AirHelp vs Skycop compared for UK travellers

Your flight has been delayed, cancelled or overbooked. You are fairly confident you are owed compensation under UK 261 or EU 261. The next step is deciding which flight delay compensation company to hand the claim to.

AirHelp and Skycop both appear near the top of any search. Both operate on a no-win, no-fee basis, and both promise to deal with the airline so you do not have to. Beyond that, the two services differ considerably in what they charge, how they are rated by customers, and how much they actually offer beyond the core claims process.

Skycop takes a 44% service fee, one of the highest in the industry, and currently holds an "Average" Trustpilot rating of 3.1 out of 5 from roughly 7,800 reviews. AirHelp charges 35%, carries an "Excellent" rating of 4.5 out of 5 backed by more than 234,000 reviews, and has spent over thirteen years building operational depth across multiple regulatory frameworks.

The numbers tell most of the story. Below, we set them side by side so you can judge for yourself.

The gap that stands out first is the fee: 35% against 44%. On a standard £520 claim, that amounts to roughly £47 less in your pocket with Skycop. We break the arithmetic down in detail below.

Flights departing from a UK airport, or arriving in the UK on a UK or EU carrier, are covered by UK 261. You could be owed up to £520 per person if:

• your flight landed three or more hours late

• it was cancelled with fewer than 14 days' notice

• you were denied boarding due to overbooking

Flying back from an EU airport? That leg falls under EU 261 instead, with compensation up to €600. In practice the rules work the same way, it is just a different regulator enforcing them.

Airlines are well aware that most passengers give up after the first rejection. They cite extraordinary circumstances that rarely hold up to scrutiny, or drag the process out until claimants lose patience. A flight delay compensation service can take that fight off your hands, but which one is actually worth using?

When choosing between flight delay compensation companies, the first question most people ask is straightforward: what percentage do I lose?

AirHelp: 35%, VAT included

AirHelp charges a flat 35% service fee with VAT already included. The figure you see when you submit your claim is the figure deducted if the claim succeeds. No post-calculation VAT adjustments, no hidden extras.

Skycop: 44%, one of the highest on the market

Skycop's standard fee is 44%, also VAT-inclusive. Multiple independent comparison sites have flagged this as one of the steepest rates in the industry.

The difference in practice

On a standard £520 claim settled without legal action:That is roughly £47 more in your pocket on a single claim. For a family of four on the same delayed Ryanair flight out of Stansted, the gap widens to roughly £188.

Eliminating the fee entirely

AirHelp+ membership (from £34.99/year) drops the commission to 0% on covered trips. On a single successful £520 claim, the membership pays for itself more than ten times over. Skycop Care (from roughly £27/year) also waives its 44% fee for covered flights, but does not match AirHelp+ on any of the additional protections covered later in this article.

Fees matter, but a low price counts for little if the company cannot actually get the money to you. That is where the difference between AirHelp and Skycop becomes hard to ignore.

AirHelp: "Excellent" and tested at scale

AirHelp holds a 4.5 out of 5 "Excellent" rating on Trustpilot, drawn from over 238,000 reviews. A dataset that size does not flatter anyone; it reflects the full range of claims, from a straightforward three-hour delay on a BA flight out of Heathrow to complicated multi-carrier cancellations with connecting legs. AirHelp has almost certainly handled something like yours before, which tends to show in the consistency of outcomes.

Skycop: a considerably smaller foundation

Skycop currently sits at 3.1 out of 5 on Trustpilot, based on roughly 7,800 reviews, a rating Trustpilot classifies as "Average". What stands out in recent negative feedback is not the complaints about losing claims, but about waiting: compensation confirmed, then silence for months, with little explanation. For anyone deciding which service to trust with a legitimate claim, that is worth keeping in mind.

British travellers connect through Amsterdam, fly direct to São Paulo, take package holidays to Antalya, route through Singapore or Bangkok on the way to Asia. The moment your trip crosses a regulatory border, the company handling your claim needs to know more than just UK 261.

AirHelp: five frameworks, thirteen years of case law

AirHelp covers claims under UK 261, EC 261 (EU), ANAC 400 (Brazil), SHY Passenger (Turkey) and the Saudi passenger rights regulation.

That matters in practice. A cancelled BA flight from Heathrow to Rio, for instance, could involve both UK 261 and ANAC 400. AirHelp has the infrastructure to handle that overlap, built over 3 million claims and more than a decade of operations.

Skycop: growing, but still building

Skycop built its name on EC 261 claims within the EU and has recently begun expanding into UK 261, ANAC 400, SHY Passenger and Canadian regulations.

Handling claims under multiple frameworks, however, requires more than legal knowledge on paper. It requires operational depth, carrier relationships and tested cross-border processes. AirHelp has had thirteen years to develop that. Skycop is still in the early stages.

What this means for UK travellers

If you only fly short hops within Europe, the coverage gap may not matter. But codeshare agreements, connecting hubs outside the EU, long-haul routes to South America or the Middle East: the moment your itinerary has international complexity, AirHelp's multi-framework experience is a considerable advantage.

Both companies offer a subscription that waives the service fee on covered flights. What you get beyond that, though, is a different matter entirely.

AirHelp+: a travel protection platform

AirHelp+ (from £34.99/year) goes well beyond fee removal:

• 0% commission on compensation claims for covered trips

• Fast insurance payouts: €100 within hours for delays over three hours, €100 for lost or delayed luggage, €200 for missed connections

• 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide when your flight is delayed by more than one hour or cancelled

• Free Fast Track at security at participating airports, including London Heathrow

• Real-time flight tracking with proactive disruption alerts

• Up to £520 in airline compensation per eligible disruption, handled start to finish

• 24/7 support, travel discounts, eSIM and car hire deals

More than 12 million passengers travel with AirHelp+ cover.

The free mobile app, available in eight languages, handles the practical side: it picks up disruptions by syncing with your email and calendar, checks eligibility and lets you file straight from your phone. If your easyJet flight from Gatwick is cancelled at six in the morning, you can have a claim started before you have left the terminal. The AirHelp app has now been downloaded over 1 million times. Not bad, eh?

Skycop has no dedicated app.

Skycop Care: narrower in scope

Skycop Care (from €31.99/year) waives the 44% fee on covered bookings and includes:

• 0% commission on covered flights

• Access to selected airport lounges during significant delays

• Priority claim processing

• Luggage and extra expenses assistance

• Family plan options (up to 5 people)

There is no fast insurance payout, no Fast Track at security, no mobile app, and the lounge network includes “selected airport lounges”, compared to AirHelp's 1,300+ locations.

The practical difference

Skycop Care cuts your costs. AirHelp+ cuts your costs and gives you something to rely on while the disruption is still happening. For a passenger standing at Manchester Airport watching their Alicante flight disappear from the departures board, that is not a small difference.

Three things separate these two services, and AirHelp holds the stronger hand on all of them.

Fees. AirHelp charges 35% against Skycop's 44%. On a single claim that keeps £47 more in your pocket; for a family of four, closer to £188. AirHelp+ members pay no commission at all.

Trust. A 4.5/5 Trustpilot rating across 238,000+ reviews is one of the largest feedback datasets in the claims industry. Skycop's 3.1/5 from around 7,800 reviews tells a different story, with repeated complaints about confirmed payouts that took months to arrive. That is not a minor footnote when you are waiting on money an airline owes you.

Breadth. AirHelp+ covers fast insurance payouts, 1,300+ airport lounges, Fast Track at security, real-time flight alerts and a free app in eight languages. Skycop Care waives its fee and offers lounge access at selected airports. If your Jet2 flight from Manchester is cancelled at half five in the morning, the gap between those two things is immediately obvious.

Skycop has recovered compensation for passengers and Skycop Care is a reasonable option for budget-conscious frequent flyers. But the full comparison is not particularly close:

• 35% fee vs 44%, VAT included, no hidden charges

• 238,000+ Trustpilot reviews at 4.5/5, against roughly 7,800 at 3.1/5

• 28 million+ passengers served over 13+ years

• AirHelp+ with fast payouts, 1,300+ lounges, Fast Track, and a free app with real-time tracking

• AI-powered claim processing built for speed and consistency at scale

• A passenger-first experience built for the way people travel today

Twenty-eight million passengers and a quarter of a million reviews represent a body of evidence that is hard to argue with.

Check your flight now and find out whether your past disruptions are worth something.