Missed Flight Connections Compensation

Missed connecting flight due to airlines’ fault, you may be entitled to compensation of up to 600€ or refund of ticket cost for the part of the journey not covered.

Missed Flight Connections

The concept and application of compensation claims for a missed connecting flight is simple and easy to understand.

Any air journey which has at least one stop-over in between where the passenger has to change the aircraft to reach the final destination consist of a connecting flight.

In order to claim compensation for missed flight connections due to delays or cancellations as per European laws under EC 261, it is necessary for the passenger to book the entire journey under one ticket or one booking reference.

How does flight connections work?

In case you have booked separately the two flights, your claim for missed flight due to delay is not admissible for compensation.

Let’s consider an example:

An air traveler books himself for different flights separately.

The first leg of the journey is delayed but not to the extent that he can claim flight delay compensation but long enough to miss the second leg.

In this scenario, the passenger cannot claim compensation.

Missing the connecting flight is obviously strenuous. Since the passenger is left stranded for hours at the airport.

Sometimes, even minor delays in original schedule lead to miss your connecting flight and you may have to wait for hours to get the replacement flight to the destination.

In the long-distance flights which often involve one or more stops and connecting flights in the itinerary, these cases are more frequent.

Fortunately, the laws dealing with air passenger rights in the US or Europe have prudently provided the scope to the air travelers to claim delayed flight compensation from the erring airlines.

What does EU 261 Rule entitles you on Missed Connections?

One does not find a specific section dealing with compensation for missed flight connections in the European Union Regulation EC 261/2004 but the numerous court decisions have provided the requisite direction on the issue which is immensely helpful in resolving these claims.

It is now largely established that the delay at the passenger’s final destination is the most decisive factor to be taken into account for calculating the length of the delay. This holds true while determining the outcome of compensation claims made for flight delays, flight cancellations, denied boarding due to overbooking.

The entitlement for compensation claims is operative if there’s a delay at the final destination due to flight delays of more than 3 hours or flight cancellations. This also means that an air passenger beleaguered by the flight cancellation or delay at the origin which results in missing the connecting flight to their final destination and consequentially entails an overall delay of more than 3 hours at the final destination, thus eligible for compensation.

It may be pertinent to note here that extreme weather conditions or strike, etc. are interpreted as Exceptional Circumstances which exempts the airlines from payment of any compensation. Whereas, cancellations or delays due to technical or mechanical faults or operational hiccups can entitle the passenger to claim compensation up to 600€ (or $700).

Missed Connections Compensation Calculator

The interactive website of Claim Flights is extremely user-friendly, and in our compensation checker tool you can check how much amount you are eligible to claim from the airlines.

You just need to submit basic flight information like flight number, flight date, etc. along with the reason for missed connection i.e. due to delay in your first flight or cancellation or any other reasons.

Once you fill in the requisite fields, you will be asked to sign a digital form which enables us to take up the claim procedure on your behalf. We have exclusively developed flight database of EU based flights to compare and get your claims faster.

It will be pertinent to mention here that presently our scope of processing claims is limited to flights under the EU Member States only.

All US citizens can also avail our services pertaining to their missed connecting flight faced within, in or from the EU Member States and benefit from EC Regulation 261/2004 which extends equal protection to air passengers of all nationalities.

Petya Petrova

Petya Petrova

International Legal Strategist

Petya Petrova-Racheva holds a Master of Law (LLM) degree, and has broad knowledge of European Laws in different countries. She loves travelling and her dog, as well as her family.

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