Flight Compensation Fees Compared: What You Actually Keep From Your 600 Euros

Every flight compensation service on the internet says the same three words: no win, no fee. It’s true, and it’s also not the question. Nobody charges you when they lose. The question is what happens when they win, because that 600 euros the airline pays out is your money, and the only real difference between claim services is how much of it you keep.

So let’s do the math nobody puts on their homepage, with real, published numbers.

The industry standard: 35 percent, and 50 if it goes legal

Take AirHelp, the biggest name in this industry and a legitimate, established service. Their published pricing is a 35 percent service fee on any compensation recovered, and if resolving your claim requires legal action, an additional 15 percent Legal Action Fee on top, bringing the total to 50 percent.

On a 600 euro claim, that means you keep 390 euros in a standard case. If the case goes legal, you keep 300, half your money.

Two details in the fine print deserve daylight, because they surprise people at payout time. First, you don’t decide whether your case escalates to legal action; the service does, based on its own assessment, and travelers sometimes discover only when the money arrives that their claim counted as legal action and the 50 percent rate applied. Second, under their published terms, even when an airline pays as a goodwill gesture rather than a formal admission, the payout can be treated as a successful claim, and the same percentage comes off.

None of this is a scam. It’s the industry’s standard economics, spread across millions of automated claims. But it is the math, and you should see it before you sign anything.

My math

FlightsComp charges 25 percent. That’s the fee for the standard case, which is most cases: I take your claim, deal with the airline, and when the money lands, you keep 75 percent.

On that same 600 euro claim: you keep 450 euros. That’s 60 euros more per passenger than the standard industry fee. For a family of four on a long-haul delay, a 2,400 euro case, the difference is 240 euros staying in your pocket. Same claim, same airline, same law.

If a case genuinely needs court, and only if it does, an additional 25 percent applies, 50 percent total, and I tell you before that step, not at payout. The overwhelming majority of claims never need it, because a properly built case usually settles under pressure. So the number that matters for most people is the first one: 25 versus 35.

Why can I charge less than the big platforms? Because I’m not paying for their overhead: hundreds of employees, offices in thirty countries, massive ad budgets, an app. It’s my expertise, my time, and your case. Small is the discount.

The numbers, side by side

Here are the published fee structures of the major services, from their own pricing pages as of July 2026, next to mine. The “you keep” column assumes a standard 600 euro claim resolved without court, the way most claims resolve.

Service	Standard fee	If legal action is needed	You keep from 600 euros (standard case)
FlightsComp	25%	50% total, and you’re told before that step	450 euros
AirHelp	35% (VAT incl.)	50% total (35% + 15% legal action fee)	390 euros
SkyRefund	35% (VAT incl.)	50% total (35% + 15% legal action fee)	390 euros
Flightright	20–30% plus VAT	additional 14% surcharge	roughly 386 to 457 euros, depending on the rate applied and VAT

A few honest notes on reading this table. Every company here is a legitimate, established service, and every one of them, me included, is genuinely no-win-no-fee: nobody charges you when nothing is recovered. Flightright’s range means you don’t know your exact rate until your case is assessed, and their fee carries VAT on top, so the final percentage depends on your case and jurisdiction; the others quote VAT-inclusive numbers. And in every service including mine, a case that truly requires court costs more, the difference is the starting rate, and who tells you what, when.

Fees change. These figures come from each provider’s published pricing at the time of writing; check their current pages, and mine, before you decide. That’s not a formality, it’s literally the advice of this article: read the fee page before you sign, wherever you sign.

What the fee actually buys you, there and here

To be fair to the big services: your 35 percent buys real things. Automated claim screening, an app with tracking, a machine that has processed millions of claims. If you want a vending machine for claims, they built a good one.

What your 25 percent buys at FlightsComp is different in kind, not just in price. Your case is handled by a person, me, from first look to payout. You can ask questions in French or Arabic and get answers from someone who worked inside the airline industry and knows how these disputes actually get decided. There’s no chatbot between you and your money, no dashboard telling you your case is “in progress” for eight months without a human ever having looked at it. When the airline’s rejection letter arrives, someone who has read hundreds of them reads yours.

And one thing I do that the platforms structurally can’t: I tell you honestly when you DON’T have a case, before you waste months hoping. An automated funnel makes money by maximizing claims filed. I keep a reputation in a community by being straight with people. Those incentives are not the same.

The honest paragraph about doing it yourself

You can always claim alone, for free, and keep 100 percent. It’s your legal right and no service should pretend otherwise. Some people succeed, especially when the airline pays on the first letter.

What the success stories skip is the base rate: airlines reject first as a matter of routine, the rejection cites “extraordinary circumstances” whether or not they apply, and the process is designed so that tired people give up. That design works. Most people who start alone stop at the first no, and the money stays with the airline. The question isn’t whether you’re capable, it’s whether you want a months-long correspondence fight with a claims department as a hobby. If yes, genuinely, go with my blessing. If no, pick a service, and now you know exactly how to compare them.

The comparison, in one honest summary

Any service you consider, ask three questions. What’s the standard fee? What’s the total if it escalates, and who decides when it escalates? And does a human with real expertise actually handle my case?

My answers: 25 percent. 50 percent only if court is truly needed, and you hear it from me first. And yes, the same person every time, in your language.

The published numbers for the industry’s biggest player, as of this writing: 35 and 50, escalation decided by them. Their pricing pages are public; check them yourself, and check mine. The math is short: it’s your money, and the best service is the one that returns the most of it with the least of your energy.

Had a delayed or cancelled flight? Send me the details, and I’ll tell you what your case is worth, what my cut would be to the euro, and whether it’s even worth filing. That last part is free, and it’s the part the vending machines don’t offer. For the full rules behind the money, see EU261 explained or what happens when you miss a connection.