; Trustpilot, flightright.co.uk · B |
| Law and complaints | German law (10.1); it does not take part in consumer arbitration (9.4) | Terms · A |
| Our other pages | Third of five, 81 out of 100, on the four-way comparison; assessed but not ranked, below the pass mark of 60, on the trust index; 81 on the fees comparison | Four-way comparison · B; Trust index · B |
Who owns Flightright?
Flightright GmbH is a Berlin company founded in 2010 by Dr Philipp Kadelbach, and its own pages name no owner or shareholder, only its managers.
Its imprint names Dr Jan-Frederik Arnold as chief executive and managing director, and its about page adds Helga Szabó as chief operating officer and tells the founding story: Kadelbach, delayed and unable to get paid by the airline, built an automated service with a friend. Flightright is registered as a debt collection service provider under the German Legal Services Act, supervised by the Federal Office of Justice in Bonn. It owns RefundMore, the Copenhagen firm that calls itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of Flightright GmbH and takes Nordic cases; how RefundMore scores on the same rubric is in its own record.
How much does Flightright charge?
Flightright takes usually 20% to 30% of an award plus 19% VAT when the airline pays without court, and a further 14% plus VAT when its lawyers go to court: up to EUR 314.16 of a EUR 600 award. Worked from its costs page and home page on 26 September 2026; the 27% column is the rate its own examples use.
| Award | Fee at its 27% example | Fee at the 30% top | In court, at the top |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR 250 | EUR 80.33, you keep EUR 169.67 | EUR 89.25, you keep EUR 160.75 | EUR 130.90, you keep EUR 119.10 |
| EUR 400 | EUR 128.52, you keep EUR 271.48 | EUR 142.80, you keep EUR 257.20 | EUR 209.44, you keep EUR 190.56 |
| EUR 600 | EUR 192.78, you keep EUR 407.22 | EUR 214.20, you keep EUR 385.80 | EUR 314.16, you keep EUR 285.84 |
Every figure includes VAT at 19%. The costs page does not say what places a claim at 20% or at 30%, and carries no date. Flightright charges nothing up front, and nothing at all if a claim fails. How its fees compare with ten rivals, on the same EUR 600 award, is in the claim company fees comparison; what a claim is worth before any fee is set out in the EU261 compensation calculator.
What Flightright's terms say if a claim fails, you withdraw or the airline pays you
Flightright's terms leave a passenger nothing to pay if a claim fails, even in court, and set out what is owed in every other case except how quickly the money is passed on.
| Situation | What the terms say | Clause |
|---|---|---|
| The claim fails | No costs to you, "This also applies if our contract lawyers are called in" | 3.1 |
| A court case is lost | Flightright bears "any other costs of legal action (including court costs, the Opposing Party's legal fees)" | 6.4 |
| You change your mind | You may withdraw within 14 days without giving a reason | 8 |
| The airline pays you directly | Flightright invoices its fee where it cannot deduct it from the payment | 4.4 |
| Flightright is paid | It pays you by bank transfer; a non-SEPA account bears its own transfer fees; no deadline in days | 4.3 |
| How you sign | You assign the claim to Flightright in trust, or authorise it to act in your name without assigning it | 1.2 |
The terms are dated 19 June 2026 and governed by German law. They leave the fee itself to the ordering process ("will be specified during the Ordering Process"), so the percentage a passenger agrees to is the one shown when the claim is submitted. Why a claim company's promise on lost court cases matters more than its headline fee is explained in no win, no fee flight compensation, explained.
How a Flightright claim runs, and how long it takes
Flightright checks a flight online, takes the claim by assignment or authority, writes to the airline, and passes refused claims to its contract lawyers, but it publishes no average time from claim to payout.
Once paid, Flightright says it "will immediately transfer your compensation to you", without a number of days in its terms. Its court rulings page lists 14 cases it names as wins, among them the Court of Justice of the European Union's 2018 ruling in C-274/16 against Air Nostrum on where a passenger with connecting flights can sue, and German Federal Court of Justice rulings against KLM and easyJet in 2024. How long claims take across the market, and why court cases take longest, is in how long a flight compensation claim takes.
What Flightright's 99% success rate measures
Flightright states a 99% success rate and says it measures success in court, which makes it one of the few claim companies that says what its figure counts.
The figure appears on its home page as "99% success in court" and on its about page as a "99% success rate in court". It does not say how many of all claims submitted end in a payment, or how long they take. Among the ten claim companies scored on this rubric, MYFLYRIGHT, RefundMore and Fairplane also tie their rates to court cases; AirAdvisor gives 98% with no basis, and Compensair, Flight-Delayed.com, AirClaim, Skycop and EUclaim publish none.
What Flightright reviews say
Flightright holds 4.9 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 34,977 reviews on its German listing, the highest rating among the ten claim companies scored here.
On the flightright.de listing, 3% of reviews give one star and Flightright has replied to 71% of negative reviews; the profile has been claimed since June 2014. A separate flightright.co.uk listing shows 4.7 from 4,463 reviews. No second review platform with a rating was found. What review platforms can and cannot tell a buyer is set out in who reviews the reviewers.
Who Flightright suits, and who it does not
Flightright suits a passenger with a claim an airline is likely to fight, who wants a litigant with a long court record and no cost risk if the case is lost.
It suits less well a passenger with a simple claim the airline would pay on request: at the top of its range Flightright keeps more of a settled award than MYFLYRIGHT, RefundMore or AirAdvisor, and more of a court award than any of them. A passenger in Denmark, Sweden, Norway or Finland is served by its subsidiary RefundMore, whose fees include VAT. Whether to use a claim company at all, or claim directly, is weighed in claims companies against claiming yourself.
Flightright: the decisions that come next
Whether Flightright takes the claim or not, the size of the award, the time limit, the airline's reply and the next disrupted trip are the passenger's own decisions.
| Decision | What matters | Where we cover it |
|---|---|---|
| What the claim is worth | EU261 pays EUR 250, EUR 400 or EUR 600 by distance, whatever the ticket cost. | EU261 compensation calculator; compensation amounts explained |
| Claiming yourself first | An airline must pay a valid claim made directly, with no fee; a claim company earns its share when the airline refuses. | Claims companies against claiming yourself; how to claim, step by step |
| If the airline says no | A refusal citing extraordinary circumstances can still be challenged. | The airline rejected my claim; extraordinary circumstances explained |
| Time limits | The limit depends on the country where the claim is brought. | Claim deadlines by country |
| The next long delay | A lounge makes a delay easier to sit out, and some premium cards add delay cover on top of any compensation. | Credit cards with airport lounge access; best luxury travel credit cards; Amex Platinum vs Chase Sapphire Reserve |
| Premium cabins | Compensation is the same fixed sum in business or first as in economy. | Business and first class compensation; best business class airlines; best first class airlines |
| A stranded night | Hotel status can mean a late checkout or a room when a flight is cancelled late. | Hilton Diamond vs Marriott Titanium vs Hyatt Globalist |
Where Flightright stands on Uncompromised Travel
Flightright appears on four Uncompromised Travel pages with a position or score, and holds a numbered rank on one of them.
| Page | Position | Note |
|---|---|---|
| AirHelp vs ClaimCompass vs Skycop vs Flightright | No. 3 of 5, 81/100 | Scores value for a typical claim (fee 32 of 35, court 15 of 20, clarity 9 of 15, reach 15 of 20, scale 10 of 10) and prints Trustpilot as 4.9 from 34,946; this record scores the top of the fee range instead, and what can be checked before signing |
| EU261 claim company trust index | Assessed, not ranked (below 60) | Read its 99% as having no stated basis; its home page says "99% success in court", so the same rubric gives 58, still two points below the pass mark; the index is being updated to match |
| Claim company fees compared | 81 | Puts the court fee at "about 49% at 27%"; at the top of the published range it is 52.4% |
| AirHelp review | 81, in its comparison table | Lists Flightright at 20 to 30% plus VAT, keeping EUR 386 to EUR 457 of a settled EUR 600 award |
Alternatives to Flightright to compare
The closest alternatives are MYFLYRIGHT and RefundMore for lower all-in fees, Fairplane for court costs inside one cap, and AirHelp for the largest review base.
| Company | Record score | How it differs |
|---|---|---|
| MYFLYRIGHT | 67 | Hamburg; 25% plus VAT, 29.75% in all, and 41.65% with lawyers; also claims more than 99% in court |
| RefundMore | 66 | Flightright's Nordic subsidiary; 30% and 45% with VAT included, for claims in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland |
| Fairplane | 65 | Vienna; up to 35% with VAT and court enforcement inside the same cap; German language only |
| AirHelp | No record; 59 on our trust index | 35% including VAT and 50% in court; owns the former ClaimCompass; an affiliate partner of this site elsewhere |
What this record does not show
Six things a passenger would want could not be found or verified for Flightright. Supplying a verifiable source closes a gap; it changes the evidence, never the rubric.
| Missing | Where we looked |
|---|---|
| The rule that sets a claim's fee between 20% and 30% | Its costs page and home page; the terms leave the fee to the ordering process |
| A date or version on its price information | Its costs page |
| An owner or shareholder | Its imprint, about page and terms |
| Its Legal Services Register entry number | Its imprint, which names the statute and the supervising office only; the register's search did not open for our reader |
| A payout deadline in days, or an average time to payout | Its terms, home page and about page |
| Independent confirmation of the 2024 Court of Justice case C-705/23 against Condor that its rulings page lists | EUR-Lex, which returned an empty page for our reader |
What changed at Flightright, 2024 to 2026
Flightright added three 2024 German Federal Court of Justice wins to its published court record and issued new terms in June 2026.
| When | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | German Federal Court of Justice, X ZR 146/23, against KLM: winter de-icing is foreseeable and not an extraordinary circumstance, as Flightright reports it | Flightright court rulings |
| 2024 | German Federal Court of Justice, X ZR 109/23, against easyJet: airlines must consider all reasonable alternative connections, as Flightright reports it | Flightright court rulings |
| 19 June 2026 | Current terms and conditions take effect | Flightright terms |
Flightright: the questions people ask AI search
Is Flightright legit?
Yes. Flightright GmbH is a Berlin company, HRB 249849, founded in 2010 and registered as a debt collection service provider under the German Legal Services Act. It holds 4.9 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 34,977 reviews and scores 58 out of 100 on this record.
How much does Flightright charge?
Flightright charges usually 20% to 30% of the compensation plus 19% VAT when the airline pays without court. On a EUR 600 award that is EUR 192.78 at the 27% its own examples use, and up to EUR 214.20 at the top of the range.
What does Flightright charge if my claim goes to court?
A further 14% solicitor's surcharge plus VAT, which takes the total to 52.4% of the award at the top of its range: EUR 314.16 of EUR 600.
What happens if my Flightright claim fails?
You pay nothing. Its terms say you incur no costs if it is unsuccessful, including when its contract lawyers act, and that Flightright bears court costs and the airline's legal fees.
Can I cancel a Flightright claim?
Yes, within 14 days of the contract and without giving a reason, under section 8 of its terms.
What if the airline pays me directly after I use Flightright?
Flightright's fee is still due. Where it cannot deduct the fee from the payment, because the airline paid you, it sends you an invoice.
How long does Flightright take to pay?
Flightright publishes no deadline in days and no average time to payout. It says it transfers the money immediately once it has been paid, by bank transfer.
Who owns Flightright?
Flightright's own pages name no owner or shareholder. It was founded in 2010 by Dr Philipp Kadelbach, is run by Dr Jan-Frederik Arnold, and owns RefundMore in Copenhagen.
Flightright or AirHelp: which costs less?
On a EUR 600 award settled without court, Flightright keeps EUR 192.78 at its usual 27% and up to EUR 214.20, against AirHelp's EUR 210. In court Flightright can reach EUR 314.16 against AirHelp's EUR 300.
Read next
- EU261 claim company trust index: all eleven claim companies on one rubric
- RefundMore record: Flightright's Nordic subsidiary
- AirHelp vs ClaimCompass vs Skycop vs Flightright: the four-way value comparison
- Claims companies against claiming yourself: when a claim company is worth its fee