About us

Our story

Járatkésés.hu was launched in 2021 to explain, in plain Hungarian, what air passengers are entitled to when a flight is delayed or cancelled, a connection is missed, boarding is denied or baggage goes missing. The basis is Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, which most passengers have never heard of and which airlines are in no hurry to point out.

From 2022 the team behind Járatkésés.hu also handled compensation claims itself: it acted against airlines on behalf of passengers, on a no-win-no-fee basis. Across several hundred cases it learned how airlines turn claims down with template replies, and what it takes to get them to pay in the end.

The same experience showed the limits of that model. If an airline does not pay even after a formal demand, the claim can only be enforced in court. In Hungary, court proceedings in these cases are slow and expensive: a case can drag on for months or years, and legal costs are often comparable to the €250–€600 compensation itself. A small team cannot take this on as effectively as an international provider that litigates in dozens of countries with its own legal team.

So the team stopped handling claims itself. Recovery of compensation is now done by our partner, AirHelp (AirHelp Germany GmbH, Berlin), which has been working on air passenger claims since 2013, has helped 27 million passengers so far and holds a Trustpilot rating of 4.5/5. We keep doing what we do best: explaining passengers' rights and showing how to use them. In 2026 we launched EU261 Flight Delay to bring the same guides, the same compensation checker and the same principles to travellers across Europe, in English.

Our mission

We want every air passenger in Europe to know their rights, and not to leave money with an airline that the regulation says belongs to them. Most affected passengers never make a claim, because they do not know they are entitled or do not believe it is worth the effort. We want to change that with clear, accurate and up-to-date content that does not require a law degree.

What we do and do not do

What we do

• We explain passenger rights under EU Regulation 261/2004, UK261 and the Montreal Convention, plainly and factually, in English – for passengers in every EU and EEA country, Switzerland and the UK, with a claim guide for each country (for example Germany, Spain, Poland, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom).
• We run a free compensation checker that works in your browser and gives an indicative estimate of the amount you may be owed.
• We write guides to individual airlines and airports: what to expect, how claims tend to be rejected, and what to do.
• Through a partner link we send readers who would rather leave the claim to professionals to the AirHelp website.

What we do not do

• We do not give legal advice. Our content is general information and does not replace a legal opinion on your individual case.
• We do not handle compensation claims. We do not take on cases, do not correspond with airlines, and have no insight into cases handled by AirHelp.
• We are not the official AirHelp website. We are an independent partner; AirHelp does not write or approve our content.

Transparency: how we are funded

Using the site is free, and we do not charge readers anything. Our income comes from affiliate commission: if someone submits a claim to AirHelp through our link and the claim succeeds, AirHelp pays us a commission of 15% out of its own service fee. If someone buys an AirHelp+ membership through our link, our commission is 20% of the membership price.

Important: this commission is not deducted from your compensation but comes out of the fee AirHelp would charge anyway. You receive the same amount as if you had started the claim directly on the AirHelp website. AirHelp's fees are explained on the Fees and costs page, and the partner programme in our affiliate disclosure.

Our links to AirHelp carry the rel="sponsored" attribute, so that it is clear to search engines and readers alike that they are partner links.

How our guides are written

Every page is based on primary sources:

• the current text of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 and the European Commission's interpretative guidelines;
• judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (for example C-402/07 Sturgeon, C-549/07 Wallentin-Hermann and C-28/20 Airhelp v SAS), which shape how the regulation is applied in practice;
• information published by the national enforcement bodies that supervise the regulation in each country, and by the UK Civil Aviation Authority for UK261;
• airlines' official conditions of carriage, and the Montreal Convention for baggage claims.

We review our content regularly and show the date of the last update on every page. When a change in the law or a new court judgment affects what we have written, we update the pages concerned. Many of the guides were first written for Járatkésés.hu and have been adapted for an international readership rather than simply translated.

Our editorial principles

• Accuracy. We only state what we can back up with a source. Where a question is disputed or practice is uncertain, we say so.
• Independence. Our partner does not influence what or how we write. We do not accept paid content from airlines.
• Clarity. We write in plain English rather than legal jargon, but we do not simplify at the expense of accuracy.
• No promises. The amounts on this site are the maximums under the regulation. Whether compensation is due in a particular case is decided by the airline or by AirHelp.
• Corrections. If you find a mistake, write to the address on our contact page and we will correct it.

If you fly often and are interested in a better deal, you can read about TravelPass membership on the AirHelp website; members pay a reduced claim fee (0% with Platinum). If you may be owed compensation for a specific delay or cancellation, you can also start the claim directly on the AirHelp website.