Missed connecting flight: when the whole journey counts
If a late first leg costs you your onward flight, compensation is worked out on your arrival at the final destination and the distance of the whole journey.
Your compensation · HAM · Hamburg → JFK · New York
€600
per passenger, no deduction · owed
- EU Regulation 261/2004€600 · owed
Three hours or more late at the final destination: full compensation (CJEU, Sturgeon).
- Great-circle distance
- 6,118 km
- Distance band
- over 3,500 km
- Time limit in Germany (BGB s. 195, 199)
- 31 December 2029
Write the claim letter to the airline
Prepared by Radif Partners · Method · law as of October 22, 2026 · 4,008 airports (OurAirports)
If a delayed first flight makes you miss your connection and you reach your final destination three hours or more late, the airline that operated the delayed flight owes compensation, even if that first flight was only slightly late. The condition is a single booking: both flights bought under one contract, usually one booking reference. The Court of Justice settled this in Folkerts (C-11/11) in 2013. Distance is then measured as the great-circle distance from the first departure airport to the final destination, not leg by leg, so Hamburg to New York via Frankfurt falls in the long-haul band of €600 although the late leg was domestic. The journey must start in the EU or be operated by an EU airline on the relevant leg; UK261 applies the same logic to journeys from the UK, with £520 in the top band. For EU flights from 23 October 2027, the new Article 6b writes the rule into the text: compensation when arrival at the final destination is more than three hours late. Two separately bought tickets are not protected.
Hamburg, Frankfurt, New York: the calculation
The calculator above is set to a single booking from Hamburg via Frankfurt to New York. The feeder flight is 50 minutes late, the connection is gone, and you land at JFK five hours twenty late. Distance is measured from Hamburg to New York, 6,118 km, so the top band applies: €600. The legs added together come to more (412 km plus 6,189 km) but that is irrelevant, and so is the fact that the delayed domestic leg on its own would only be worth €250.
From the UK: Manchester to Bangkok via a Gulf hub
A UK traveller booked Manchester to Bangkok on one ticket with a change in the Gulf, on a non-UK, non-EU airline. The first leg leaves late, the onward flight is missed and arrival in Bangkok is five and a half hours late. UK261 covers the journey because it starts in the UK, the distance is 9,631 km, and the amount is £520. EU261 does not apply, as no part of the journey starts in the EU.
| Journey on one booking | Measured distance | Regime | Amount at 5 h late |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hamburg, Frankfurt, New York | 6,118 km | EU261 | €600 |
| Manchester, Gulf hub, Bangkok | 9,631 km | UK261 | £520 |
| Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Málaga | 2,145 km | UK261 | £350 |
From Manchester: what the whole trip is worth
UK261
£520
| Distance | 9,631 km |
The three conditions
First, a single booking: a connection sold as one journey, typically under one reference, by an airline or an agent. Self-combined tickets from different airlines do not count. Second, the journey has to fall under EU261 or UK261. Third, a delay of three hours or more at the final destination, timed to the door opening, which the Civil Aviation Authority also uses: see flight delayed three hours.
At the transfer airport
While you wait for the next available flight, the airline owes care under Article 9: meals, a hotel and transfers if you are stuck overnight, and two calls or emails. Keep the boarding passes for every leg, including the one you missed, and ask for written confirmation of the rebooking.
EU rules from 2027: Article 6b
Regulation (EU) 2026/2202 writes the Folkerts rule into the text for flights from 23 October 2027: a missed connection gives compensation when arrival at the final destination is more than three hours late. Claims must then reach the airline within 9 months. UK261 has not been changed.