Flight Cancelled, Delayed or Denied Boarding? What DGCA Rules Entitle You To

Short answer: the compensation is not discretionary and it is not a goodwill voucher — it is fixed by a DGCA Civil Aviation Requirement, Section 3, Series M, Part IV. Denied boarding on an overbooked flight pays up to ₹10,000 if you are re-accommodated within 24 hours and up to ₹20,000 if you are not. Cancellation with less than two weeks’ notice pays ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 depending on the flight length, plus a refund. Delay buys you meals, and beyond six hours an alternate flight or a refund, and a hotel if it runs overnight. The large exception: none of it applies where the disruption is outside the airline’s control — weather, ATC, security, a political disturbance.

General consumer information, not legal advice. The CAR is amended from time to time; check the current text on dgca.gov.in before quoting a figure in a claim.

Denied boarding: the numbers

This is the scenario where you hold a confirmed ticket, you reported on time, and the airline will not board you because the flight is oversold. The first step the CAR requires is that the airline ask for volunteers to give up their seats against agreed benefits. Only after that may it deny boarding involuntarily — and then:

Note what “basic fare” means: not the total you paid. It is the base fare line on the fare breakdown, plus the airline’s fuel charge — excluding taxes, user development fees and convenience charges. That is why the caps bite so often.

Cancellation: notice period decides everything

“Whichever is less” is the sting: on a cheap fare the compensation is the fare, not the cap.

Delay: what you are entitled to and when

Delay does not attract a cash compensation figure the way cancellation does. It attracts facilities, on a sliding scale tied to how long the flight itself is:

• Delay beyond 6 hours: the airline must notify the revised time more than 24 hours before the original departure, and offer either an alternate flight within six hours or a full refund.
• Departure between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. and a delay of more than 6 hours: free hotel accommodation, with transfers.
• Delay beyond 24 hours: hotel accommodation, with transfers.

When the airline owes you nothing

The CAR exempts the airline where the cancellation or delay is caused by an extraordinary circumstance that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. In practice that means weather, air-traffic-control restrictions, a security risk, political instability, a strike outside the airline, or an airport closure. It does not automatically cover a technical snag: a defect that arises in the ordinary course of an airline’s own operations and maintenance is the airline’s risk, and “operational reasons” on a status board is not a legal category. Ask for the reason in writing; an airline that will not put it in writing has effectively conceded the point.

Refunds: the timelines

A credit shell or voucher is not a refund. Where the CAR gives you a refund, you may insist on money, and you should say so in the first email rather than accepting a shell and arguing afterwards.

Baggage, and the separate rule for it

Baggage liability on a domestic sector is not governed by the delay CAR but by the carrier’s tariff read with the Carriage by Air Act, 1972. What matters procedurally: report loss or damage before you leave the arrival hall and get a Property Irregularity Report (PIR) number. Without a PIR, almost every subsequent claim fails on proof. For delayed baggage, ask at the counter for the interim expenses the airline’s own policy allows, and keep every receipt.

How to actually claim

1. At the airport: get the reason for the disruption in writing or by email, and a copy of the denied-boarding or cancellation intimation. Photograph the departure board.
2. Email the airline’s nodal officer within a week. Every scheduled airline must publish a Nodal Officer and an Appellate Authority for grievances. Quote the PNR, the sector, the date, the CAR provision and the exact figure you claim.
3. If unanswered in about two weeks, escalate to the Appellate Authority of the same airline.
4. Then AirSewa — the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s grievance platform at airsewa.gov.in and in the AirSewa app. Complaints are routed to the airline with a tracked deadline and escalate to DGCA.
5. Then a consumer commission under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, on e-Jagriti. Air travel is a “service”, the CAR figure is your floor rather than your ceiling, and commissions routinely add compensation for the consequential loss — the missed connection, the forfeited hotel night, the lost workday — where it is evidenced.

Do not skip straight to step 5. Consumer commissions expect to see that you gave the service provider a chance, and the airline’s own unanswered emails are the best exhibit you will have.

Frequently asked questions

How much compensation do I get if my flight is cancelled in India?

If the airline gave less than 24 hours’ notice: ₹5,000 for a flight with block time up to one hour, ₹7,500 for one to two hours, and ₹10,000 beyond two hours — or the booked one-way basic fare plus fuel charge, whichever is less — in addition to a refund. With more than two weeks’ notice, you get a refund or an alternate flight but no compensation.

What am I owed if I am denied boarding on an overbooked flight?

Nothing if the airline puts you on an alternate departing within one hour of the original. Up to ₹10,000 (200% of basic fare plus fuel charge) if the alternate is within 24 hours. Up to ₹20,000 (400%) if it is beyond 24 hours, or if you decline the alternate altogether — in which case you also get a full refund.

Do I get compensation for a delayed flight in India?

Not as a cash figure. Delay entitles you to meals and refreshments on a scale tied to the flight’s block time, to an alternate flight or a full refund once the delay passes six hours, and to hotel accommodation if the delay runs overnight or beyond 24 hours. Cash compensation attaches to cancellation and denied boarding, not to delay.

Can the airline refuse compensation because of bad weather?

Yes. The CAR exempts the airline where the disruption arises from extraordinary circumstances it could not have avoided — weather, ATC restrictions, security, political instability, an airport closure. It does not exempt ordinary technical or crew problems, so ask for the stated reason in writing rather than accepting “operational reasons”.

Where do I complain about an airline in India?

The airline’s Nodal Officer first, then its Appellate Authority, then AirSewa at airsewa.gov.in, which routes the grievance to the airline and escalates to DGCA. If none of that works, file a consumer complaint on e-Jagriti — the CAR amount is the floor, and a commission can award consequential loss on top.

Is a voucher or credit shell an acceptable refund?

Not where the CAR entitles you to a refund. A credit shell is a commercial offer you may accept or decline. If you decline it, the airline owes the money back to the original payment instrument — within seven working days for a card payment and thirty days for cash.