A flight delay is measured in thresholds, not minutes, and almost nothing happens at the first one. In the UK and the EU, the airline owes you nothing until two hours, meals and messages from two hours, cash from three, and a refund from five. In the US there is no delay compensation at all, only a refund if you choose not to fly after a "significant" delay of three hours at home or six abroad. That leaves the most common delay, the hour spent at the gate while the board says "delayed" and the data on your home SIM runs on roaming rates, with no help from anyone. This guide sets out what you are owed at each threshold, how to tell which threshold you have reached, what to do at the gate so that a claim later succeeds, and the one thing you can claim at 60 minutes: Umi gives any passenger whose international flight is an hour late or cancelled 1GB of free data for the country they are landing in.

Quick answer: At 1 hour the airline owes you nothing anywhere; Umi's flight delay data gives you 1GB free for your destination if an international flight is 60 minutes late or cancelled, claimed with a flight number and an email. At 2 hours (UK and EU, short flights) the airline must feed you and let you contact someone. At 3 hours' arrival delay (UK and EU) you are owed £220 to £520 or €250 to €600 unless the cause was outside the airline's control; in the US a 3-hour domestic delay (6 hours international) is "significant" and you can take a full cash refund instead of flying. At 5 hours (UK and EU) you can abandon the trip for a refund whatever the cause. A cancellation with under 14 days' notice is treated like a 3-hour delay plus a refund or rerouting.

How late is "delayed"?

Three numbers matter, and the airline and the law do not always use the same one.

• The departure delay is what the board shows and what most people mean. It is the figure Umi's offer uses, taken from public airline data at the scheduled departure time.

• The arrival delay is what UK and EU compensation turns on: the moment the aircraft door opens at the destination, measured against the scheduled arrival. A flight that leaves 3 hours late and makes up 20 minutes in the air arrives 2 hours 40 late, and no compensation is due.

• The US "significant delay" is also measured at arrival, at the destination on your ticket: 3 hours for a domestic itinerary, 6 for an international one.

So check the arrival estimate as well as the departure one before you decide what to ask for, and screenshot both.

What you are owed at each threshold

The UK and EU rules are the same scheme (EU261, kept in UK law as UK261 after Brexit) and apply to any flight departing a UK or EU airport on any airline, and to flights arriving in the UK or EU on a UK or EU airline. The US rules are the Department of Transportation's refund regulation plus the commitments each airline has made on the DOT's customer service dashboard. Amounts are for 2026 and the official pages are linked below.

Two notes on the US column. The refund rule (14 CFR Part 260, in force since October 2024) is a refund of what you paid, not compensation; if you fly on the delayed flight you get nothing. And the dashboard commitments are promises the airlines made to the DOT, enforceable through complaints rather than courts, and they apply only to delays the airline classes as its own fault.

Official pages: the UK Civil Aviation Authority, the EU Your Europe air passenger rights page, and the DOT airline customer service dashboard.

What to do at the gate

The claims that succeed are the ones with evidence collected while the delay was happening, not reconstructed a week later.

1. Screenshot the departure board and the airline's app showing the delay and the new time, with the clock visible. Do it again each time the estimate moves.

2. Type your flight number, date and email into Umi's flight delay page. If the flight is 60 minutes late or cancelled by the time it departs, 1GB for your destination is waiting when you land. This takes thirty seconds and is the only thing on this list that pays out at one hour.

3. At two hours (UK and EU), go to the desk and ask for the care vouchers. Airlines rarely offer them unprompted. If the desk is unstaffed, buy reasonable food yourself and keep the receipts; the airline must reimburse them.

4. Ask the airline, in writing (the app's chat or email is fine), what the cause of the delay is. "Operational reasons" is not a cause; press for whether it was the airline's aircraft, crew or scheduling, since that decides compensation.

5. Do not accept vouchers or miles in place of cash compensation. You can take them for care, but compensation is yours in money if you ask.

6. At five hours (UK and EU), decide whether the trip still makes sense. If not, tell the desk you are not travelling and claim the refund; keep any compensation already due.

7. If you booked on a card with travel insurance, check its trip delay cover. Many US cards pay fixed amounts for meals and hotels from 6 or 12 hours, independent of the airline.

8. Claim compensation after the trip in writing to the airline, with the screenshots. In the UK you have six years; in most EU countries two to three. If the airline refuses, escalate to the CAA-approved dispute body or the national enforcement body in the EU country of departure.

The one-hour gap, and why Umi fills it

Most delays are short. A one-hour delay is the most common kind, and it is exactly the kind the law ignores: no vouchers, no cash, no refund, and an hour of your phone on airport WiFi that may or may not work, or on your home SIM's roaming rate. Umi's offer is built for that hour. If your international flight is delayed 60 minutes or more, or cancelled, you get 1GB of mobile data for the country you are flying to, at no cost, and it switches on when your eSIM connects there.

The rules as published on the flight delay page:

• Delayed 60 minutes or more at the scheduled departure, or cancelled, based on public airline data. International flights only.

• The data is for the country you are flying to and is valid for 7 days from when your Umi eSIM first connects there.

• One claim per flight number and date, per person; you can claim for another flight after 30 days.

• You claim with the flight number, the date and the email you use (or will use) in the Umi app. Install Umi with the same email and the gift is linked to your account.

There is no form, no receipt and nothing to send the airline. It does not replace the compensation you may be owed at three hours; it is the thing you get at one hour, when nobody else gives you anything.

If the flight is cancelled

A cancellation gives you more rights than any delay, and the choices need making at the desk rather than later.

• You choose between a full refund of the unused parts of the ticket and rerouting to your destination as soon as possible, on the airline's or, if theirs is much later, another carrier's flight. The airline cannot push you onto a flight days away if a seat exists sooner.

• You are owed care while you wait for the rerouting, including a hotel if it is overnight.

• You are owed compensation at the 3-hour rates unless the airline told you 14 or more days before departure, or the cause was extraordinary, or you were rerouted close to the original times.

• In the US, a cancellation entitles you to an automatic full refund if you do not accept the alternative the airline offers, and to meals and a hotel for controllable cancellations under the airline's dashboard commitments.

• Umi's 1GB applies to a cancelled international flight exactly as to a delayed one; claim it with the original flight number and date, and the data is waiting when you eventually land.

When your delay turns into a trip

Once you are moving again, the question is what your phone does on arrival. If the flight qualified, the free 1GB covers maps, messages and the taxi app for the first day or two. For the rest of the trip, the same eSIM carries pay as you go from $2.55/GB in most of Umi's 200+ destinations, or a country Plan sized for the stay, on a balance that never expires; whatever you do not use comes home with you, as explained in eSIM data that never expires. If you are weighing it against the airport SIM counter or your home network's roaming, our best travel eSIM guide and the pay-as-you-go eSIM explainer cover the trade-offs, and if you are landing somewhere with its own rules for visitors' phones, see Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia and Russia.

Stuck at the gate? Check your flight now; if it is an hour late, your data is sorted before you board.