Stuck at the airport: what the airline owes you now
Duty of care is the entitlement almost nobody claims and the one that survives every excuse. Meals, communication, and a hotel with transport if you are stranded overnight — owed whatever caused the disruption, with no financial cap and no time limit.
Work out what your flight is owed →What it covers
Article 9 obliges the airline to look after you while you wait:
- Meals and refreshments in reasonable proportion to the waiting time.
- Two telephone calls, emails or faxes.
- Hotel accommodation where a stay of one or more nights becomes necessary, and transport between the airport and the hotel.
It starts at two hours' delay for short flights, three for medium, four for long.
The part that matters most
Duty of care is not removed by extraordinary circumstances. A volcano, an air traffic control failure, a national strike — none of them switch it off. The airline may owe you no compensation at all and still owe you dinner and a bed.
There is also no cap. The Court of Justice confirmed as much in the aftermath of the 2010 ash cloud: the obligation continues for as long as the passenger is waiting, however expensive that becomes for the airline.
If they gave you nothing
Airlines fail this obligation constantly, especially during mass disruption when the desk is overwhelmed. If nobody handed you a voucher and you bought your own meal, or booked your own room because the queue was two hours long, keep the receipts and claim them back. Reasonable means reasonable — a modest hotel and an ordinary meal, not a suite and a tasting menu.
This is the single most under-claimed entitlement in passenger rights law, and on a disrupted night it is often worth more than the compensation.
Questions
Does the airline owe me a hotel if the delay was not its fault?
Yes. Duty of care under Article 9 is owed whatever the cause, including extraordinary circumstances. Only the fixed compensation depends on fault.
The airline gave me nothing and I paid for my own hotel. Can I claim it back?
Yes, where the expense was reasonable. Keep the receipts and claim reimbursement; this is a separate claim from compensation and is often easier to win.
Is there a limit on how long the airline has to look after me?
No time limit and no financial cap. The obligation lasts as long as you are waiting for re-routing.
Related
- EU261 — the statute itself
- Your flight was cancelled
- Airline strike compensation