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I was going back from Moscow - Amsterdam and had a connecting flight to London.

The Moscow flight departed 1 hour 30 minutes late and arrived 1 hour 41 minutes late. I missed my connecting flight and as it was the last one the airline put me in a hotel to fly tomorrow.

When I landed initially, I already had the airlines application downloaded. On the top of my itinerary it says I was entitled to compensation by spending 10 Euro at any cafe or restaurant and it was valid for 24 hours. I activated it.

Around 10 hours later in the airport I place an order at the cafe after confirming I could use the compensation. When paying they said there was no money on the boarding pass and to go to my gate. When I got to my gate they said I couldn't get compensation because the plane didn't arrive 2 hours or more late.

I found this strange as it said on the app I was entitled the day before. Should I have pursued the matter further?

Airline was KLM.

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    I believe you arrived at your final destination a lot more than two hours late if you had to stay overnight... What was the reason for the initial delay? You may be owed compensation on top what they owed you in assistance (hotel, meals, drinks...).
    – jcaron
    Feb 27, 2019 at 12:16
  • @jcaron the reason was snowy weather. But the lady said that the 2 hours isn’t for the whole journey just one flight
    – Xnero
    Feb 27, 2019 at 15:11
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    Case law says otherwise.
    – jcaron
    Feb 27, 2019 at 19:55
  • @jcaron oh, can you please post an answer with relevant citations. Thanks
    – Xnero
    Feb 27, 2019 at 19:57
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    Doesn't account for the confusing information provided to you but €10 is not compensation, it's meant to provide assistance by paying for refreshments. You might be entitled some extra compensation on top of that.
    – Relaxed
    Apr 30, 2019 at 15:35

1 Answer 1

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You were travelling to an EU member state on an airline based in an EU member state, so the compensation rules in EC261/2004 apply. Provided you had a single ticket covering the whole journey, the ECJ's ruling of May 2018 in Wegener v Royal Air Maroc says that

when two or more flights were booked as a single unit ... the change of aircraft that may arise during a connecting flight has no influence on that classification. ... It follows that it must come within the scope of Article 3(1)(a) of Regulation No 261/2004.

Tell KLM to pay up, and if they don't, fire up your country's equivalent of a small claims court.

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    To clarify, this means OP is eligible for €400 compensation, right?
    – krubo
    Apr 30, 2019 at 17:37
  • The OP is eligible for whatever compensation the regulations provide for a delay of 12+ hours in a journey of that length. My answer addresses the question as asked: is it lawful for the airline to consider only the first half of the journey, which was delayed by only two hours, thus protecting the airline from a regulatory requirement to pay compensation.
    – MadHatter
    Apr 30, 2019 at 18:31

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