What Happens if You Miss Your Connecting Flight

Essential Facts

6 min readSep 23, 2019

If your journey didn’t go the way you expected, have no worries. Better read this guide to learn how to protect your rights and get a missed flight compensation.

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Table of contents

Missed Connecting Flight Due to Delay
Missed Connection Flight Compensation: How to Get it?
Essential Steps to Remember to Get Missed Flight Compensation

Keep Calm and Learn about Your Rights

Unfortunately, flights are delayed and cancelled every day, leaving tons of passengers upset with their travelling adventures. If you’ve experienced the same trouble, we’re here to help.

Thanks to EU 261 regulation, your rights are protected and you just need to make sure an airline service doesn’t violate them. So if you fail to catch a connecting flight due to cancellation or a delay (that wasn’t your fault), you’re eligible for missed flight compensation from €250 to €600.

Let us guide you through the pitfalls of such situations and teach you how to defend your rights for reimbursement.

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Missed Connecting Flight Due to Delay

When it comes to delays, the crucial thing that we need to figure out first and foremost is whose fault it was. Depending on who was responsible for you waiting hours for your departure is essential if we want to claim compensation. Let’s have a look at several situations to have a better understanding.

Your flight was delayed due to airline’s fault. As a result, you arrived later than scheduled to the next destination and missed your connecting flight. In that case you’re eligible for compensation.
Your initial departure was delayed because of a blizzard, consequently you didn’t make it on time to your next flight. In this case air service isn’t responsible for your trouble. Such situations are regarded as extraordinary circumstances. Others may include strikes, various weather problems, or unpredicted safety risks.
You arrived later to a connecting flight due to the delay of your initial flight, however, you’ve reached the destination within the necessary time limit. That is to say, you had enough time for a check-in. But you lost the track of time and missed the departure because of that. In such a situation, you can’t claim reimbursement, as you were responsible for failing to catch the flight.
Your initial flight was carried out by one airline and you had a connecting flight ticket of another airline. You missed the connection, because the first departure was delayed. This is a tricky thing, as usually different airlines won’t take responsibility for another airline’s fault.
Your departure was held up due to mechanical problems, so later on you failed to catch a connecting flight. An airline service claims it to be an extraordinary circumstance. However, you should keep in mind that this is the responsibility of an air service. Thus, it’s their fault and they owe you reimbursement.

If you had a peculiar situation, and you can’t make heads or tails who was responsible for a delayed departure, you can always use AirHelp. You can find professional lawyers there who will help you defend your rights.

You should keep in mind that if you missed flight due to delay, there are still some passenger obligations that you must meet to be compensated:

you must have a valid ticket and the connecting flights must be parts of one booking
you have presented yourself for a check-in not later than 45 minutes before a scheduled departure

As you see there are many details and peculiarities that may influence your rights for money reimbursement, so make sure an airline company announces your rights if any unexpected situation occurs.

It’s also worth mentioning that in case your departure was delayed for more than 5 hours, you are eligible for cancelling your flight altogether and ask for a full refund.

Plus, while waiting for a long-delayed departure, an air service is to provide you with services like refreshments and snacks free of charge, as well as possibility to make 2 phone calls or send 2 emails/taxes. These standards apply within different conditions depending on the length of the flight.

You’re entitled to these services if your departure was delayed for 2, 3, or 4 hours for short (below 1500 km), medium (1500–3500 km) or long flights (more than 3500 km) respectively. As a matter of fact the distance of your flight is one of the essential criteria to calculate the amount of your compensation. If you need help calculating the length of your travel, you can ask AirHelp for expert assistance.

Let’s sum up this part, to deal with your reimbursement you need to find out who is responsible for your troubles. You should make sure you meet all the conditions and obligations. Finally, you need to calculate the length of your flights.

Missed Connection Flight Compensation: How to Get it?

First thing you need to understand is how to calculate the length of your flight as it will influence the amount of money you are to get. To understand the distance you need to sum up the length of the whole journey. In other words, all of the flights that were the part of one booking. Below you can see it in figures:

if all flights constitute less than 1500 km, they are regarded as short
if internal/non-internal EU flights constitute 1500–3500 km, they are regarded as medium
if non-internal EU flights constitute more than 3500 km, they are regarded as long

So how much can you get? You can get €250 for short journeys, €400 for medium and €600 for long ones.

If you missed your connection due to air company’s fault, they are to offer you rerouting or a refund. Rerouting means they will provide you with an alternative flight, while a refund means a full reimbursement for your ticket. It’s up to you to decide.

In case an alternative flight was scheduled for the next day, a company had to provide you with accomodation to stay the night and transfer to and from a hotel.

Still, rerouting and a refund doesn’t exclude money compensation. If an air service violated your rights as a passenger and you met all the obligations as a passenger, you are eligible for compensation. There is even such a situation as compensation for additional expenses.

For example, you missed a connection. You were offered an alternative flight but it arrived at alternative airport at your city. As a result, you had additional expenses for transfer.

In such a situation you can ask an airline service for money reimbursement.

As you see before claiming for compensation you need to scrutinize all the rights, obligations and conditions, so you are 100 % sure what you can claim for. In case you feel uneasy with legal rights and duties, leave your troubles to experts in the field — AirHelp is the leading company helping thousands of passengers.

They will guide you through all the steps of claiming for money reimbursement and defending your rights. With them you can feel safe and protected, that is for sure.

Essential Steps to Remember to Get Missed Flight Compensation

We recommend you to use your experience during your future journeys.

Remember to ask an airline company to announce your rights in case a departure is delayed or cancelled.
Make sure the air service provides you with alternative ways of getting to your destination if you missed your connection.
If your original ticket was in higher class than the alternative one, a company must reimburse 30/50/75% of the ticket price.
If your original ticket was in lower class than the alternative one, you don’t have to pay additional money.
Make sure you have a valid ticket and the situation has taken place in the last 6 years
All the flights must be parts of one booking
Rerouting doesn’t exclude money reimbursement
You are eligible for €250, 400, 600 compensation for short, medium and long journeys respectively
You should be offered free drinks and snacks in case of a long delay
A company must provide you with a hotel room to stay if an alternative flight is on the following day

Now you know what happens if you miss a connecting flight, so learn about your rights and don’t hesitate to defend them. If you experienced inconvenience due to airline’s fault, you are eligible for being compensated.