Beyond the money: meals, hotels and refunds

The right to care under EU261 applies even when cash compensation does not.

Cash is not the only thing the regulation gives you. There is a separate block of duties lawyers call the “right to care”, and it works on a different logic: these obligations survive even in extraordinary circumstances, when no payment is due.

The right to care

The trigger depends on distance — 2 hours on short routes, 3 on medium, 4 on long-haul. Past that, the carrier must provide:

• Meals and refreshments proportionate to the waiting time
• Two free phone calls, messages or emails
• Hotel accommodation where an overnight stay is required, plus transfers both ways

If the airline provided nothing and you paid for food and a hotel yourself, keep the receipts. Reasonable expenses are recoverable as a separate claim, and that claim does not depend on whether delay compensation is owed.

Refund or rerouting

Where the delay exceeds five hours, you may abandon the trip and demand a full refund of the fare within seven days. If the flight was part of a multi-leg journey that has lost its purpose, the segments already flown and a return flight to your original departure point are also refundable.

The alternative is rerouting: the airline must carry you to your destination at the earliest opportunity, or on a later date of your choosing subject to seats.

Downgrading

If you were moved to a lower class than you paid for, you are owed a partial refund of the fare: 30% on short flights, 50% on medium and 75% on long-haul. This is a standalone right, unconnected to delay.

Baggage is a separate regime

Lost, damaged or delayed baggage falls under the Montreal Convention, not EU261. It caps the carrier’s liability but compensates documented loss rather than a fixed sum. Deadlines are short: 7 days for damage and 21 days for delayed delivery, counted from receipt.

Why this matters

Even where compensation is lawfully refused — say, because of a thunderstorm — a passenger often still has a claim for hotel and meal costs. Airlines do not volunteer this, and most people never collect that money.

The fee is deducted only from the compensation recovered. No payout — no fee.