Missed Your Connecting Flight? refund.me Helps You to Claim Your Compensation

POTSDAM, Germany, April 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Flight passengers should be careful when booking and be aware that they could claim compensation if the next plane takes off without them. Passengers on multi-leg journeys partly within the EU may be eligible for compensation for missed connections as a result of initial flight delays. 

However, according to European Union (EC) No 261/2004, flight delay compensation in the event of missed connections is only due if the entire journey was booked in one operation. Eve Buechner, founder and CEO of refund.me (http://refund.me/), urges passengers to be wary of short connecting times between flights and always recommends that they purchase flights for multi-leg journeys together.

"If the journey is under one booking, it is the airline's responsibility to ensure passengers are on time for connecting flights. If the first flight is delayed and you miss your connecting flight as a result, you are eligible to compensation in most cases," says Eve Buechner. "Conversely, you have no right to claim compensation from either airline and it is your responsibility to make alternative arrangements when connecting flights are booked separately."

If passengers miss connecting flights due to initial delays, the airline must organise replacement travel arrangements and is even obligated to pay compensation if passengers arrive at their final destination with a delay of more than 3 hours. Even if individual bookings are slightly cheaper in the beginning, it might not be worth the hassle in case anything goes wrong once you're stranded on the tarmac instead of up in the air.

The applicable EU regulation (EC) No. 261/2004 establishes passenger rights to protect those affected by flight delays, cancellations and overbookings. The regulation takes into account the delay at the final destination, which means that also a minor delay on a feeder flight is covered. Affected passengers might be eligible to up to EUR 600 in compensation from the airline.

This is applicable to Ryanair's proposed partnership deal with Norwegian Air. The Irish low-cost carrier plans to offer joint flights from mid-2017, feeding passengers onto connecting flights with Norwegian. Another new partnership deal between Cathay Pacific Airways and the Lufthansa Group will similarly allow passengers arriving in Hong Kong from Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Zurich to transfer to Cathay Pacific connections in one booking. In both cases, Ryanair and Lufthansa would be responsible for any missed connections.

About refund.me 

Since its foundation in 2012, refund.me (http://refund.me/) has assisted private and business airline passengers from 145 countries in securing compensation from 350 airlines in case of flight delays (https://www.refund.me/flight-delay/), cancellations, overbookings and missed connections covered by European Union regulation (EC) No. 261/2004. An estimated 11 million passengers per year are eligible for EUR 5.5 billion in compensation for flight disruptions covered under this regulation. refund.me works on the basis of a 25% contingency fee. If the claim is rejected, the client has no costs (no win, no fee). refund.me has a 98% success rate in securing compensation for cases taken to court.

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