Flight delayed overnight: hotel, transport, meals and the compensation on top

What the airline must provide when you are stranded overnight

Regulation 261/2004 lists the care in Article 9. When a stay of one or more nights becomes necessary — or a stay longer than you intended — the airline must offer, free of charge:

• Hotel accommodation (Article 9(1)(b)).
• Transport between the airport and the hotel (Article 9(1)©).
• Meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to the waiting time, plus two calls, e-mails or messages (Article 9(1)(a) and 9(2)).

The obligation is the airline’s, on its own initiative: you should not have to ask, and you should never be told to “find something and send the bill” as if it were a favour. In practice the desk hands out hotel vouchers and a shuttle time; if it does not, the next section applies.

When “overnight” starts

Delayed flight. Care begins at the care threshold for the distance — 2 hours on flights up to 1,500 km, 3 hours between 1,500 and 3,500 km and on all intra-EU flights over 1,500 km, 4 hours beyond. From that point, Article 6(1)(ii) adds the hotel and transport as soon as the reasonably expected departure is at least the day after the departure previously announced. A 23:40 flight that will now leave at 01:30 is “the day after” on the calendar; a 19:00 flight moved to 07:00 the next morning plainly is.

Cancelled flight. Care applies immediately (Article 5(1)(b)), and the hotel and transport are owed when the re-routing flight the airline offers is expected to depart at least the day after the cancelled flight was planned to. If you choose a refund instead of re-routing, the care obligation ends when you give up the journey.

Denied boarding follows the cancellation rule: immediate care, hotel when the replacement flight is the next day.

Whatever the cause — even a storm

The Court of Justice decided in McDonagh v Ryanair (C-12/11), the volcanic-ash case, that the duty to provide care applies in the most extraordinary circumstances and is not limited in time or amount. An airport closed by a storm, an air-traffic-control failure or a strike can cancel your compensation claim; none of them cancels the hotel. The Court also held that a passenger who received no care may claim back the amounts that were necessary, appropriate and reasonable to make up for the airline’s failure.

If the airline gives you nothing

1. Ask at the desk, once, and note the time and the answer (a photo of a “no hotels available” sign is evidence).
2. Book a reasonable hotel yourself — a mid-range room near the airport, not the suite — and reasonable transport: the shuttle, a train, a taxi where nothing else runs at that hour.
3. Keep every receipt: hotel, transport, meals, and the boarding pass or app screenshot showing the new departure time.
4. Claim the amounts from the operating airline in writing, separately from or together with the compensation claim. Horvera’s workspace produces a free expense-reimbursement request from the receipts you record.

Airlines and ADR bodies apply the same standard the Court set: necessary, appropriate, reasonable. A €90 airport hotel and a €25 taxi at 2 a.m. are reimbursed; a €400 city-centre hotel is argued down.

The compensation on top

Care and compensation are two different claims. The fixed compensation of Article 7 — €250, €400 or €600 (£220, £350, £520 under UK261) per passenger by distance — is due when you arrive at your final destination 3 hours or more after the scheduled time (Sturgeon, Nelson), or when a flight is cancelled with less than 14 days’ notice, unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances. An overnight delay caused by a technical fault, a crew running out of hours or a late inbound aircraft pays both: the hotel that night and the compensation afterwards. An overnight delay caused by a closed airport pays the hotel only.

Being put up in a hotel does not reduce the compensation, and a voucher for a hotel is not a settlement of the compensation claim — do not sign anything that says it is.

Package holidays and connecting flights

On a package holiday the organiser owes you assistance too, but the airline’s Article 9 duty stands on its own — claim the hotel from whichever provides it first. On a connecting itinerary on one booking, the care is owed by the operating carrier of the flight that stranded you, at the airport where you are stranded; the compensation is measured at the final destination.

What to keep

The original and the new departure times (board photo, app screenshot, the airline’s message), what the desk offered and when, every receipt, and the airline’s stated reason for the delay or cancellation.