easyJet refund policy: when you’re entitled to your money back
If you cancel your own easyJet flight, you’re only entitled to a refund within 24 hours of booking, or in certain medical and bereavement cases. If easyJet cancels your flight instead, the law gives you an automatic choice between a full refund and being rerouted, regardless of how much notice you were given. Here’s exactly when each applies, how long a refund takes, and how to actually request yours.
Key takeaways
- Cancel it yourself after the 24-hour booking window, and your fare is non-refundable, though you can usually still change the flight date or the name on it.
- easyJet cancels your flight, and you can always choose a full refund instead of rebooking. That choice doesn’t depend on how much notice you were given.
- Delayed 5+ hours and don’t want to travel any more? You’re entitled to a refund instead of waiting it out.
- A refund gets you your ticket money back. Compensation is a separate, additional payout, and whether you’re owed that does depend on notice period.
- Even on a non-refundable ticket, you can usually reclaim the government tax (Air Passenger Duty) if you never flew.
Am I entitled to a refund if I cancel my own easyJet flight?
easyJet fares are non-refundable by design, to keep prices low. There’s one exception: cancel within 24 hours of booking and you’ll get a full refund of the flight and any travel extras, such as bags or seats, minus a cancellation fee. An unused Flex Pass is refunded too.
Once that 24-hour window has passed, a standard fare stays non-refundable. You can usually still change the flight date or the name on the booking instead. Travel extras booked through a separate provider, like car hire or a hotel, need to be cancelled directly with that provider under its own policy.
This is what most people mean by an easyJet refund request outside of a cancellation: changing your mind, not a disruption easyJet caused. It’s a different situation from the one below, where easyJet is the one cancelling.
Your right to a refund when easyJet cancels your flight
When easyJet cancels a flight, or denies you boarding, you get to choose. Under UK261, which mirrors EU261, the options are:
- A full refund of the ticket price
- A partial refund, plus a flight back to where you started, if the rest of the journey no longer makes sense for your plans
- Rerouting to your final destination at the earliest opportunity
- Rerouting at a later date that suits you better, subject to seat availability
This choice belongs to you, not easyJet, and it applies whatever the notice period was, and whatever caused the cancellation. If your flight is delayed by 5 hours or more and you’d rather not travel at all, you’re entitled to a refund on the same basis.
This refund right is separate from compensation, the additional payout you may be owed if easyJet caused the disruption. See our guide to easyJet compensation for when that applies. The two rights work differently, and the section below explains exactly how.
How long does an easyJet refund take?
For a standard 24-hour cancellation, easyJet doesn’t publish a fixed processing timeframe. For medical or bereavement refund claims specifically, easyJet aims to process them within 7 days of receiving your documents.
If it’s been a couple of weeks with no update on any refund request, follow up through the same channel you used to submit it, quoting your booking reference.
How to request your easyJet refund, step by step
Which process applies depends on why you’re asking for a refund:
- Cancelling within 24 hours of booking: cancel the booking yourself through Manage Bookings. The refund is processed automatically, minus the cancellation fee.
- Serious illness that prevents you from travelling: download and complete easyJet’s medical declaration form, have it signed by your doctor, and submit it with supporting documents through the Contact Us form.
- Bereavement: use the Contact Us form, select the bereavement option, and attach a death certificate.
- easyJet cancelled your flight: you’ll usually be prompted to choose between a refund and a new flight, either in the app, by email, or by contacting easyJet directly. It isn’t automatic, so check your booking rather than assuming a refund is already on its way.
Outside of these routes, there isn’t a general-purpose easyJet refund form. The only refund-specific paperwork is the medical declaration form for serious illness and bereavement claims.
Did easyJet cancel your flight? Find out if you're entitled to a refund and compensation.Check Your Flight
Refunds on easyJet Holidays and deposits
Package holidays follow a different set of rules from flight-only bookings. easyJet Holidays lets you secure a booking with a £60-per-person deposit if you book 28 or more days ahead, with the balance due 28 days before departure, or you can pay the full amount upfront.
Cancel 60 days or more before departure, and your deposit is returned as easyJet Holidays credit, with anything else you’ve paid refunded to your original payment method. This applies to the first cancellation of a booking only.
When you cancel | What you lose |
60+ days before departure | Nothing: deposit becomes credit, rest is refunded |
59–28 days before departure | Your £60-per-person deposit |
27–14 days before departure | 75% of the total booking value |
13–0 days before departure | The full booking value |
Every easyJet Holidays booking is ATOL-protected. If easyJet Holidays cancels on you, rather than the other way round, you’re entitled to a full refund to your original payment method, typically within around 10 days.
Can you reclaim Air Passenger Duty on an unused easyJet ticket?
Air Passenger Duty (APD) is a UK government tax included in your ticket price for flights departing the UK. It’s collected by easyJet on the government’s behalf, not kept by the airline, and you can usually reclaim it even on a fare that’s otherwise completely non-refundable, because you never actually took the flight.
You claim APD back from the airline directly, not from HMRC. easyJet doesn’t publish a fixed fee or deadline for this specific claim on its site, so it’s worth asking about both when you contact customer services. Other airlines charge an admin fee for this and cap how long after the flight you can claim, so don’t leave it too long before asking.
Refund or compensation: what’s the difference?
A refund gives you back what you paid for the ticket. Compensation is a separate, additional payout, worth £220 to £520 (€250 to €600) depending on distance, owed when easyJet caused a long delay or cancellation.
The refund choice above always applies when easyJet cancels, no matter the notice given. Compensation doesn’t work the same way: you’re not owed it if easyJet told you 14 or more days before departure, or gave you 7 to 13 days’ notice with a suitable replacement flight, or under 7 days’ notice with an even closer replacement flight. Extraordinary circumstances, like severe weather or air traffic control restrictions, rule it out too.
In practice, that means you can be entitled to a refund with no compensation attached, most often when the notice period rules above apply. See our easyJet compensation guide for exact amounts and eligibility. The case below shows the reverse: a passenger refunded automatically, then compensated only after a separate claim.
A real case: an easyJet refund, alongside separate compensation
In August 2025, an AirAdvisor client’s easyJet flight from Milan to Porto was cancelled with only a few hours’ notice, well inside the 7-day window that opens the door to compensation. None of easyJet’s rebooking options got her to Porto within 48 hours, so she booked her own replacement flight instead, at more than double the original fare.
easyJet refunded the price of the cancelled ticket, since the airline couldn’t offer a timely alternative. That refund is separate from compensation, and it didn’t cover the extra cost of the replacement flight: when she asked easyJet to reimburse that difference directly, they turned her down.
AirAdvisor claimed the part easyJet wouldn’t pay voluntarily: the €250 fixed compensation owed under EU261 for a cancellation confirmed less than a week before departure (this flight departed Italy, so EU261 applies rather than UK261, though the two work the same way). The refund and the compensation are two separate rights, and here both applied to the same disruption.
FAQs
Can I get a refund if I simply change my mind about my easyJet flight?
Only within 24 hours of booking. After that, the fare is non-refundable, aside from the medical and bereavement routes above.
Does easyJet refund cancelled flights automatically, or do I need to request it?
It isn’t automatic. When easyJet cancels, you’ll usually need to choose between a refund and a new flight yourself, rather than waiting for money to appear.
Is there an easyJet refund form?
Not for a standard cancellation or refund request. The only refund-specific form is the medical declaration form, used for serious illness and bereavement claims.
Can I get a refund if I no-show for my easyJet flight?
No. A missed flight is treated the same as any other cancellation made after the 24-hour window: the fare itself isn’t refunded, though the government tax usually still is.
Do I still get my Air Passenger Duty back if my ticket is non-refundable?
Yes. APD is separate from the fare, and you can normally reclaim it directly from easyJet even when the ticket itself can’t be refunded.
Can I get a partial refund on my easyJet Holiday if I cancel close to departure?
It depends on timing: 75% of the booking value is charged 14 to 27 days out, and the full amount is charged within 13 days. Cancelling 60 or more days ahead is the only window with no loss beyond the deposit.
Author:
Amy LancelotteJob/Position: Senior Writer & Content Strategist
Amy Lancelotte is a Senior Content Writer and editorial contributor at AirAdvisor with over seven years of experience producing research-based articles for international audiences. Her work focuses on travel, aviation, and air passenger rights, with an emphasis on factual accuracy, verified data, and clear, reader-first explanations.
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