Missed connection compensation: when a delayed first flight costs you the second

The single-booking rule

The Court of Justice treats connecting flights on a single reservation as one “flight” for the Regulation:

• the delay is measured at the final destination (Folkerts, C-11/11);
• the distance is the straight line from the first departure airport to the final destination (Bossen, C-559/16);
• a journey departing from an EU airport is covered as a whole, even when the connection and the delayed leg are outside the EU on a non-EU airline (Wegener, C-537/17; České aerolinie, C-502/18) — the EU airline that operated the first leg is liable.

Example: Lisbon → Frankfurt → Tokyo on one Lufthansa ticket. The Lisbon flight leaves 50 minutes late, you miss the Tokyo flight and arrive 9 hours late. Compensation: €600 (Lisbon–Tokyo is over 3,500 km).

Separate tickets

If you bought Lisbon–Frankfurt and Frankfurt–Tokyo separately (even from the same airline), they are separate contracts. The Lisbon flight’s own arrival delay (50 minutes) is below the threshold, so no compensation; the missed Tokyo flight is a no-show under the second contract. Some airlines rebook as goodwill, and the first flight’s cancellation would still trigger a refund of that flight — but the loss of the second ticket is not covered by the Regulation.

Inbound journeys into Europe

For a journey from a third country into the EU, the rules apply only if the operating carrier is an EU airline. Where the legs are on different carriers, coverage depends on which airline operated the disrupted leg and the terms of the booking — Horvera flags these as needing a closer look.

Minimum connection times

Missing a connection because you were slow through the airport is not the airline’s fault; missing it because the first flight was late is. Airlines sometimes argue the connection time was too short — irrelevant if they sold it as one ticket.

What to claim

Compensation for the whole journey, re-routing to the final destination, and care during the wait at the connection airport (meals, hotel if overnight). Claim from the airline that operated the first (delayed) flight, or the marketing airline of the single booking.