Passenger-rights regulations

Plain-language guides to the laws behind your rights, each linked to the official text and to the open rules engine that encodes it.

• ANAC 400
  Brazil's passenger-rights rules. Rather than fixed compensation, it grants graduated material assistance by waiting time (communication after 1h, meals after 2h, accommodation after 4h) and a refund / rebooking / re-routing choice for cancellations and long delays. Monetary damages are pursued under the Consumer Defence Code.
• EU 261
  Sets fixed compensation of EUR 250-600 plus assistance (care, re-routing or refund) for denied boarding, cancellation, and long delay on covered flights. No compensation is due in extraordinary circumstances.
• Montreal Convention
  A multilateral treaty governing international flights between countries that have signed it. It does not award a fixed sum; it makes the airline liable for your proven loss up to a limit, expressed in Special Drawing Rights (SDR). It covers checked-baggage loss, damage, and delay, and damage caused by passenger delay. Domestic flights are not covered — national law applies instead.
• UK 261
  Retains EU 261 in UK law after Brexit, with compensation fixed in pounds (GBP 220 / 350 / 520). Applies to flights departing the UK, and to flights arriving in the UK on a UK or EU carrier.
• US DOT
  US law gives air passengers no fixed compensation for delays or cancellations. The money rules are narrower: you are owed compensation if you are involuntarily bumped from an oversold flight; you are owed a prompt automatic refund if your flight is cancelled or significantly changed and you decline rebooking; and on long tarmac delays the airline must let you off the plane and provide food and water. Lost or damaged checked bags on domestic flights are covered up to a fixed liability cap.