Flight brought forward or rescheduled

What you’re owed even if you were told in time

A refund or another flight

If the new schedule doesn’t work for you, you choose: a refund of your ticket within seven days, another flight as soon as possible, or one on a later date that suits you. When it tells you, the airline has to explain what alternatives there are.

Care while you wait

Food and drink and two calls or emails; if the new flight leaves the next day or later, a hotel and transfer too. If you pay for it yourself, keep the receipts.

Compensation depends on when you were told

You’re also owed the compensation for a cancellation, except in these cases:

• You were told 14 days or more in advance.
• You were told between two weeks and seven days before, and the new flight leaves no more than two hours earlier and arrives less than four hours later than planned.
• You were told less than seven days before, and the new flight leaves no more than one hour earlier and arrives less than two hours later than planned.

It’s up to the airline to prove that it told you, and when. Keep the email or message about the change, with its date.

It doesn’t pay either if it proves extraordinary circumstances that couldn’t have been avoided. That frees it from the compensation, not from the refund or the care.

How to claim, step by step

1. Keep the notice of the change with its date, and write down your original time and the new one.
2. If the new schedule doesn’t work for you, ask the airline for the refund or the other flight you prefer.
3. Claim the compensation from the airline in writing and, if it doesn’t answer or you’re not satisfied, from the national body of the country of the flight —AESA if it left from Spain, which expressly handles flights brought forward by more than an hour—, free of charge.