Claim flight compensation yourself or use a service: honest comparison for Romanian passengers

Romanian passengers have two real options when a flight is delayed, cancelled or overbooked under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004. Option one is the DIY route: free, you write the emails, you keep every euro. Option two is a claims service such as AirHelp, Flightright or Compensair: no-win-no-fee, no upfront cost, but a 25-35% cut of the payout plus VAT if the case succeeds.

This page compares the two routes on real numbers — what each one costs in time and money, how Romanian institutions (ANPC, AACR, Judecătoria) fit in, and where the 3-year prescription period drops the curtain. The short answer first: a simple recent delay is almost always cheaper to claim yourself; a stale case, a complex routing or a stonewalling airline is where a service earns its fee.

Advertising transparency: compensarezbor.com earns a commission if you sign up with AirHelp through a link on this page. That does not change what we write — we explain the free DIY route first and recommend it for the majority of straightforward cases.

The DIY route: free, doable, requires patience

Claiming EU 261 compensation yourself costs zero. If your case succeeds you keep the full €250 (flights up to 1,500 km), €400 (1,500–3,500 km or all intra-EU above 1,500 km) or €600 (over 3,500 km outside the EU). What it costs instead is time and emotional stamina.

The mechanics are simple. You submit the airline's own EU 261 claim form — Wizz Air, Tarom, Ryanair, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, every carrier serving Otopeni or Cluj has one — with your booking reference, flight number, scheduled and actual times, and a short factual description of the disruption. You cite Regulation 261/2004 explicitly, and you reference CJEU Sturgeon (joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07, 2009) for the three-hour threshold if your delay sits between 3 and 4 hours.

Then you wait. Airlines reject first. They will claim "extraordinary circumstances" almost reflexively — bad weather, ATC strikes, bird strikes, "operational reasons". A lot of these excuses do not hold up. CJEU Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07, 2008) made clear that ordinary technical defects are not extraordinary, and van der Lans (C-257/14, 2015) confirmed that a malfunction discovered during regular maintenance is part of normal airline operations.

If the airline persists, the case is still not over. You move to ANPC (Autoritatea Națională pentru Protecția Consumatorilor) for consumer mediation, or directly to AACR (Autoritatea Aeronautică Civilă Română), which is the designated national enforcement body for EU 261 in Romania. Both are free. If those still fail, the final step is the Judecătoria — small claims below 50,000 lei follow a simplified procedure and you don't need a lawyer.

Bottom line on DIY: zero cost, one to three hours of focused work for a clean case, plus weeks or months of waiting. The single biggest cost is not giving up at the first "no".

For a step-by-step walkthrough of the Romanian version of this process, see our DIY flight compensation guide and the original Romanian text on compensare zbor singur .

The service route: how no-win-no-fee actually works

A claims service — AirHelp, Flightright, Compensair, ClaimFlights, SkyRefund — does the exact work above on your behalf. You give them the flight details and a signed authorization (mandat). They run the eligibility check, file the EU 261 claim with the airline, handle the rejections, push back with case law and, if the airline holds out, escalate to AACR or sue at Judecătoria.

The fee model is called no win no fee. If the claim succeeds, the service takes its commission (typically 25-35% plus VAT) from the payout before transferring the rest to your account. If the claim fails, you pay nothing — the financial risk shifts entirely to the service.

This is the model's real value. It works best when:

• Your case is legally contested. The airline calls the cause extraordinary, you suspect it is not, and you don't want to argue it alone.
• Your case is old. Anything 18 months+ requires chasing internal records and getting close to the 3-year prescription wall.
• The airline has already said no and stopped replying. The service has the leverage of mass volume — airlines settle faster with AirHelp than with a single email from you.
• You don't have the time. A 70% payout received without effort beats a 100% payout you never actually file.

A user on r/europe summarises the trade-off honestly: "Save your time and pay the 30%. They got me €600 from Ryanair after I had given up." That is the use case.

Check your flight with AirHelp — free eligibility check, no fee unless you win

What the service actually charges: the numbers

Here is the part we are not going to soften: the service is not free and the fee is not small.

Across the major EU claims services the commission is 25-35% of the recovered amount, often plus 19% VAT. Flightright publicly states 29.75% including VAT for its base commission, with a surcharge if the case escalates to legal proceedings. AirHelp charges around 35% on standard cases and can go up to roughly 50% when a lawsuit becomes necessary. The exact percentage moves over time, so always confirm the current rate on the service's own site before signing.

What that looks like in money on a Romanian flight:

So on a €600 claim, the difference between DIY and a service is roughly €210. That is the price of skipping the work. Whether it is worth paying depends entirely on how hard your specific case is and how much your free time is worth to you.

"Is it a scam?" — what the worry is really about

This is the single most asked question, so it deserves a direct answer.

The major services are not scams. AirHelp and Flightright are registered EU companies that have paid out hundreds of millions in real compensation over the past decade. They file real claims, they litigate real cases at Judecătoria-equivalent courts across Europe, and they transfer real euros to real bank accounts. The money does not vanish.

But the angry online reviews point at something real — it is just not fraud. Two specific complaints come up repeatedly:

1. "They did nothing and took 30%." This is the case where the airline pays after one form. Subjectively unfair — objectively, you signed a contract that paid for the risk transfer, not the labour. If the airline had refused, the service would still have pursued for free.
2. "My case took 14 months." This happens. Hard cases against difficult airlines (Turkish Airlines, certain low-cost carriers) drag on. The service does not control airline response times.

Neither is fraud. Both are about value for money. The real risk for a Romanian passenger is not getting scammed — it is paying 25-35% for a claim you could have handled in two emails yourself.

A signed authorization (mandat) and providing your IBAN are normal — the compensation has to land somewhere. The judgement to make is not "is this fraud" but "is my particular claim worth a third of the payout in fees".

Romania-specific factors: institutions and the 3-year clock

Two pieces of Romanian law shape the decision.

The 3-year prescription period. Romania's Civil Code sets a general 3-year prescription for personal property claims, and EU 261 compensation falls under that limit. The CJEU confirmed in Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11, 2013) that national limitation periods apply to EU 261 claims. So:

• A flight disrupted in June 2026 can be claimed up to June 2029.
• A flight from 2022 or earlier is almost certainly out of reach.

DIY is realistic for anything in the first 12-18 months. After that, getting airline records becomes harder and a service's leverage starts to matter more.

The institutional chain in Romania.

ANPC and AACR are both free and accessible in Romanian. AACR is the body the European Commission lists as the National Enforcement Body for air passenger rights in Romania. Judecătoria is the last resort and where a service really earns its 25-35% — most people will not sue their airline alone.

For routings that touch a French or Italian airport, jurisdiction is governed by the EUR-Lex Regulation 261/2004 text and CJEU Rehder (C-204/08, 2009), which lets you sue at either the departure or arrival airport's court.

Side by side: DIY vs service for Romanian passengers

Who should do what: clear cases

There is no universal answer, but most passengers fall into one of three buckets.

Claim it yourself if: your flight was delayed more than 3 hours or cancelled, you have your booking confirmation and boarding pass, the disruption is recent (within 12 months), and the airline does not have an obvious extraordinary-circumstances defence. Expected work: one to three hours over a few weeks. Expected payout: 100%. If the airline unexpectedly rejects you and your energy runs out, you can still hand the case to a service afterwards — starting DIY costs nothing.

Use a service if: the case involves a missed connecting flight (CJEU Folkerts C-11/11, 2013, and Wegener C-537/17, 2018, both apply), the airline already rejected you in writing, the flight is more than 18 months old, or you simply lack the bandwidth. The no-win-no-fee model is genuinely useful here — you risk nothing and you gain ~65-75% of a payout you might never have pursued alone.

Hybrid approach: start DIY for free. If the airline rejects you with a weak excuse, escalate to ANPC (free). If ANPC mediation fails, then consider handing the case to AirHelp — the fee is the same whether you hand it over on day 1 or day 90.

For Romanian-language coverage of this same decision, see our native page compensare zbor singur sau prin firmă . For carrier-specific guidance, the Wizz Air and Tarom pages walk through the airline-specific quirks.

Hand your case to AirHelp — no fee unless they recover your money

Frequently asked questions

Is it worth using a claims service instead of claiming EU 261 myself from Romania?

It depends on the case. A simple, recent delay against a cooperative airline is usually faster and cheaper as DIY — you keep the full payout. If the case is complex, several years old, or already rejected by the airline, a service such as AirHelp earns its 25-35% fee because it handles the paperwork, the ANPC complaint, and if needed the Judecătoria filing.

How much does AirHelp charge Romanian passengers?

AirHelp typically charges around 35% of the recovered amount on a no-win-no-fee basis, with a higher rate (often up to 50%) if the case must go to court. Flightright publicly states 29.75% including VAT for its base commission. On a €400 claim that means you receive roughly €260-€280 after the fee — the rest stays with the service.

How long do I have to file an EU 261 claim under Romanian law?

Romania applies a 3-year general prescription period under the Civil Code, in line with CJEU Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11, 2013), which confirmed that national limitation periods govern EU 261 claims. So a flight disrupted in June 2026 can still be claimed in June 2029. Older flights are out of reach in most cases.

Can I still claim if the airline already rejected me?

Yes. An airline rejection is not the final word. You can ask for the exact reason in writing, then escalate to ANPC for consumer protection mediation or to AACR (Autoritatea Aeronautică Civilă Română) as the national enforcement body for EU 261. If those fail, you can sue at Judecătoria — small claims under 50,000 lei follow a simplified procedure. At that point many people instead hand the case to a service.

Is AirHelp a scam?

No. AirHelp and Flightright are registered EU companies that recover real money. Real complaints exist but they are about value-for-money (paying 30% when the airline paid quickly after a simple form) or about slow cases — not fraud. The real risk is paying a third of your payout for a claim you could have handled in an hour yourself.

What if the airline claims extraordinary circumstances?

Push back. CJEU Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07, 2008) confirmed that ordinary technical defects are not extraordinary. Krüsemann (C-195/17, 2018) ruled that a wildcat strike by the carrier's own crew is also not extraordinary. If your rejection cites a technical issue, weather that did not affect other flights, or a strike of the airline's own staff, you have grounds to escalate — either DIY through ANPC/AACR or via a service.

Not legal advice

This page is general guidance for Romanian passengers, not legal advice. Fee figures for claims services move over time — always check the current commission on AirHelp, Flightright or Compensair before signing. For advice on your individual case, contact ANPC, AACR or a Romanian lawyer specialised in consumer law.

Last reviewed: 2 June 2026.