Comparison · commission vs flat fee
AirHelp alternative: pay $19, keep the payout
Both routes end with the airline paying EU261 compensation. One takes a percentage for filing on your behalf; the other charges a flat fee for the letters and leaves the filing to you.
No account. The verdict comes before the payment screen.
At a 35% commission a €600 claim gives up €210. With the $19 kit the airline pays you the whole €600.
An AirHelp alternative is any way of claiming EU261 compensation without paying a percentage of the payout. FlightOwe is the flat-fee version: $19 once for the cited claim letter, the airline's real submission address and the regulator complaint. At a 35% commission, a €600 claim costs €210 instead.
The short verdict
If your flight landed 3 or more hours late for a cause the airline can't hide behind, the claim is a letter and a date, and a third of the money is a lot to pay for that. Buy the $19 kit. If the cause is contested, or you've written once and been refused, or you know you won't chase an airline for two months, a no-win-no-fee company earns its commission — you pay it only out of money you'd otherwise never see. Families should run the arithmetic first: compensation is per passenger, so a percentage grows with your booking and a flat fee doesn't.
The full side-by-side
Same regulation, same three bands, same airline at the other end. What changes is who files, who carries the risk of a rejection, and how much of the payout reaches you.
| FlightOwe · $19 flat | AirHelp · no-win-no-fee | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | A clear-cut claim you're willing to send yourself | A contested claim, or a claim you won't otherwise chase |
| Cost on a €600 claim | $19 | up to €210 |
| Cost on a €2,400 family claim | $19 | up to €840 |
| Paid if the claim fails | $19, already spent | Nothing |
| Who files it | You | They do |
| Who the airline pays | You, in full | Them, then you |
| Ryanair claims | You file on Ryanair's own EU261 form | Ryanair refuses claims submitted by claim companies |
| Regulator escalation | Pre-addressed complaint in the kit, free to file | Handled for you |
| If the airline still refuses | Small-claims guidance; you decide whether to file | They can take a case further than a letter pack can |
| Deadline tracking | Tracker in the kit, dated from your flight | Theirs |
Commission figures use the 35% rate set out under how we compare. Rates vary by company and country — read the current one in the terms.
What 35% costs on a real claim
A percentage sounds small until it meets an amount. EU261 pays €250, €400 or €600 per passenger on great-circle distance, and long-haul out of Europe lands in the top band. Frankfurt to Newark, four hours late: €600 a head.
| Service | Their cut | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| Claim company · 35% | −€210 | €390 |
| FlightOwe · $19 flat | $19 | €600 |
The $19 is charged in dollars at checkout, not deducted from the payout.
Four people on one booking
Compensation is per passenger. The letter is per flight. That gap is the whole argument, and it widens with every seat.
| Service | Their cut | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| Claim company · 35% | −€840 | €1,560 |
| FlightOwe · $19 flat | $19 | €2,400 |
One kit covers everyone on the booking. The EU261 bands and who they cover set the amount; the number of you sets what a percentage takes.
FlightOwe, in detail
A $19 letter kit for one disrupted flight and everyone on the booking. You send it. The airline pays you.
What it does well
The letter arrives cited — article, band, case law — at the airline's real claim address rather than a customer-service form that goes nowhere. Then a dated follow-up, rebuttals for the six excuses airlines use, and a pre-addressed complaint to your national enforcement body. Escalating is free, and the regulator's existence is most of the pressure. What the $19 kit covers lists all seven pieces.
Who it suits
A clear-cut claim and twenty spare minutes: a 3-hour-plus delay, a cancellation inside 14 days, or a denied boarding, on a route plainly inside EU261 or UK261. Families gain most — the fee doesn't move when four of you were on the flight.
The limitation, plainly
The $19 is spent whether or not the airline pays. No refund is tied to the outcome, because what's sold is the letters and not the result. A letter pack also stops at the courthouse door: if the airline holds out and you file in small claims, that's you with guidance, not a firm acting for you.
Who FlightOwe is wrong for
Anyone who wants this handled for them. If the honest answer to "will I send a follow-up in six weeks?" is no, the kit becomes a $19 PDF you didn't use, and a commission would have got you something instead of nothing.
AirHelp, in detail
A claim company that files on your behalf under a no-win-no-fee agreement, taking a commission out of whatever the airline pays.
What it does well
You pay nothing if the claim fails. That's a real transfer of risk, not a marketing line — the company absorbs the work on every refused claim, funded by the commission on the ones that pay. It also does the chasing: the submission, the reminders, the argument when the airline blames something it shouldn't.
Who it suits
A contested claim, a thin paper trail, or no appetite for two months of correspondence. Also anyone who has written once, been refused, and doesn't want to argue the point. One traveller on a €250 claim gives up far less in absolute terms than a family on €2,400.
The limitation, plainly
The commission scales with the payout while the work doesn't. Four passengers in the €600 band is four names on one letter, and at 35% that's €840 out of €2,400. The airline pays the company rather than you, so the money arrives second-hand. On Ryanair it can't help at all: Ryanair refuses claims submitted by claim companies and requires its own EU261 form.
We don't publish AirHelp's commission as a fixed number, because it isn't ours to state and it changes. Up to 35% is the rate every comparison on this site is built on. Find the current percentage in the company's own terms before you sign, including whether VAT or a separate legal-action fee sits on top.
When AirHelp is the better call
Three cases, and they're not edge cases.
- The cause is contested. The airline is calling it extraordinary and you don't know whether that holds. A technical fault doesn't, under CJEU C-549/07; weather usually does. If your case sits on the line — see what counts as an extraordinary circumstance — a company that argues these for a living has an edge.
- You've already failed to move them. You wrote, they refused, and the next step is pressure rather than better wording. A regulator complaint is still free and still yours. If that's been tried too, what's left is legal action.
- You won't do the admin. Claims die around week six, when the airline goes quiet and the passenger stops. A percentage of something beats all of nothing.
Our argument isn't that commission is wrong. It's that on a clear-cut claim you're paying a percentage for a form letter and a date you could have sent yourself.
How we compare
The basis, so you can check the sums or substitute your own.
- The commission rate is 35%, applied to the gross payout — the single rate every comparison on this site uses, taken from the top of the range claim companies publish. It is not a statement about what any named company charges today.
- The claims are €600 and €2,400. One passenger in the top EU261 band, and four on the same booking in the same band. Both are amounts the regulation produces on an ordinary long-haul route out of Europe.
- The FlightOwe side is $19, charged once at checkout, not deducted from the payout. The optional $5 expense pack is left out because it buys reimbursement letters rather than compensation.
- Currencies aren't converted. A $19 fee and a €600 payout are quoted as charged. The rate on the day is yours, not ours to guess.
Rates move, and they differ by country as well as by company. Read the current percentage in the terms and drop it into the two rows above. If it's below 35%, the gap narrows. It doesn't close, because a flat fee stays flat.
How to choose
Four questions about yourself, not about the two services.
-
Is the cause clear-cut or contested?
"Operational reasons" and a technical fault are rebuttable, and the letters handle them. A weather cancellation with a plausible METAR behind it is a fight — and a fight is what commission is for.
-
How many of you were on the booking?
One passenger at €250 gives up €87.50 at 35%. Four at €600 give up €840. The flat fee is $19 either way, so the more of you there were, the more one-sided this gets.
-
Will you send a follow-up in six weeks?
That's the honest test. The full claim sequence, with the dates runs to four sends over about three months.
-
Which airline is it?
On Ryanair, filing it yourself is the only route that works, so the choice makes itself. On slow repliers — TAP at around ten weeks, Air France and Iberia at around eight — the follow-up date matters more than who wrote the letter.
Questions people ask
What's the best alternative to AirHelp?
For a clear-cut claim, filing it yourself with a cited letter is the cheapest route that works, and FlightOwe sells that letter pack for $19 flat. The airline pays you directly, so nothing is deducted. For a contested claim, no-win-no-fee is the better trade — the risk of a rejection moves off you.
How much commission does a claim company take?
Up to 35% of the payout is the rate this comparison is built on, which works out at €210 on a €600 claim and €840 on a €2,400 family claim. Rates differ by company and by country, and some add VAT or a separate fee for legal action. Check the current figure in the company's own terms before signing.
Is it cheaper to claim flight compensation myself?
Yes. Filing direct costs nothing but your time, and escalating to a national enforcement body is free too. What the $19 buys is the cited letter, the airline's real claim address, the dated follow-up and the rebuttals — the parts most people get wrong or abandon.
What happens if my claim fails after I've bought the kit?
You're out $19 and nothing else. That's the trade against no-win-no-fee, and it's the one honest argument for paying a commission instead. Run the free check first: it names the article, the band and whether the airline's stated cause is one it can hide behind.
Which is better for a family of four?
The flat fee, by a wide margin. Compensation is per passenger, so four people in the €600 band is €2,400 on a single claim, and a 35% commission on that is €840. The kit covers every passenger on the booking for the same $19 it costs one traveller.
Can a claim company file a Ryanair claim for me?
No. Ryanair refuses claims submitted by claim companies and requires its own EU261 form, so a third party can't move it forward. Filing it yourself is genuinely faster there, and letters sent to customer service instead of the form are routinely ignored.
I've already signed with a claim company. Can I switch?
That depends on the agreement you signed. Read the cancellation and assignment clauses: some assign the claim itself, so the airline is told to pay the company. Settle it in writing before sending a letter of your own, or two claims run on one flight.
Is FlightOwe a law firm?
No. FlightOwe is an information service, not a law firm and not your legal representative. It tells you what the rules say and gives you the letters. You file your own claim and keep everything you recover, because the airline pays you and not us.
Find out what the flight is worth, free
The band, the article it comes from and whether the airline's excuse holds — before you decide who files it.
FlightOwe is an information service, not a law firm and not your legal representative. We tell you what the rules say and give you the letters — you file your own claim and keep everything you recover.