Flight delayed, risk of missing connection, can I cancel and get refund?

Question

I have a long trip with 2 connections. If the first flight is delayed by 3h or more such that I will miss my second flight, can I decide not to board, get my luggage back, and get full refund (or reschedule for another day)?

At the check-in, I was told that I won't since it would be my choice not to board, and the company would offer me an accommodation instead.

The final destination has terrible connections and if I miss the first one I may end up with a 48h trip (instead of 20h) which I definitely don't want to do. (And I would also miss a job thing.)

This is an international trip EU/CA with flights operated by two companies. Not sure if policies change in the US.

EDIT

Itinerary : Catania - Munich - Montreal - Edmonton. All booked through Air Canada (one booking, not multiple). First two flights are operated by Lufthansa.

I was wondering if my situation would also apply to other trips but same scenario for future reference. (Long delay causes to miss connection and one would rather not take the trip and reschedule for another day rather than being offered reschedule to the following day and overnight stay).

EDIT 2

The flight had a 2h delay and I (and a few other people in the same situation) had to rush to the other gate but still made it (we arrived right when they started boarding).
What really sucked was that the delay was incremental, so we couldn't really know how much it was until the very end. They boarded when the delay was still 1h30m, but then told us to wait 30m more. I think that at point (already on the plane) it was too late to cancel and ask for refund even if the delay would have been longer.
Anyway, the final flight to Edmonton was canceled so I ended up with 13h delay anyway for a total of 4 flights anyway. A really fun trip.

Answer 1

Because you are flying from the European Union, you are covered by the EC261:

Reimbursement and a return flight in the event of a long delay (5 hours or more) at departure

If your flight is delayed at least 5 hours at departure, the airline must reimburse your ticket and, if you have a connecting flight, offer a return to the airport of departure at the earliest opportunity.

The airline must refund you, but only after 5 hours (not 3).
From the paragraph above, I also understand that you could request a refund + return to Catania in case you already flew the first segment. However, "earliest opportunity" is ambiguous and might even be a few days depending on the situation.

Answer 2

That's not entirely clear.

You probably have booked CTA 11:05-14:05 MUC 16:45-18:50 YUL, which gives you a very comfortable 2:40 layover in Munich.

If there is a massive delay, you will need to approach the counter as soon as it is reasonably clear that you will miss the connection. Some of this will depend on your negotiation skills. LH is not operating a lot of flights out of CTA so chances are they you use local contractors to handle their check-in (and not LH staff). I found the skill of these type of contractors to be all over the place.

Firstly, you need to make the gate agent accept that you will miss the connection. MUC has a ridiculously low stated minimum connection time (as low as 30 minutes), so they won't accept it until maybe 16:15 or so. Once they do, they have to rebook you. They may still refuse: "Just fly to Munich and have the people sort it out there". They are not wrong: the service desk in Munich is much better set up to handle this, but that doesn't help.

You need to insist on rebooking options right then and there. Chances are, all options will result in at least 12 hours of delay at the final destination. You then need to refuse these options as unacceptable, since you get there too late. If you do this for long enough they may offer to cancel for a full refund or you can suggest it yourself.

Timing is important. You want to have this discussion as soon as it's reasonably clear that you will miss the connection but also when there is still plenty of time to unload your bag.

You can mention EU261 but the wording is (as usual) sloppy and wide open to interpretation. You have right for a full refund if your departure is delayed by 5hours, but it doesn't clearly specify which "departure". The one of the first leg or any subsequent leg?

Answer 3

You don't have price optimized ticket that actually is two separate ones, so you are in much better situation than you seem to expect.

The connections are now Air Canada's problem so cancelling would add another point to the mess and you would give them a chance to blame you.

Reasonable airlines do care for customer comfort and if the n-th flight of your itinerary is delayed they often delay the n+1-th (for couple of minutes) to get rid of you satisfied.

They can even temporarily upgrade you to VIP to get you through all x-rays and customs as fast as you can run. They can mark your luggage as "delayed cargo" and fly you ahead so your transfer can be really limited only by how fast you can get from arriving gate to the departing gate.

You can raise your concerns while (waiting for) boarding and consult your situation. They are to provide you correct advice, we internets are not.

I'd suggest going to nearest Air Canada booth or boarding booth and politely describe your situation to them and ask for help. In-air you can ask the flight attendant too! Smile and calm, understanding tone do marvels compared to paragraphs in rulebooks.

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It happened to me several times when my flight was delayed that the staff watching queues pointed at me and indicated to run below the ribbons and cut the whole queue directly to the x-rays and the gate was waiting for me to run almost directly to the plane.

Lufthansa (we bought tickets through them directly) rebooked our second and third flight (LH - LH - Latam) because the first leg was delayed. At first they tried to wait for us, but the delay was too long so they payed us hotel for a day.