What to Do If a Flight Claims Company Has Gone Quiet on Your Compensation

A familiar pattern for anyone who has used a flight compensation claims company: you submit your flight details, get an acknowledgement, and then hear very little for weeks or months. Occasional emails say the claim is "still with the airline" or "under review." Eventually you stop hearing anything at all. Most of the time this is just a slow claim. But it's worth knowing what to actually check, because it isn't always what it looks like.

A case study: what one Klaimly customer found

A passenger came to Klaimly after their American Airlines flight from the UK was delayed. They had already been pursuing the claim through another company, Refly, for several months before contacting us. Refly's messages during that period described the claim as ongoing, with no indication that a resolution had been reached.

When Klaimly contacted American Airlines directly to verify the flight and check the claim's status, the airline confirmed in writing that compensation of £517.81 had already been paid, directly to Refly, on 15 June 2026. Refly continued sending messages to the customer after that date that described the claim as still pending, without mentioning that a payment had already been received on the customer's behalf.

We're not able to speak to why that happened, only to what American Airlines confirmed in writing: the payment date, the amount, and the recipient. If you've used Refly or any other claims company and haven't heard a clear update in a while, it's worth checking your own claim against the airline directly, using the steps below.

How to check if your claims company has already been paid

You don't need the claims company's cooperation to check this. Airlines will generally confirm payment status directly to the passenger named on the booking, since it's your claim, even if a third party is handling it on your behalf.

• Contact the airline's customer relations or compensation team directly, not the claims company
• Give your flight number, date, and booking reference so they can locate the claim
• Ask specifically: has compensation for this flight already been issued, and if so, on what date and to whom
• Ask for the answer in writing, by email, so you have a record of what they told you

Most airlines will confirm this within a few days. If they say a payment has already gone out and you haven't received your share of it, you now have concrete evidence to act on.

What to do if you discover this has happened to you

If the airline confirms compensation was already paid to your claims company, but you haven't received anything from them:

• Get the airline's confirmation in writing first. The date, amount, and recipient are the key facts you'll need for everything that follows.
• Formally request payment from the claims company in writing, citing the airline's confirmation directly, the date paid and the amount, and asking for your share (after their agreed fee) within a specific, reasonable deadline.
• Keep a written record of everything, including timestamps of when the claims company said the claim was "still pending" after the date the airline says it paid out.
• Escalate if there's no response. If the company is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (many claims management companies are required to be), you can raise a complaint with the FCA. Citizens Advice can direct you to Trading Standards for a formal complaint. If the amount is clear and the company still won't pay, the small claims court is a last-resort option for recovering money that is demonstrably yours.

Before you use any claims company: check this first

Two questions are worth asking before you hand a claim to any company, including Klaimly:

• Are they authorised, if authorisation is required? Claims management activity in the UK generally falls under FCA regulation. You can check a firm's authorisation status on the FCA register before signing anything.
• How do they handle compensation once the airline pays it? Ask directly whether the airline pays compensation to you, or to the claims company's own account first, with your share forwarded afterwards. The second model means there's a point in the process where the company is holding your money, and you're relying on them to pass it on and tell you when they've received it.

How Klaimly handles this differently

Klaimly doesn't hold client funds. Where possible, compensation is directed to be paid straight to you, not into a Klaimly account first, so there's no stage where you're waiting on us to forward money we've already received. Our fee is a flat 5% of what you're awarded, only if we win, taken transparently rather than deducted from a payment that passed through our hands. If you're currently waiting on a claim elsewhere and can't get a straight answer on its status, we're happy to check the flight and the claim's history with the airline directly, at no cost, before you decide what to do next.