AirwayControlMissed connection
Missed your connection? How you booked decides it.
When a late first flight costs you the next one, what the rules say depends on how you bought the trip. On one booking, the delay is counted where the journey ends. On separate tickets, each ticket stands alone.
General information, not legal advice. Not a promise of payment.
On one booking
Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, usually called EU 261, counts a delay at your final destination. For connecting flights on one booking, that is the destination of the last flight (Article 2(h)).
So a short delay on the first flight still counts if it makes you miss the next one and you reach the end of the journey three hours or more late. The Court of Justice of the European Union said so in Folkerts (C-11/11): the compensation does not depend on a delay at departure.
- Connections
- On one booking the 3 h counts at your final destination — a short delay that costs you the connection can still reach it.
- Compensation
- 3+ h late at your final destination: you may be owed €250–€600, by distance.
- When nothing is owed
- No compensation if the cause was outside the airline's control — weather, air-traffic control, or someone else's strike. Meals and a hotel are owed anyway.
These are the lines AirwayControl shows for a route under EU 261, word for word. The amounts by distance are in the main guide.
On separate tickets
Two tickets bought separately are two journeys. The final destination of the first is where that ticket ends (Article 2(h)), so its delay is measured there. If it arrived three hours or more late at the end of its own ticket, that flight may be a claim of its own.
The second flight is another matter. EU 261 covers a passenger who checked in on time for that flight (Article 3(2)), so missing it because the first one was late does not make it a claim under the regulation. Putting every flight on one booking is what lets the delay count at the end of the whole journey.
What to keep
- The booking confirmation. It shows whether the flights were on one booking, and where the journey ends.
- Every boarding pass. The missed flight's too, and the one you finally flew on.
- The time you arrived. Note when you reached the final destination, and keep the receipts for anything you paid for while waiting.
- Write to the airline that operated the late flight. No reply, or a refusal? Take it to the complaints body in the country you departed from.
AirwayControl
Or let the app fill it in.
AirwayControl is a flight tracker for iPhone and Apple Watch. Set your flight before you leave, and it follows the day for you. If the day goes wrong, it already knows the details the claim needs.
- It tells you when it matters. A notification when your flight lands three hours late or more.
- It knows which rules cover your route. EU 261, UK 261 and the rules of 18 more countries, in plain words.
- It fills in the claim. Airline, flight number, date and route come from My Flight.
- You send it. From your own email, or through the airline's own claim form with every answer ready to copy.
- No fee and no share. AirwayControl never takes a part of what you receive.
7 days free, then 29 NOK a month.
Questions people ask
Can I claim compensation for a missed connecting flight?
On one booking, EU 261 counts the delay at your final destination. If you arrive there three hours or more late, you may be owed €250 to €600 by distance, unless the cause was outside the airline's control.
The first flight was only a little late. Does that count?
It can, on one booking. The Court of Justice ruled in Folkerts (C-11/11) that the compensation does not depend on a delay at departure. What counts is arriving at the final destination at least three hours late.
What if my flights were on separate tickets?
Each ticket is a journey of its own. The first flight may be a claim if it arrived three hours or more late at the end of its own ticket. Missing the second flight does not make that flight a claim under EU 261.
Is AirwayControl a claims company?
No. It tells you which rules cover your route and writes the claim, and you send it from your own email. AirwayControl never sends or handles a claim for you, and takes no share.
Other problems
What the rules say when something else went wrong. The main guide covers delays and cancellations, and the checker shows which rules cover your route.
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General information about air passenger rules, not legal advice and not a promise of payment. Your airline decides; a complaints body decides on appeal. AirwayControl never submits or handles claims: the mail is yours, from your own account. Rules last checked 9 August 2026. The regulation and the judgments named on this page were read in full on 3 October 2026.
Sources: Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 and the European Union's own guide to air passenger rights. Court of Justice of the European Union, Folkerts (C-11/11): the judgment.