Remember THIS when you fly to Europe

While this is true, expect to fight the airlines tooth and nail to get anything like the 400-600 euro compensation.

My flight from Iceland to Amsterdam got rerouted through Denmark, adding 8 hours to the travel time. Because of the distance, this would make me eligable for a 400 euro compensation, even with accepting the alternative flight. As soon as I got home I contacted their security, and they blew me off saying the flight was cancelled beyond their reach therefore it was not applicable. Some quick research showed that flights at the surrounding days went. Turned out my flight was underbooked so they rebooked me, so I filled in a complaint form, sent it to them and the authoraties, and was ignored for a month after several tries.

At this point you can go and fight them yourselves, or outsource it to any of the many EU no pay no cure companies who will fight them in your place. This will cost about 40%.

After a year with some updates and increasing threats from my legal company, they finally gave in just short of an official legal hearing. I got 240 euros. From what I read from all the communication, the legal company got 160 euros plus many times that in legal fees. The airline lost a LOT.

Might have been able to do it myself but this was pretty satisfying. Do not stop fighting for what you have rights to, and maybe the airlines will just pay what they owe you without all this hassle.

Moral of the story fly BA Lufthansa SAS etc and not United or Delta to Europe. US airlines are normally cheaper for this reason