What to Do If Your Flight Compensation Claim Is Taking Too Long

A flight compensation claim taking too long means different things depending on which regulatory regime applies. US DOT refund complaints: the airline is required to acknowledge the complaint within 30 days and provide a substantive response within 60 days under 14 CFR Part 259. EU261 national enforcement body complaints: most NEBs have internal targets of 60 to 90 days, with some member states (Germany, Netherlands) having statutory response windows. UK CAA PACT: the CAA targets initial response within 12 weeks. Approved ADR schemes in the UK (CEDR, Aviation ADR) must issue a decision within 90 days of receiving a complete case file. Airline direct response: under the DOT rule, 60 days. EU261 airline direct: no statutory deadline, though NEBs take non-response as evidence of non-compliance. See airline rankings by compensation rate for data on which carriers pay fastest.

The 60-day DOT deadline applies to the airline, not the DOT. The DOT's own complaint processing time varies. What you control is whether the airline has responded to a filed complaint within 60 days.

A claim has stalled when: the airline has not acknowledged your initial complaint within 14 days, the airline acknowledged but has not responded substantively after 60 days, you received a refusal with a generic extraordinary circumstances reference but no supporting documentation, you filed an NEB or CAA complaint but have received no acknowledgment within 4 weeks, your ADR submission was acknowledged but no case manager was assigned within 6 weeks. Each of these is a signal to escalate, not to wait further. Stalling is a strategy some airlines use deliberately, because many passengers give up before the regulator acts.

Document every contact point with a date. If you escalate to the DOT or an NEB, you will need a timeline showing when you contacted the airline and what response you received.

When the airline stops responding, send one written follow-up referencing the original claim date and your case reference number, stating that you will file a regulatory complaint within 7 days if no substantive response is received. This creates a paper trail and sometimes prompts action. If the 7 days pass without response, file immediately. For US claims: file at transportation.gov/airconsumer. For EU261 claims: file with the NEB of the departure country (DGAC for France, Luftfahrt-Bundesamt for Germany, AESA for Spain, DAC for Belgium, etc.). For UK261 claims: file with the CAA or refer to the airline's approved ADR scheme. If you are using a claims service, notify them immediately so they can escalate the filing on your behalf. See what happens after you submit a flight claim for the full process.

DOT complaint processing time varies. The agency handles tens of thousands of complaints per year and individual resolutions are not always rapid. If your DOT complaint has been pending for more than 90 days without resolution: check the Air Travel Consumer Report to confirm your complaint was received and logged; send a written follow-up to the DOT with your complaint reference number asking for a status update; consider filing with your state Attorney General's consumer protection office in parallel, as state AG pressure supplements federal complaints; consider filing in small claims court for the refund amount, which creates a separate enforcement pathway independent of the DOT. See rights under US DOT regulations for the full regulatory framework.

State AG consumer protection offices can act on airline complaints independently. Many states have consumer protection staff with airline expertise. Filing at the state level does not preclude a federal DOT complaint.

If your EU261 claim was filed directly with the airline and is stalling, escalate to the NEB immediately. If the NEB complaint is stalling: check the NEB's published case handling timeline (most post these on their websites), send a written follow-up to the NEB with your case reference number, and consider filing in the national court system if the NEB has been inactive for more than 6 months. Some EU member states allow passengers to file in the online court of their home country even when the flight departed from another member state, using the Rome I Regulation on applicable law. A claims service handling EU261 claims tracks NEB response windows and escalates automatically. See how long does flight refund take TravelStacks for typical timelines.

For UK261 claims through the CAA's PACT service: if you have not received an acknowledgment within 4 weeks of submitting, follow up directly with PACT by email. If the case has been with PACT for more than 12 weeks without a decision, request a case status update and ask what is causing the delay. For claims referred to an ADR scheme: if more than 90 days have passed since the scheme acknowledged your complete case file, contact the scheme's case management team. UK ADR schemes are regulated by the CAA and are required to meet published decision timelines. Persistent delays can be reported to the CAA as a complaint against the ADR scheme itself. See the CAA passenger complaints page for current guidance.

If you filed a claim yourself and it has stalled at the airline or regulatory level, a claims service can take over the case at any point. The service reviews what has been filed, identifies the escalation gap, and files or re-files with the appropriate regulator. For claims stuck at the airline-response stage, the service's regulatory filing typically produces a faster response than a passenger follow-up. For claims stuck at the NEB or CAA level, the service's familiarity with each body's case management process can accelerate progress. TravelStacks takes on stalled claims via /claim. There is no additional fee for claims that have already been filed directly, and the standard no-win no-fee structure applies.

A stalled claim is not a dead claim. The regulatory enforcement path remains available as long as you are within the limitation period (2 years for US DOT, up to 6 years for UK261).