When can you claim for a missed connection?

A journey of over 3,500 km on one booking starts badly. Your first flight lands 90 minutes late, and you miss the onward flight. The airline moves you to a later one, and you arrive five hours late. It then owes you €600, unless it proves extraordinary circumstances. It cannot point to the first flight being only 90 minutes late.

The reason is the Court of Justice's ruling in Air France v Folkerts. When your flights form one reservation, EU261 looks at the whole journey. Compensation turns on the delay at your final destination. A delay of three hours or more there brings in the fixed amounts in Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004.

The journey must also fall within the rules. Any journey that departs from an EU airport is covered, whatever the airline. A flight into the EU counts when an EU carrier operates it, subject to some conditions. Your arrival time is the moment a door opens and passengers may leave the aircraft.

Write to the operating airline with your booking reference, both flight numbers and your real arrival time. Mention the Folkerts judgment and the Commission's 2024 Guidelines in your letter. Keep your boarding passes and any rebooking messages.

What decides your claim is the end of the journey, not the connecting airport. In Air France v Folkerts, the Court of Justice ruled on directly connecting flights. Compensation depends on the arrival delay at the final destination. Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 then sets the amount. A one-hour delay that breaks the connection is enough if the knock-on delay reaches three hours.

Picture a journey of up to 1,500 km on one ticket, with a change of plane. Your first flight lands one hour late, and the doors of the next flight have closed. The next seat gets you home four hours late. The airline owes you €250 per passenger, unless it shows extraordinary circumstances.

Check two things before you write. Both flights must be on the same reservation. And the cause matters. A technical problem with the aircraft is generally the airline's own risk. Severe weather or air traffic control limits may be extraordinary, but the airline must prove it.

Send your claim to the operating airline. Include both flight numbers and the time you actually got off the plane.

Two separate tickets mean two separate journeys. The Court of Justice judges delay and distance to the final destination only when flights were booked as a single unit. Folkerts and Wegener are the through-booking cases. With separate tickets there is no shared final destination, and each airline is judged only on its own flight.

The consequence can be harsh. Your first flight lands two hours late, and you miss a second flight on another ticket. The first airline arrived under three hours late, so it owes no fixed compensation. The second airline's flight left on time, so it owes nothing either. The cost of a new ticket generally falls on you.

One exception is worth checking. If the first flight on its own arrived three hours late or more, Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 can apply to it alone. A flight of up to 1,500 km would then carry €250. The amount follows that flight's distance, not your whole trip.

If you buy separate tickets, leave a long gap between flights. Read any travel insurance wording before you travel. Keep proof of the first flight's arrival time.

On a self-transfer, each flight is its own contract. A normal connection is one reservation to your final destination, sold by the airline. Here, the airlines do not know about each other. If the first flight runs late, the second one leaves without you.

One common case: your first flight lands 100 minutes late, and you miss the self-transfer flight. You buy a new seat. Neither airline owes you fixed compensation, because neither flight reached three hours late. Had the first flight landed three hours late, its airline could owe you €250, €400 or €600 by distance. Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 sets those amounts.

EU261 links flights for compensation only when they were booked as a single unit. The Court of Justice applied that idea in Folkerts and Wegener. A self-transfer breaks the link, so each flight is judged on its own arrival delay and its own distance.

Some booking sites sell their own connection guarantee. That promise comes from their terms, not from the regulation, so read what it covers. Leave plenty of time between flights. Check whether your travel insurance covers missed departures.

As an illustration, your ticket says you land at your final destination at 18:00. The first leg is 40 minutes late and you miss the connection. The replacement flight lands at 20:40, but the doors open at 21:05. Your delay is three hours and five minutes, so compensation can be due.

Two rulings explain that result. In Air France v Folkerts, the Court of Justice looked at directly connecting flights booked together. It measured the delay at the end of the journey. The delay on each separate leg does not decide the claim.

In Germanwings, the Court fixed the moment the clock stops. That is when at least one aircraft door opens and passengers are allowed off. Time spent taxiing or waiting on the stand counts toward your delay.

Note the door-opening time yourself, or ask a fellow passenger to confirm it. Claim from the operating airline under Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004, citing Folkerts, Germanwings and the Commission's 2024 Guidelines. Keep your original itinerary showing the planned arrival.

Under EU261, Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 pays a fixed amount by distance band, not by ticket price. Up to 1,500 km pays €250. Flights within the EU over 1,500 km, and other flights from 1,500 to 3,500 km, pay €400. Anything over 3,500 km pays €600. Under UK261 the same bands pay £220, £350 and £520.

For directly connecting flights booked as one unit, distance may be assessed to the final destination. The regulation uses the great-circle distance. That is the shortest line over the earth's surface, not the route you flew.

This matters when the first leg is a short hop to a hub, followed by a long flight onward. An airline may offer €250 based on the first leg alone. If the straight line from your first airport to your final destination is over 3,500 km, the band is €600.

There is one cut to know. On a journey over 3,500 km, a final delay between three and four hours can halve the amount to €300. Look up the great-circle distance for your own route, and quote it in your claim.

Your journey from an EU airport to Asia is over 3,500 km, on one Emirates booking. The first flight lands late and you miss the onward flight in Dubai. You reach your final destination six hours late. Emirates can owe you €600, unless it proves extraordinary circumstances.

Article 3 sets the scope, and Article 7 the amount. Article 3(1)(a) of Regulation 261/2004 covers every flight departing from an airport in the EU, whatever the airline. In Wegener, the Court of Justice added a key point. A directly connecting journey that starts in the EU stays covered even when you change planes outside Europe.

The same logic applies at other hubs outside Europe, such as Doha or Istanbul. What matters is that the journey began in the EU and was booked as a single unit. A separate ticket for the onward flight breaks that link.

Claim from the operating airline, and state your final destination and planned arrival time. Keep the full itinerary that shows both flights on one booking. If you started in the UK, UK261 applies instead and pays in pounds.

Before you buy anything, go to the transfer desk or open the airline's app. On a single booking, the airline sold you a journey to your final destination. When its delay breaks the connection, ask for the earliest flight that gets you there.

The Commission's 2024 Guidelines, Section 4.2, cover the case where the airline offers no proper rerouting. Reasonable self-rerouting costs may then be recoverable. You must show the purchase was necessary and that you kept costs down. A last-minute business seat when economy was free will be hard to justify. Keep the airline's refusal in writing, and every receipt.

Compensation is a separate claim from the rebooking. Suppose your journey from Europe to the United States is over 3,500 km, and you land six hours late. Under the Folkerts case, that final-destination delay is what counts. The airline can still owe you €600 on top of the new seat, unless it proves extraordinary circumstances.

Separate tickets are different. Each airline is judged only on its own flight, so the second airline can treat you as a no-show. Regulation 261/2004 generally gives you no claim against it for the missed seat.

A trip from the United States to Asia via Frankfurt, all on one ticket, runs late. You miss the onward flight in Frankfurt and reach Asia eight hours late. EU261 fixed compensation is not due on that basis, because the journey starts and ends outside the EU.

The Court of Justice settled this in Airhelp v Austrian Airlines, case C-451/20. A passenger flew on one reservation between two places outside the EU, changing planes at an EU hub. Reading Article 3(1), the Court held that the EU connection did not bring the journey within Regulation 261/2004. It made no difference that a Community carrier operated the flights.

Your other rights do not disappear. The Montreal Convention can cover provable losses caused by delay, such as extra costs you can show with receipts. It is not automatic fixed compensation, and it has limits and defences.

Keep receipts for meals, hotels and transport you paid for yourself. Then write to the airline with your losses. If your trip started or ended in Canada, check Canada's own passenger rules instead.

Article 3(1)(b) of Regulation 261/2004 covers flights from outside the EU to an EU airport when a Community carrier operates them. KLM, Lufthansa and Air France are examples of Community carriers. Equivalent benefits in the country of departure must not displace the regulation.

Add the Folkerts rule on connections. On one booking, the delay that counts is the delay at your final destination. So a short delay on the inbound leg can be enough if it breaks the connection.

As an illustration, you fly from Toronto to Vienna via Amsterdam on one KLM booking, a journey over 3,500 km. The first flight lands late and you miss the onward flight. You reach Vienna five hours late. KLM can owe you €600 under Article 7, unless it proves extraordinary circumstances such as severe weather. A maintenance problem is generally not extraordinary.

Claim from the operating carrier of the delayed flight. The answer may differ if an airline outside the EU operated it under an EU flight number.

Start with your boarding pass or booking confirmation. It usually says "operated by", and that is the name to use, not the flight number prefix. Articles 2(b) and 3(5) of Regulation 261/2004 make the operating air carrier responsible. That is the airline whose crew and aircraft flew the flight.

The ticket seller, the marketing airline and the travel agent are not generally liable just because they sold the trip. On a connection, find which flight caused the problem, and claim from its operator.

One common case: an EU airline flies you from Lisbon to Frankfurt, and a partner flies you on to Asia. The Lisbon flight lands late and you miss the onward flight. Your claim goes to the airline that operated the Lisbon flight. Under Folkerts, your final delay and the total distance still decide the amount. A journey over 3,500 km arriving four hours late or more carries €600.

If the airline you write to says another carrier is responsible, ask it to name that carrier in writing.

Picture a missed connection late in the evening, with the next flight at 07:00. The airline should book and pay for your room and the shuttle. If it gives you nothing, book a reasonable hotel yourself. Keep every receipt, and ask staff to note in writing that no help was offered.

This duty of care comes from Articles 6 and 9 of Regulation 261/2004, with the detail in Article 9. When a delay forces an overnight stay, the airline must provide a hotel and transport to and from it. It must also offer meals and refreshments in proportion to the wait, and two calls or emails. McDonagh v Ryanair confirms that care continues during extraordinary events.

The meal duty starts at set points. It begins after two hours for flights up to 1,500 km, and after three hours in the middle band. For other flights it begins after four hours. The hotel duty applies whenever you need to stay overnight.

Care is separate from compensation. You can get a hotel and still claim €250, €400 or €600 if you arrive three hours late or more.

Suppose a storm delays your first flight, and you miss the last connection of the day. The airline may owe you no compensation. It still owes you meals, a hotel for the night, transport to the hotel and two calls or emails.

Articles 5(3) and 9 of Regulation 261/2004 treat care and compensation differently. The fixed payment of €250 to €600 can fall away if the airline proves extraordinary circumstances. Severe weather, air traffic control limits and some airport events may qualify. The airline must still show the event caused the delay and that it took all reasonable measures.

Care is another matter. In McDonagh v Ryanair, the Court of Justice held that the duty of care continues during extraordinary events. There, a volcanic ash cloud had stranded the passengers. The airline still had to look after them.

If the airline offers nothing, pay for reasonable options yourself and keep the receipts. Then claim the costs back from the operating airline in writing.

Regulation 261/2004 pays fixed compensation for a cancellation, a denied boarding, or arrival three hours late or more. Articles 3 and 7 set the scope and the amounts. A long queue at the border is not one of those events by itself. Airport and security events may also count as extraordinary circumstances, though the airline must prove the link.

You are also expected to present yourself on time. Article 3(2) generally requires a confirmed booking and timely check-in, unless an airline transferred you. Missing a flight that left on time is a weak basis for a claim.

The picture changes when the first flight was late. It lands 50 minutes late, and the passport queue then makes you miss the connection. You arrive five hours late on a journey of up to 1,500 km. Under Folkerts, the airline can owe you €250 if its delay caused the missed connection, unless it proves extraordinary circumstances.

Ask the airline in writing why you were rebooked. Keep your boarding passes, and note the time the first flight's doors opened.

A family of three flies over 3,500 km on one booking, misses the connection and arrives five hours late. The airline can owe €600 each, so €1,800 in total, unless it proves extraordinary circumstances. Claim per passenger, children included.

Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 sets a fixed sum, not a share of your ticket. On one booking, the band follows the great-circle distance to your final destination. Up to 1,500 km pays €250. Flights within the EU over 1,500 km, and other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km, pay €400. Over 3,500 km pays €600.

The long-haul amount can drop. For a journey over 3,500 km arriving between three and four hours late, the airline may halve it to €300. A rerouting that arrives within the limits set by Article 7(2) can also be halved. Arrive four hours late or more on that journey, and the full €600 applies.

The UK's retained version, UK261, uses the same bands in pounds. They are £220, £350 and £520, with a reduced long-haul amount of £260.

On a connection, first ask which flight the event affected. Suppose the airline blames a storm at your final destination. Your first flight, though, was late because of a fault found during the pre-flight checks. That fault caused the missed connection. Point it out, and ask for the full €250, €400 or €600.

The burden sits with the airline under Article 5(3) of Regulation 261/2004. It must prove an extraordinary circumstance, show it caused your delay, and show it took all reasonable measures. A one-line refusal does not meet that test.

Some reasons often fail. In Wallentin-Hermann the Court of Justice held that routine technical problems are generally part of running an airline. In Krüsemann it held that a strike by the airline's own staff is generally not extraordinary just because it was sudden. Severe weather, air traffic control limits, bird strikes and external strikes may qualify.

If the airline still refuses, you can complain to the national enforcement body or go to court. Check your country's time limit first: one year in Poland, six years in England and Wales. The European Parliament approved a reform on 7 July 2026 with a single nine-month limit. It is expected to apply from the second half of 2027, and the current national limits stand until then.

As an illustration, your direct flight of up to 1,500 km is cancelled two days before departure. The airline gives you a connection that lands three hours after your original time. That is outside the two-hour limit, so the airline can owe you €250, unless it proves extraordinary circumstances. If the rerouting arrives within the Article 7(2) limits, the amount can be halved.

The notice windows sit in Article 5(1)(c) of Regulation 261/2004. Told 14 days or more ahead, you get no fixed compensation. Told between seven and 13 days ahead, you lose the claim in one case only. The new flight must leave up to two hours early and land under four hours late. Told under seven days ahead, the limits shrink to one hour early and two hours late.

The replacement being a connection changes nothing in that test. What matters is when the new journey leaves and when you finally arrive. If the connection itself goes wrong, the later arrival counts too.

You could also have chosen a refund or a later flight instead. Keep the cancellation message that shows the date you were told. Articles 5, 7 and 8 together cover the notice, the amount and that choice.

Picture a trip from Manchester to Heathrow and on to a city over 3,500 km away, all on one booking. The first flight lands late and you miss the onward flight. You reach your final destination five hours late. The airline can owe you £520, unless it proves extraordinary circumstances. A three-to-four-hour delay on that journey can reduce it to £260.

After Brexit the UK kept its own version of Regulation 261/2004. It works like the EU rules, but uses UK territory and UK carriers, and pays in pounds. EU and UK coverage are separate, so check which one fits your trip.

A departure from Heathrow is covered whatever the airline. A flight into the UK from outside is covered when a qualifying carrier operates it. Connections on one booking follow the same final-destination logic as the EU rules.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority publishes guidance on delays and cancellations. In England and Wales you generally have six years to bring a claim, and five in Scotland. All of this rests on the UK's retained Regulation 261/2004.

A tight connection that the airline itself sold is part of its own planning. When the first flight lands late and you miss the second, the length of the layover is not the test. The test is how late you finally reach the airport on your ticket. The Court of Justice settled this in Folkerts (C-11/11). On one booking, a short first-leg delay counts if it makes you three hours late at the end.

Picture a Dublin to Rome trip on one KLM booking, changing in Amsterdam with 45 minutes to spare. The Dublin flight lands 25 minutes late and the Rome flight leaves without you. You reach Rome 4 hours late. Dublin to Rome is about 1,890 km and stays inside the EU, so Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 sets €400 per passenger.

The picture changes if the first flight was on time. Compensation follows a delay, a cancellation or a refusal to board. If nothing ran late and you simply could not reach the gate, there may be no event to claim for. If staff refused to board you while you were at the gate in time, that is a denied-boarding question instead.

Ask the transfer desk to move you to the next flight on the same booking, and keep both boarding passes. Note when the aircraft door opened at your final airport, because that is the arrival time that counts. Then send your claim to the operating airline, quoting that final arrival time.

A trip from Madrid to Montreal on one ticket changes planes in Paris. A late first flight makes you miss the evening departure, and the airline moves you to the next morning. You land in Montreal about 18 hours late. Madrid to Montreal is about 5,550 km, so the compensation is €600 per passenger. The cut to €300 on long flights applies only to arrivals 3 to 4 hours late, so it does not apply here.

Compensation is measured at your final destination, not at the airport where the chain broke. The Court of Justice said so in Folkerts (C-11/11), and the 2024 Commission guidelines follow it. Article 7 of Regulation 261/2004 takes the great-circle distance from where you started to where you end. The airline can refuse only if it proves the first delay came from extraordinary circumstances.

The overnight stay is a separate duty. Under Article 9, the airline must give you a hotel, transport between the airport and the hotel, and meals while you wait. That care is owed even when the cause was extraordinary, as the Court confirmed in McDonagh v Ryanair (C-12/11).

At the transfer desk, ask for a hotel voucher before you leave the airport. If none is offered, book a reasonable room and keep every receipt. Keep the new boarding pass too, since it shows when you finally arrived.