AirHelp is one of the largest flight compensation services in Europe — the company pursues EU 261/2004 claims against airlines on behalf of passengers, on a no-win-no-fee basis. For Romanian travellers flying out of Otopeni, Cluj, Timișoara or Iași, AirHelp is one of the most visible names: it appears at the top of every search for flight compensation Romania, it sponsors travel content, and its Trustpilot score is high. The question this page answers is not whether AirHelp exists, but whether it is the right choice for your specific case from Romania — and what its 30-35% commission really buys you compared with simply filing the claim yourself.
This is an independent review. We explain how the service actually works, what it costs in real euro on a Romanian claim, what the user ratings on Trustpilot and Reddit actually say, and where AirHelp earns its fee versus where you are paying for work you could have done in an afternoon. We anchor everything in Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 ( EUR-Lex consolidated text ) and the CJEU case law that interprets it.
Advertising transparency: compensarezbor.com earns a commission if you sign up with AirHelp through a link on this page. It does not change the substance of this review — we still recommend the free DIY route for simple, recent claims and explain exactly when the service is worth its fee.
What AirHelp is — and what it is not
AirHelp is an agent, not a public authority. The service does the work you would otherwise do yourself: it assesses whether your flight is eligible under EU 261, files the claim with the airline, handles the inevitable rejection, references the relevant CJEU case law, and if the airline still refuses, escalates to the national enforcement body — in Romania that is AACR, Autoritatea Aeronautică Civilă Română — or sues at the local Judecătoria.
What AirHelp is not: a gatekeeper to your rights. Everything AirHelp does, you can in principle do yourself, for free, directly with the airline and then with ANPC (Autoritatea Națională pentru Protecția Consumatorilor) for consumer mediation, AACR as the EU 261 enforcement body, or the small-claims procedure at your local Judecătoria. The Romanian Civil Code gives you three years to file — long enough that you do not need a service just to beat a deadline in most cases.
One distinction to keep clean: AirHelp pursues compensation (the fixed 250 / 400 / 600 euro under Article 7 of the Regulation), not the refund of an unused ticket. A refund is a separate right under Article 8 and is processed directly by the airline. If your flight was cancelled and you did not travel, you usually want both — the refund first, then the compensation if the cancellation was within the airline's control.
AirHelp does the legwork while you wait for the airline's reply — in exchange for a commission. The trade-off is straightforward, but the price tag is real.
Is AirHelp a scam? The most direct answer
This is the question behind all the others. On Reddit, on Forum.Softpedia, on every comments section under a flight-delay article in Romania, the same phrasing repeats: "is this a scam? They want 35% of my money." The honest answer comes in two parts.
No, AirHelp is not fraud. It is a registered company, one of the oldest in the industry (founded in 2013), that pursues real claims and pays out real money. Trustpilot's underlying review corpus is full of concrete payouts in EUR, GBP and USD — money actually transferred to passengers' accounts after AirHelp filed against the airline. Court records in several EU member states show AirHelp's lawyers winning EU 261 cases at first instance and on appeal. A scam company does not file thousands of court cases under its own name.
But the anger in the forums points to something real. It is just not fraud. What the angry voices describe is two things: a fee that feels disproportionate when the airline would have paid quickly anyway, and slow communication on contested cases. Those are legitimate value-for-money complaints. They are not allegations of theft. Knowing the difference matters because it changes the decision: the question is not "will AirHelp steal my money" but "is the 30-35% fee worth what I get in return".
What AirHelp costs — the fee without spin
AirHelp works on a no win, no fee basis — no compensation, no charge. If the claim succeeds, AirHelp takes its share before transferring the rest to your account. If the claim fails, you pay nothing.
The commission sits at roughly 30-35 percent of the compensation paid out, often including VAT, with a possible higher surcharge if the case has to go to court (in practice closer to 50% of the recovered amount in that scenario). The exact percentage on the day you sign is what counts — check it on airhelp.com before you authorize anything, because it does change.
Here is what that means in real money on a Romanian EU 261 claim:
| Flight distance | Compensation under Article 7 | Approx. fee (35%) | What you receive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km (e.g. București–Vienna) | 250 € | ~87 € | ~163 € |
| 1,500–3,500 km or intra-EU >1,500 km (e.g. București–London) | 400 € | ~140 € | ~260 € |
| Over 3,500 km outside the EU (e.g. București–New York) | 600 € | ~210 € | ~390 € |
The figures are rounded and illustrative — the real percentage on your contract may sit at 30% or 35% depending on the AirHelp Plus tier and the campaign in force. But the order of magnitude is honest: on a 600 € claim, AirHelp keeps around a third of the money for handling paperwork that a determined passenger could complete in two to three hours.
What the Trustpilot and forum ratings actually say
Searching for AirHelp review returns a SERP full of user ratings — Trustpilot, Reddit, Forum.Softpedia, English-language European forums. The picture is two-sided and worth reading carefully rather than at the headline-star level.
On the plus side there are concrete, positive experiences. A traveller on r/travel writes that AirHelp's payout "was over USD 1,700 after fees" on a long-haul cancellation case the airline initially denied. Multiple Trustpilot reviewers from 2025-2026 describe receiving money on a Wizz Air or Ryanair claim within 4-8 weeks when the airline conceded. The recurring praise points are: fast payouts on simple cases, a clear customer-portal status, the relief of not having to write the emails, and full English (and Romanian) language support after the European localisations.
On the minus side there are two recurring complaints. The first is the size of the fee — the outrage in the forums is almost always about paying 30-35% on a claim the writer feels would have settled with one polite email. The second is slow handling on contested or court-bound cases — 6 to 18 months of waiting, templated customer-service replies that do not address the specific question, and a short 48-hour window to accept or reject a final airline offer that feels like pressure.
On balance: AirHelp works for most people who use it, but there is a real minority of dissatisfied voices, and their objection is rational. The praise patterns cluster on simple successful cases; the complaints cluster on contested or court-bound ones. Neither pattern invalidates the other.
Our verdict: 3.5 out of 5
Our editorial assessment for the Romanian market lands at 3.5 out of 5. This is not an aggregated customer score and not an AggregateRating in schema terms — it is a single editorial reading of the service against a Romanian passenger's realistic alternatives.
What speaks for AirHelp:
- Established, legitimate company that pays out real compensation — not a scam.
- True no-win-no-fee — you never put your own money at risk.
- Easy to use; handles airline rejections and escalation for you.
- Sensible for awkward, old or already-rejected cases that you would otherwise abandon.
- Full English and Romanian support — no language barrier with the airline.
What speaks against it:
- High fee — around 30-35% — which makes the service expensive for simple claims.
- A poor deal for straightforward cases you could have pursued yourself for free through ANPC, AACR or Judecătoria.
- Slow handling on contested cases is real, not imagined.
- Court surcharge is not always made obvious before signing.
- You have to check the current percentage yourself — it can change.
The rating reflects a service that works, carrying a high but openly disclosed cost. It is pulled down by the price-to-effort ratio on simple claims, not by any doubt about legitimacy.
Check your flight eligibility with AirHelp — free, no fee unless you win
Who AirHelp suits — and who should claim themselves
AirHelp is a good choice if your case is hard or tedious:
- Several flight legs and a missed connection — CJEU Folkerts (C-11/11, 2013) and Wegener (C-537/17, 2018) make these claims winnable but the paperwork is heavy.
- A contested cause where the airline is calling something "extraordinary circumstances" that is probably not — CJEU Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07, 2008) ruled that ordinary technical defects do not qualify, and Krüsemann (C-195/17, 2018) ruled the same for wildcat strikes by the carrier's own crew. Arguing this back at a stonewalling airline is exhausting.
- A case that is already two-plus years old and pushing against the 3-year Romanian prescription period.
- A case the airline has formally rejected and stopped replying to.
- A case where you simply will not have the time to push it for 6-18 months yourself.
AirHelp is a poorer choice if the claim is simple and recent — a clear delay of over three hours under CJEU Sturgeon (joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07, 2009), a cooperative airline like Tarom or KLM that pays out quickly, and a passenger with one free afternoon to fill in the airline's own EU 261 form. In that case, claim yourself: keep the full 250, 400 or 600 €, and only escalate to ANPC or AACR if the airline pushes back. For the step-by-step Romanian version of the DIY process, see our DIY guide and our yourself-or-service comparison . The original Romanian text lives at airhelp recenzie .
How AirHelp fits with Romanian institutions
One Romania-specific point that AirHelp's own marketing does not really cover: the service is not a substitute for ANPC, AACR or the Judecătoria — it interacts with them.
If your airline refuses and the case has not gone to court yet, AirHelp will usually file an enforcement complaint with AACR before suing. AACR is the national enforcement body designated by Romania under Article 16 of Regulation 261/2004; it can investigate the airline and impose administrative sanctions, but it does not order the carrier to pay you directly. ANPC is the consumer protection authority and handles mediation on consumer disputes — both AirHelp and a DIY claimant can use it. The Judecătoria is the small-claims court for amounts under 50,000 lei, and EU 261 compensation always fits well under that threshold.
CJEU Rehder (C-204/08, 2009) is the case that matters for jurisdiction: a passenger may sue the airline either at the airport of departure or the airport of arrival within the EU. For a Romanian passenger that usually means a Romanian Judecătoria is competent — which is also where AirHelp files when negotiation has stalled.
The 3-year prescription period under Romanian law (article 2517 of the Civil Code) is consistent with CJEU Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11, 2013), which confirmed that EU 261 claims are governed by national limitation rules. AirHelp respects that deadline — submit close to the 3-year mark and they may decline the case as too risky. File earlier.
This is not legal advice
This page is based on published institutional sources, the EUR-Lex text of Regulation 261/2004, CJEU case law from the allow-list we maintain , AirHelp's publicly stated fees on airhelp.com, and public user reviews on Trustpilot, Reddit and Romanian forums. We are not lawyers. For a binding opinion on your specific case, consult a Romanian consumer-law specialist — ANPC and AACR also provide free guidance in Romanian and English.
For the Romanian-language version of this review with localised examples, see airhelp recenzie . For a side-by-side cost comparison with the DIY route, see claim yourself or use a service .
Last reviewed: 2026-06-02.
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