Claiming yourself, or handing it to someone

The two models

Self-service. You establish the facts, submit to the airline, and escalate to the airline's dispute-resolution scheme if the answer does not stand up. Tools like Clairo's checker or a claim letter sit alongside you: they help you prepare, and the claim stays yours. Nothing is deducted from a payout because nobody else is in the transaction.

Representation. You sign the claim over to a service, which assesses it, files it, chases it and escalates it, and takes an agreed fee from whatever it recovers. You do very little after the sign-up form. The typical arrangement charges nothing if nothing is recovered, which shifts the effort and the downside risk onto the provider.

Which is the sensible choice depends on the case, not on a general rule. A single-passenger delay with a clear arrival time and an airline that answers its post is a different proposition from a multi-passenger booking, a disputed cause, an airline that has already refused twice, or a claim you would otherwise abandon.

What the regulator says about the choice

The CAA addresses this directly on its ADR page, and it is worth reading in its own words rather than in anyone's summary. The points it makes:

• • ADR is free for consumers and the schemes are designed to be simple to use. You do not need a third-party claims management company to take a complaint to ADR.
• • A claims management company may refer your complaint to the same approved provider, using the same services and processes you can access yourself.
• • You are entitled to ask a company to take up your complaint — but if the provider awards a payment, the company may deduct a significant proportion of it as its fee.
• • Both approved schemes have processes for reasonable adjustments, so needing help with the process is not by itself a reason to go through a company.

Separately, on its page about claiming, the CAA notes that not every airline will deal with a complaint submitted through a service such as a claims management company, because some have terms requiring passengers to submit directly and allowing the airline to respond to them before third parties are engaged. That is a practical reason to check the airline's conditions before signing anything.

What the self-service route looks like end to end

1. 1. Establish the facts. Departure and final destination, actual arrival time at that destination, booking reference, and whatever the airline sent you about the disruption. This is the only stage that needs your memory rather than a form.
2. 2. Claim to the airline. Use its own form where it has one. The CAA publishes tips and a template for this stage. Expenses and compensation are often separate submissions.
3. 3. Read the refusal properly. If it cites extraordinary circumstances, the airline should say what the event was. A refusal naming no event is the one most worth pushing back on.
4. 4. Escalate. To the airline's approved ADR scheme once you have a final response or eight weeks have passed; to the CAA's own complaints team if the airline belongs to no scheme. The CAA lists which airlines sit where.
5. 5. Court, if it comes to that. The CAA points to the GOV.UK small claims service and suggests exhausting the earlier steps first.

Deadlines apply at stages two and four and they are not the same — see the UK time limits.

Questions to put to any provider

If you do decide on representation, these are the terms that determine what you actually end up with. Verify each one against the provider's current fee schedule and terms of business on its own website — that is the only place they are authoritative, and they change.

• • How the fee is calculated, and whether tax or a handling charge is added on top.
• • What is owed if the claim recovers nothing.
• • Whether a different rate applies once a claim goes to court.
• • Who receives the money from the airline, and how long before it reaches you.
• • What happens if the airline pays you directly after you have signed.
• • Whether you can withdraw, and on what terms.
• • Whether the airline you are claiming against accepts third-party submissions at all.

Where Clairo sits, plainly

Clairo is on the self-service side. It runs a free eligibility check and can prepare a claim letter you send yourself. It does not file claims, does not correspond with airlines, does not escalate to ADR or to court, and takes nothing out of a payout — because it never touches one. That is a real limitation, not only a virtue: nobody is chasing the airline on your behalf.

Clairo's checker quotes euro estimates and applies an intra-Community-style cap that treats UK airports as inside that area. The UK text of Article 7(1) does not use that wording, so on a long UK–EU route the estimate and the legislation can point at different bands. Treat the checker as a screening step, read the article for yourself, and check the sterling figure the CAA publishes for your route.

UK261 sets its own figures in sterling, so UK sterling amounts are set separately from the euro bands and the two regimes are not interchangeable. Clairo's checker currently shows euro estimates only — check current UK CAA guidance for the sterling figures that apply.

Clairo is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting for AirHelp or any other claims service. Names of other services are used here only to describe the category of provider people are comparing. Any statement about a particular provider's fees or terms should come from that provider.

Know the claim before you choose how to run it

The decision is easier once you know what kind of claim you have. Read the guide for your disruption first: a delayed flight, a cancellation, a missed connection, or being denied boarding. For the legal framework behind all of them, the UK261 guide sets out the articles.

Primary sources

Every statement above about the official process comes from these pages. Statements about any commercial provider should come from that provider.

• Alternative Dispute Resolution for air passengersUK Civil Aviation Authority

  Which scheme each airline belongs to, the windows for using it, and the regulator's note that it is free to consumers.

• Claiming for costs and compensationUK Civil Aviation Authority

  How to put a claim to an airline, and the note that some airlines require the passenger to come to them first.

• Tips on complaining to an airlineUK Civil Aviation Authority

  The regulator's own advice on writing a claim, including a template.

• How the CAA can help with a complaintUK Civil Aviation Authority

  The Passenger Advice and Complaints Team route for airlines outside an approved ADR scheme.

• Taking your airline to courtUK Civil Aviation Authority

  What the regulator suggests trying before a small claim, and where to go for the court process itself.

• Make a court claim for moneyGOV.UK

  The official small-claims route the CAA points to when an airline will not settle.