15

My friend was travelling from Italy to Belgium, and her flight was delayed by 2h25. Since the flight was late in the evening, the delay made her miss the bus from the airport to her final destination, for which she had already bought a (non-refundable) ticket. She had to take a taxi instead, which is more expensive.

In these circumstance, does the airline have to compensate her for the extra expenses caused by the delay? I've looked at the EU air passengers rights, but it doesn't seem to cover her problem (she did get some refreshments at the departure airport though).

Improve this question
4
  • 2
    If the bus travel was covered in the original travel packet, you may ask compensation (not because EU261, but because you bough a service which was not provided). For EU261, see Section 6 of the interpretation rules: eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/…
    – Giacomo Catenazzi
    Commented Jun 24, 2022 at 8:43
  • 2
    Generally it's not a good idea to book advance tickets (if possible) for anything following a flight, you could be delayed 2 hours or 12 hours. If it's for a bus or train, buy a flexible ticket or a walk up fare. Yes, It'll probably be quite a bit more expensive.
    – Crazymoomin
    Commented Jun 26, 2022 at 9:56
  • @Crazymoomin The ticket was in fact somewhat flexible, as it was valid for the entire day. The problem is that the plane arrived so late that there were no more buses at at that time.
    – Arnaud D.
    Commented Jun 26, 2022 at 21:01
  • @ArnaudD. If a 2h 25m delay means there are no more buses, I'd be looking at getting an earlier flight, or considering alternative means of transportation from the get go.
    – Crazymoomin
    Commented Jun 27, 2022 at 19:42

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
30

I'm afraid not, at least not from the airline.

The reasoning is the same as for a self-connections: you are supposed to have enough buffer, as there can be delays.

If the delay had been 3 hours or more, and the reason for the delay wasn't exempted, the airline would have had to pay compensation (250 euros in this case).

So basically the rule is that you need to factor in that the flight may be delayed up to 3 hours.

She may however try to claim through her travel insurance, which she may have contracted explicitly (buying it separately, or bundled with the flight) or implicitly (it's included with some credit cards or other insurance policies).

Improve this answer
1
  • Note that depending on the exact locations in Belgium and Italy, the distance flight may be less of 1500 Km, in which case the delay only needs to be of two hours (or more) and receive a compensation of 250€. If it was longer than 1500 Km, the delay needs to be of 3 hours, but the compensation would have been of 400€.
    – Ángel
    Commented Jun 27, 2022 at 0:38
17

No, EU261 rights covers the airline getting you to the destination airport on the ticket, not your final destination (hotel room, connecting flight on a separate ticket, cruise etc) intended after the airline has conveyed you unless this was agreed in advance of the ticket purchase (ie its a linked itinerary).

For any additional expense beyond the scope of the airlines ticket, this is what travel insurance is for.

Any further compensation from the airline would be from goodwill on the airlines part.

Improve this answer
1
  • It was a low-cost airline, so I'm not sure there is a lot of goodwill to be expected...
    – Arnaud D.
    Commented Jun 26, 2022 at 20:58

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .