Compensair vs AirHelp: Fees and Group Claims

Compensair vs AirHelp: The Short Answer

Compensair and AirHelp do the same basic job: file an EU261 flight-delay or cancellation compensation claim on your behalf and take a cut if they win. What actually matters isn't which brand is bigger — it's what each one discloses about its own fee, what it says it covers, and what happens once a claim needs more than a form submission. This comparison uses only what each company states on its own site, not summaries from a third-party list.

What Each Service Actually Does

The pitch on both homepages is nearly identical: enter your flight details, find out in about two minutes whether you're owed compensation, and let the company deal with the airline. Compensair's own site (checked 2026-09-06) frames this around four trigger events — delayed flight, cancelled flight, denied boarding, and missed connection — each capped at up to €600 per passenger. AirHelp's homepage (checked 2026-09-06) uses the same €600 ceiling and a similar intake: what went wrong, was the flight delayed or cancelled, or something else such as a strike or denied boarding. AirHelp's own page title and meta description go further, describing itself as the ‘#1 Air Passenger Rights Experts’ and ‘#1 Flight Compensation Experts’ (AirHelp, checked 2026-09-06) — that's a self-description on its own homepage, not an independently verified ranking.

Compensair names the legal basis directly: EU Regulation 261/2004. AirHelp's homepage states the €600 figure without citing the regulation by name in the section we could read — that doesn't mean a different rule applies, only that its own copy doesn't spell it out the way Compensair's does.

How Much You Actually Keep: The Fee Question

This is the clearest difference we could confirm, and it's asymmetric — one company publishes its cut, the other doesn't.

AirHelp states its fee outright on its homepage: "Our standard 35% fee includes VAT and comes directly from the compensation we secure for you, and never out of your pocket." Our arithmetic on AirHelp's stated 35% fee: on a full €600 claim, that works out to roughly €210, leaving about €390 in a standard-rate case.

Compensair's homepage doesn't display an equivalent fee statement, and we could not find a dedicated pricing page — our crawl found 52 internal links from the homepage and none matched a pricing-page pattern. That's a gap in what we could verify, not a claim that Compensair charges more or less than AirHelp. If the fee percentage decides it for you, ask Compensair directly before you sign anything.

Airline and Country Reach

Compensair's homepage claims it has processed claims against "150 airlines from 60 countries, including charter flights" — a specific, checkable figure. AirHelp didn't publish an airline or country count on its own page; it leans on passenger-scale claims instead (see below). Compensair is the one that put a specific number on its own page.

Trust Signals — Different Kinds of Numbers

Compensair displays one specific figure: a 4.8-out-of-5 rating from 976 reviews (the platform isn't named in what we captured, just a "Review Me" link beside the score). That's a modest, easy-to-audit number.

AirHelp's homepage is less consistent about scale. In different sections of the same page it states "3M+ passengers got paid," "26 million customers helped," and "Trusted by 28M+ passengers" — three figures without a clear explanation of what each measures. That doesn't mean the company is misleading anyone; large claims businesses often mix "helped," "served," and "paid" loosely across marketing sections. But it means AirHelp's scale claims read as directional, while Compensair's single 4.8/5-from-976 figure is the easier of the two to independently check.

One more point worth flagging: a customer testimonial on Compensair's homepage says they "received my compensation after 12 days." That's one reviewer's experience, not a turnaround guarantee — contested claims can take far longer with either company.

Beyond a Single Claim: Memberships and Extras

AirHelp is the only one whose homepage describes a paid membership beyond one-off claims: AirHelp+, which it says includes "Fast Track, up to €1,000 per disruption, and lounge access during delays" — a subscription-style product for frequent flyers who'd rather pay for protection in advance.

We could not confirm whether Compensair offers a comparable membership. Its homepage excerpt didn't surface one, but our capture method reliably pulls headings and text that contain numbers — a non-numeric mention of a membership tier could exist without appearing in what we cached. The accurate statement is "AirHelp names a membership product, Compensair's homepage didn't surface one," not "Compensair has no such product."

Filing for a Group

AirHelp's homepage explicitly confirms group claims: "You can claim for friends, family, children, and colleagues. Each person you traveled with could also be eligible for up to €600 compensation — just include them in your claim." If you book flights for a household or a group trip, that's a direct answer rather than something to guess at.

Compensair's homepage doesn't include an equivalent statement in what we captured — that's an absence in what we captured, not evidence they don't offer it.

Which One Fits Your Situation

If a disclosed fee percentage matters most, AirHelp's homepage gives you a number to plan around (35%, VAT included) before you submit anything — Compensair's site doesn't hand you that figure up front, so you'd need to ask before you can compare.

If a specific, named coverage figure matters more — how many airlines, how many countries — Compensair's "150 airlines, 60 countries" claim is the more concrete data point of the two, since AirHelp leans on passenger-scale claims instead.

If you fly often enough that ongoing disruption protection is worth paying for rather than a one-time claim, AirHelp+ is a named product built for that; Compensair's homepage doesn't show an equivalent offer.

If you're filing for a group — a family trip where several people were on the same delayed flight — AirHelp's homepage states that outright; with Compensair, confirm it directly since its homepage doesn't spell it out.

If you already have an AirHelp claim underway and want to understand the "assignment agreement" you're asked to sign, see our AirHelp assignment agreement checklist instead of a summary here — that's a separate, more detailed piece.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Compensair and AirHelp cover the same maximum payout?

Both homepages advertise the same ceiling: up to €600 per passenger.

Which one is cheaper?

Only partly answerable. AirHelp discloses a standard 35% fee, VAT included. Compensair does not publish an equivalent figure on the pages we checked, so we can't say which is cheaper — confirm Compensair's fee directly before submitting a claim if that's your deciding factor.

Can I use either service if my flight was cancelled rather than delayed?

Yes. Both companies list cancellation as a qualifying event, alongside delay, denied boarding, and — for Compensair specifically — missed connections.

Do I need to pay anything upfront?

AirHelp's homepage states: "No win, no fee," and its fee "comes directly from the compensation we secure for you, and never out of your pocket." We didn't find pay-structure language in what we captured of Compensair's homepage — confirm its terms directly before signing anything.

Can I claim for family members who were on the same flight?

AirHelp's homepage explicitly confirms this — friends, family, children, and colleagues can be included in one claim, each potentially eligible for up to €600. Compensair's homepage doesn't include the same explicit confirmation, so ask directly if you're filing for a group.

For each program's full profile, including how the claims link on this site is set up, see our Compensair and AirHelp pages. Both sit in our travel category alongside other trip-protection services, and other claims and travel-protection partners we track are listed on the Travelpayouts network page.