What is a letter before action?

A letter before action (LBA) is a formal notice sent before starting court proceedings. It sets out your claim, the legal basis (e.g. Consumer Rights Act 2015, Housing Act 1988), the remedy you seek, and a deadline to respond — typically 14 days. Civil Procedure Rules require this step before most court claims, and courts take a dim view of parties who skip it.

Can I write my own legal letter?

Yes. You do not need a solicitor to write a legal letter. What matters is citing the correct legislation, stating your claim with precise dates and amounts, and giving a clear deadline. A well-drafted letter citing the right Act and section often resolves disputes without court proceedings — and costs nothing extra to send.

Does a legal letter actually work?

In many cases, yes. Most businesses, landlords, and employers respond when they receive a formally worded letter that cites specific legislation and mentions court or tribunal proceedings as the next step. It signals you know your rights and are prepared to escalate — which is often enough to get a resolution.

What UK legislation covers consumer complaints and refunds?

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is the primary law. Section 9 requires goods to be of satisfactory quality; section 20 gives you the right to a full refund within 30 days if goods are faulty. For services, section 49 requires reasonable care and skill. For distance/online purchases, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give you a 14-day cooling-off period.

5 September 2026

Bumped From an Overbooked Flight? You Could Be Owed Up to £520 — Here Is How to Claim (UK)

You get to the gate on time, ticket in hand, only to be told the flight is full and there is no seat for you — the airline sold more tickets than the plane holds and gambled that some people would not show up. Being “bumped” feels like the airline doing you wrong and getting away with it. In fact, denied boarding is one of the few air-travel problems where the airline nearly always has to pay you, in cash, and cannot wriggle out with the excuses that work for delays. Most passengers just accept a rebooking and never claim what they are owed. Here is exactly what the law gives you.

General information for the UK. Not legal advice. This covers being denied boarding (usually overbooking) — it is a different, stronger right than the rules for a delayed or cancelled flight.

At the gate, do this: if the airline asks for volunteers to give up their seat, do not say yes until you know what you would get for being bumped involuntarily — that number (up to £520 in cash) is the floor you are negotiating against. If you are bumped against your will, ask for the compensation and your Article 8 choice (refund or re-routing) in writing, get the reason for the denial in writing too, and keep your boarding pass and booking. Compensation is not automatic — you have to claim it.

The law: “UK261”

Air passenger rights in the UK still run on Regulation (EC) 261/2004, which was kept in UK law after Brexit and is usually called “UK261.” The euro amounts were converted to pounds by a 2019 statutory instrument, so a UK-regulated claim is paid in sterling. It applies to flights departing any UK airport (on any airline), and flights arriving at a UK airport on a UK or EU airline. “Denied boarding” is dealt with in Article 4; the compensation, refund/re-routing and care rights sit in Articles 7, 8 and 9.

Volunteer vs bumped — get this right or you lose money. Before bumping anyone, the airline must ask for volunteers to give up their seats. If you volunteer, you negotiate your own deal (vouchers, cash, an upgrade) and there is no legal minimum — you are treated as having waived the fixed compensation below. If you are bumped involuntarily — you did not agree — the fixed cash compensation is owed automatically. So a passenger who accepts a £150 voucher to “volunteer” when they would have been owed £520 in cash has handed money back to the airline. Know the involuntary figure before you agree to anything.

What you are owed if you are bumped against your will

Three things stack on top of each other. You get all of them, not a choice between them.

1. Fixed cash compensation (Article 7), by flight distance:

£220 — flights of 1,500 km or less
£350 — flights between 1,500 km and 3,500 km
£520 — all longer flights (over 3,500 km)

Distance is the direct (great-circle) distance to your final destination, not the road distance or the total mileage of a multi-leg trip. The airline may pay half (£110 / £175 / £260) only if it re-routes you and you still arrive within 2, 3 or 4 hours of your original arrival time (by the same distance bands). Compensation must be paid in cash or bank transfer — the airline cannot force a voucher on you; you only get a voucher if you agree in writing to take one.

2. A refund or a re-routing (Article 8) — your choice: either a full refund of the unused ticket within 7 days, or re-routing to your destination at the earliest opportunity, or re-routing later at a time that suits you.

3. The right to care (Article 9) while you wait: free meals and refreshments appropriate to the wait, a hotel and transfers if you have to stay overnight, and two free phone calls or emails. This is on top of the cash, not instead of it — keep receipts if you have to pay for any of it yourself.

The big difference from a delay or cancellation. With a delayed or cancelled flight, the airline can escape paying by proving “extraordinary circumstances” — bad weather, air-traffic control, third-party strikes. Denied boarding has no such get-out. Overbooking is the airline’s own commercial decision, entirely within its control, so it cannot blame the weather or anyone else. That makes bumping one of the hardest claims for an airline to legitimately refuse — if you were involuntarily denied boarding with a valid ticket, the money is owed.

When you are NOT owed compensation

The right only bites where the airline had no reasonable grounds to refuse you. You will not be owed the fixed compensation if the denial was down to:

Turning up late — you missed the check-in or boarding-gate deadline;
Documents — a missing or invalid passport, visa or other required travel document;
Health, safety or security grounds;
No valid booking, or a ticket on terms not available to the public (e.g. a discounted staff or industry ticket).

And, as above, if you volunteered to give up your seat you have swapped the fixed sum for whatever deal you agreed. This is why getting the airline’s stated reason for the denial in writing matters — “the flight was full” is overbooking (you are owed); “you arrived after the gate closed” is not.

How to claim — and the deadline

Claim from the airline first. Put it in writing (email leaves a paper trail), quote UK261 / Regulation 261/2004, state that this was an involuntary denied boarding, and give the flight number, date, distance band and the amount owed.
If it refuses or ignores you, escalate free to the airline’s ADR scheme (in the UK, typically AviationADR or CEDR) — usually after the airline’s own process is exhausted or 8 weeks have passed. If the airline is not in an ADR scheme, the Civil Aviation Authority can take up the complaint, or you can use the small claims court.
Time limit: generally 6 years from the date of the flight in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 5 years in Scotland. Airlines sometimes point to a much shorter limit in their own terms — that does not override the statutory limitation period for a UK261 claim, but do not sit on it.

Watch-this-space (not current law). From 6 April 2026 the rules governing aviation ADR schemes changed under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, so the exact ADR provider details may shift — check the CAA site when you claim. Separately, the EU reached a provisional deal in 2026 to reform its version of these rules, but that is not UK law and would not automatically change UK261 — the £220 / £350 / £520 denied-boarding bands remain in force as described here.

Do not confuse this with US “bumping” rules

A lot of what you will read online about being “bumped” is American (US Department of Transportation rules, paid in dollars, on a different scale). Those do not apply to a UK-regulated flight. For flights out of the UK, or into the UK on a UK/EU airline, it is UK261 and the pound figures above that count. Do not let an airline quote you the wrong scheme.

Getting the letter right

A firm, correctly-worded letter is often all it takes. The airline’s front-line staff may fob off a vague complaint, but a letter that names the regulation, states plainly that this was an involuntary denied boarding with a valid ticket and on-time check-in, sets out the exact distance band and sum owed, and reminds them that overbooking is not an “extraordinary circumstance,” is much harder to ignore — and puts you in a strong position to escalate to ADR or the small claims court if they still refuse.

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This applies to UK-regulated flights under retained Regulation (EC) 261/2004 (“UK261”): flights departing the UK on any airline, and flights arriving in the UK on a UK or EU airline. Compensation is not automatic — you must claim it, and it is owed only for involuntary denied boarding where you had a valid booking and met the check-in deadline. The small claims limit and the 5-vs-6-year time limit differ between England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. ADR scheme details are changing during 2026 — check the current position. Sources: Civil Aviation Authority (“Denied boarding” and “Claiming for costs and compensation”); retained Regulation (EC) 261/2004, Articles 4, 7, 8 and 9 (legislation.gov.uk); SI 2019/278 (euro-to-sterling conversion); Dawson v Thomson Airways Ltd [2014] EWCA Civ 845 (6-year limitation). General information, not legal advice — check the current position before you act.