Missed Connection: Who Owes You What (2026)

A missed connection is two different problems wearing the same coat, and what you bought at checkout decides which one you have.

What counts as one booking?

One booking reference covering the whole journey. That is the only test. Not the same airline, not the same alliance, not bags checked through. Two confirmation emails means two bookings, even if both flights are on the same carrier the same afternoon.

Two Court of Justice rulings settled this. Wegener (C-537/17, 2018) held that a journey on one reservation stays inside the regulation even when the connection happens outside the EU. In České aerolinie (C-502/18, 11 July 2019) eleven passengers flew Prague to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi on one reservation. The first leg was on time. The second, flown by Etihad under a codeshare, arrived 8 hours 8 minutes late. The court held the legs form a whole and the carrier that flew the first leg pays. Claim from the airline on your booking. It cannot point at its partner.

How much is the European compensation?

Distance and arrival delay set the number. Article 7(1) measures the distance to “the last destination at which the denial of boarding, delay or cancellation will delay the passenger’s arrival”. A 400 km hop that makes you miss a 9,000 km onward leg is priced as a 9,000 km journey.

The long-haul half rate is not a discount the airline invented. Article 7(2) lets the carrier cut the payment by 50 per cent when it re-routes you and you land within four hours of the original schedule on that band. Three hours fifty late from Singapore is €300. Four hours ten is €600. Those twenty minutes are worth €300, so record the arrival time.

Compensation dies if the airline proves extraordinary circumstances. The re-routing and the care do not. Article 9 is unconditional. The claim mechanics are the ones we set out for EU flight delay compensation and UK compensation after Brexit.

What does a US airline owe you?

No cash. There is no US equivalent of EU261. There is a refund rule, and a refund is not compensation. Under 14 CFR Part 260, a flight is “significantly delayed or changed” when you are scheduled to arrive three or more hours late on a domestic itinerary, or six or more on an international one. The definition also catches a re-route with more connection points than the original, which a misconnect often produces. You are then owed an automatic refund of the fare, paid within seven business days on a card.

The trap is in the word “automatic”. The refund is owed only if you reject the alternative flight. Accept the re-route and the refund right goes with it. One or the other, never both.

Food and hotels come from the carriers’ own customer service plans, published on the Department of Transportation dashboard. The usual commitments are a meal or voucher once a controllable delay leaves you waiting three hours from scheduled departure, a hotel for a controllable overnight, ground transport, and free rebooking. These are promises DOT enforces, not statute, and none apply when the cause is weather or air traffic control.

What about Canada?

Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations measure the delay at arrival at your final destination, as Europe does. For a cause within the airline’s control and not safety-related, a large carrier pays CAD 400 for 3 to 6 hours, CAD 700 for 6 to 9, and CAD 1,000 beyond 9. Small carriers pay CAD 125, CAD 250 and CAD 500. Care starts after two hours, and a large carrier that cannot move you within nine hours must book a competitor.

What if you booked the legs separately?

Then you are the connection, and you carry the risk. The first airline discharged its contract when it landed you at the intermediate airport. The second never sold you a connection, so it has broken nothing. The CAA is blunt about a flight you failed to reach: it is unlikely an airline would pay compensation or offer a free alternative.

Your bag follows the same logic. On separate tickets it is checked to the first stop, so you collect it, clear immigration where that applies, and re-check it. Through-checking across two bookings needs an interline agreement and the agent’s goodwill, which makes it a favour, not a right.

Two things reduce the exposure. Buy the self-transfer protection some booking sites and airports sell at checkout, after reading what it actually pays. Check your travel insurance for missed departure cover, which demands a named cause and a minimum delay, and which the exclusions narrow further than the headline suggests. Failing both, leave a gap you have costed yourself. No airline publishes a minimum connection time for a self-transfer, because none is offering one. We would not build one on under three hours in a single terminal, or four if you change terminal and re-check bags.

Can you claim more than the fixed amount?

Sometimes. Article 12 preserves your right to further compensation, with the fixed sum deducted from it. On an international journey the route to that money is Article 19 of the Montreal Convention, which makes the carrier liable for damage caused by delay unless it proves it took all measures reasonably required. The Article 22(1) cap rose to 6,303 Special Drawing Rights per passenger on 28 December 2024, up from 5,346.

That is a ceiling on proven loss, not a payout. It buys back the prepaid hotel night you never used. It does not buy back a ruined evening. Keep the receipts, because the claim is only as good as the paper behind it. If the airline refuses and you paid by card, our guide to chargebacks and Section 75 covers the next lever.

What do people get wrong?

• Measuring the wrong delay. The departure delay on the first leg is irrelevant. In Folkerts (C-11/11) the flight left Bremen about two and a half hours late and the passenger reached Asunción eleven hours late. Eleven is the number that pays.
• Chasing the wrong airline. On one reservation the carrier that flew the first leg can be liable for a partner’s delay. Claim from the airline you booked with.
• Taking the voucher. In the US, accepting a re-route or a credit ends the refund right. In the UK and the EU, Article 15 says obligations cannot be limited or waived by a clause in the contract of carriage, and a passenger who accepted less because they were not properly informed can still sue for the difference.
• Leaving the airport before the re-route is confirmed in writing. Walk out with nothing and you are later arguing about whether you refused the alternative.

Questions people ask

My first flight was on time and the second one was late. Who pays?
The operating carrier of the delayed leg is the primary target, but on one reservation the carrier that flew the first leg can also be liable. Claim from the airline on your booking and let it argue with its partner. A codeshare changes nothing: the test is the reservation, not the flight number.

I arrived 3 hours 20 minutes late on a 7,000 km trip. What is that worth?
€300 under EU261, £260 under UK261. You were re-routed and landed within four hours of schedule on a long-haul band, so the airline may halve it. At 4 hours 5 minutes it is €600 or £520.

Can I abandon the trip and go home instead?
Yes. Article 8(1)(a) gives reimbursement within seven days for the parts you did not fly, plus the parts you did if the journey no longer serves any purpose, plus a return flight to your first point of departure. Say this at the desk, not after booking your own way home.

Are the European rules about to change?
A revision of Regulation 261/2004 has been in negotiation for years, and the Conciliation Committee reached a provisional agreement on 15 June 2026. The joint text is in legal-linguistic revision and is not law. Until it applies, the three-hour threshold and the amounts above govern your claim. There is no deadline in the regulation itself either: the limitation period comes from the law of the country where you sue, so claim in weeks, not years.

Sources: Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as retained in UK law, Articles 6 to 9, 12 and 15, legislation.gov.uk. UK compensation amounts and duty of care, UK Civil Aviation Authority. EU amounts and connecting flights, Your Europe, European Commission. Judgments in C-11/11 Folkerts, C-537/17 Wegener and C-502/18 České aerolinie, Court of Justice of the European Union. Status of the 261/2004 revision, European Parliament Legislative Train. US refund rule, 14 CFR Part 260 and the final rule. US carrier commitments, US Department of Transportation. Canadian amounts, Canadian Transportation Agency. Montreal Convention liability limits, ICAO, 2024 revised limits.

Researched from primary sources and checked September 2026. General information, not advice.