Snow in UK: Can I get a refund if my flight is cancelled or delayed due to bad weather? Your rights explained

The UK had its coldest night of the winter so far on Tuesday (16 January) when the temperature fell to -14C in Dalwhinnie in the Scottish Highlands. Hundreds of schools in Scotland have remained shut today (Thursday 18 January) amid weather warnings.

As the risk of snow increases there is also a greater risk that flights will be cancelled and delayed. The Met Office has issued a yellow snow and ice warning for parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland for today while the north and north-west of the UK are likely to see further wintry outbreaks over the next 24 hours, meaning there could be airport disruption.

Yesterday (Wednesday 17 January) flights were cancelled and delayed from Leeds Bradford Airport from around midday. Numerous arrivals were diverted to the airports in Liverpool, Birmingham, East Midlands or Humberside. The airport said the disruption was due to “adverse weather”. 

Here we explain what your right to a refund is if your flight is cancelled or delayed due to snow.

Can I get a refund if my flight has been cancelled due to snow?

If your flight gets cancelled because of snow or other forms of weather then you have the legal right to either a full refund, including other flights from the airline that you won’t use in the same booking such as onward or return flights, or a replacement flight to get you to your destination. If you’re part-way through a journey and you don’t want a replacement flight, you also have a right to a flight back to the airport you originally departed from. 

It is worth asking for a refund or replacement at the airport if you can. If not, you can claim from the airline later but this may take some time on the phone and you could incur call charges.

If your flight is cancelled or delayed due to the snow you are unlikely to get any compensation because airlines are not required to pay compensation for delays or cancellations caused by extraordinary events outside of their control. Even though it does snow in the UK every now and again it is considered a rare enough event to fall outside of the compensation law's definition. 

However, if you live in a part of the UK such as northern Scotland snow is more common so you may have more luck arguing your case. The amount of compensation you could be entitled to depends on the length of the delay and the journey.