HelpES

Overbooking and denied boarding

What you’re owed if the airline won’t let you board even though you were on time, what changes if you volunteer, and how to claim it. Article 4 of the EU Regulation 261/2004 applies.

General information, not legal advice. What you’re entitled to depends on your trip, the country, the carrier and the rules in force. If your case is complicated, check with the relevant authority or a professional. More in the terms of use.

Is it denied boarding?

  • You had a confirmed booking and checked in at the time you were given or, if you weren’t given one, 45 minutes before departure.
  • And the airline still wouldn’t let you board: because it oversold seats (overbooking) or for operational reasons.

It isn’t if there are reasonable grounds not to let you board: health or safety reasons, or travel documents that aren’t valid for that trip.

If you volunteer

Before leaving anyone behind, the airline has to ask for volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for whatever they agree with it. If you accept, you get what was agreed plus a refund or an alternative flight, but not the compensation owed to those left behind against their will. Ask what they’re offering before you say yes.

If you’re left behind against your will

Compensation, on the spot
The airline has to pay it immediately. It’s the same scale as for a cancellation, depending on the flight distance.
No extraordinary-circumstances excuse
With a cancellation or a delay, the airline doesn’t pay if it proves extraordinary circumstances. With denied boarding the regulation has no such way out: as the European Commission puts it, you’re always entitled to compensation.
Refund or alternative flight
You choose once: a refund of the ticket, an alternative flight as soon as possible, or one on a date you prefer, if there are seats.
Assistance while you wait
Meals and drinks, two calls or emails and, if the alternative flight leaves the next day, a hotel and transport to it. If you pay for it yourself, keep the receipts: they have to pay you back if it was necessary and reasonable.
How much, by distance

How to claim, step by step

  1. Ask for the compensation right there, from the airline’s staff: it has to be given on the spot. Keep your booking and any paper or message refusing you boarding.
  2. If you don’t get it, claim it in writing from the airline and, if it doesn’t reply or you’re not satisfied, from the national body of the flight’s country —AESA if it left Spain—, free of charge.
The deadlines and the steps, on the traveller rights page

Do you want to file the claim?

Check my case with Compensair →

Sponsored · no extra cost to you · They check your specific case, extraordinary circumstances included.

If your flight was also cancelled or delayed: your passenger rights

Official sources

Last reviewed: 5 October 2026