Booked Through a Travel Agent or Third-Party Site? You Can Still Claim Compensation
Booked your flight through Expedia, a travel agent, or a comparison site rather than the airline directly? Here's who you claim from and what to watch for.
A lot of passengers assume that if they booked through Expedia, a travel agent, or a comparison site rather than the airline's own website, their compensation rights are somehow different, or that they need to go back to whoever they booked with. Neither is true, but there are a few practical details worth knowing.
Who is actually liable: the airline, not the booking site
UK261 and EU261 place the legal obligation to pay compensation on the operating airline, the carrier that actually flew (or was supposed to fly) the aircraft. It doesn't matter whether you booked directly with that airline, through a travel agent, via a comparison site like Skyscanner or Kayak, or through an online travel agency like Expedia or Booking.com. The airline that operated your flight is who owes you compensation, not the platform you paid.
Why this trips people up
Third-party booking sites sometimes make it hard to tell which airline actually operated your flight, especially on connecting itineraries where different legs are flown by different carriers under a codeshare. Passengers sometimes contact the booking site itself expecting them to handle a compensation claim, when the booking site has no legal obligation to pay at all, they're not the airline, they just sold you the ticket.
What you need from your booking
- The actual flight number as operated, not just the marketing flight number shown at checkout (these can differ on codeshare flights)
- Your booking reference, though note a travel agent booking may have both an agent reference and a separate airline reference, you may need to ask the agent for the airline's own reference if it's not on your confirmation email
- The scheduled and actual departure/arrival times
Package holidays are a slightly different case
If you booked a package holiday (flights plus accommodation together) through a tour operator, the flight delay compensation claim still goes to the operating airline under UK261/EU261, entirely separate from any refund or compensation you might separately be owed from the tour operator under the Package Travel Regulations for the holiday itself falling short. The two claims don't cancel each other out, you can pursue both.
Does using a third-party site change how much you're owed?
No. The compensation amounts (£220/£350/£520 or €250/€400/€600 depending on distance and which regulation applies) are fixed by law and have nothing to do with how much you paid for the ticket or who you booked through.
What if the booking site or agent has gone quiet on my question?
You don't need them at all for a compensation claim. Once you have your flight number, date, and the airline's own booking reference, you can pursue the claim directly against the airline without involving the platform you booked through.
How to claim
Klaimly identifies the actual operating airline from your flight details, regardless of where you booked, and verifies the disruption against real flight data. We then handle the claim end to end for a flat 5% fee, only if we win. No VAT, no minimum fee, and nothing to pay unless your claim succeeds.