Missed connection compensation

One booking is the deciding fact

If both legs were sold to you as a single reservation, the journey counts as one flight for compensation purposes. Arriving three hours or more late at your final destination puts you in the compensation range, even if the delay on the first leg was only 40 minutes.

Two separately booked tickets are treated as two unrelated flights. The airline that ran late owes you nothing for a connection it never sold you — which is why self-connecting is cheaper and riskier.

How much it is worth

The amount follows the great-circle distance from your first departure airport to your final destination, not the length of the leg that went wrong.

• Up to 1,500 km: €250
• 1,500–3,500 km, or any flight inside the EU over 1,500 km: €400
• Over 3,500 km outside the EU: €600

So a 45-minute delay out of Manchester that costs you a Paris connection to São Paulo is a €600 claim, not a €250 one.

What to do at the airport

• Ask the airline to rebook you on the next available flight — that is your right, not a favour.
• Get the reason for the first leg's delay in writing.
• Note the arrival time of the replacement flight; that is the number your claim turns on.
• Keep meal and hotel receipts if you waited overnight.

When the airline says no

The two common refusals are that the first delay was short, and that the connection was operated by a partner airline. Neither is decisive. Point out that compensation is measured at the final destination, and that on a single booking the operating carrier of the delayed leg is liable for the whole journey.