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Do I have legal claim for a compensation if a flight into the EU was delayed or missed due to a connecting flight if the carrier is not EU based?

I have the following case: We flew Qatar-Airways from Colombo to Berlin. However, due to a delay during the first flight to Doha, we missed our connecting flight to Berlin. Consequently, we had to be rebooked and take a detour via Zürich to Berlin. In the end we arrived in Berlin Tegel with a delay of about 5 hours. Are we entitled to 600€ per passenger due to the long delay because of the missed flight? Or are we not since Qatar-Airways is not based in the EU? Thanks!

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No -- the EU air passenger rights apply to flights that

  • are operated by an EU/EEA carrier, or
  • depart from an an EU/EEA airport.

Your flight meets neither of these conditions.

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  • 1
    No wonder these sneaky guys from Qatar-Airways schedule almost impossible to catch connecting flights only for the return -.- Thanks! – SmCaterpillar May 13 '18 at 14:26
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    @SmCaterpillar , it is doubtful they do it intentionally, as it loses them signficant money: they had to pay your rebooked flights. You don't get anything out of it, but they don't either. – Aganju May 13 '18 at 14:51
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    @Aganju but they can rebook on a cheaper carrier/flight (a night flight with some empty seats for example) and pocket the difference – ratchet freak May 13 '18 at 15:15
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    @ratchetfreak IF they manage to re-sell the empty seat on the original plane within the short period between finding out he's not coming and door closing. Otherwise, that seat flies empty, and the replacement flight costs extra money to them, even if only a little. – Aganju May 13 '18 at 15:21
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    @Aganju No, good yield management will account for the missed connection rate when overbooking. If they know historically 25% of the connections will be missed, every 4 connecting seats booked, they will sell another seat on an overbook basis. – user71659 May 13 '18 at 19:21

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