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Today/yesterday, I had a multi-leg flight going IAD-CPH-AMS (Washington Dulles International Airport - Copenhagen Airport - amsterdam Airport Schiphol). I had a connection time of one hour in CPH, which is more than enough according to the CPH airport website. At IAD, technical issues delayed departure by more than an hour, causing me to miss my original connection.

The airline rebooked me on a later flight to AMS (departure at 12:35 instead of 08:15), and when I went to the CPH transfer center to get my new boarding pass, they also gave me meal vouchers.

Did accepting the vouchers cause me to give up my rights to EU flight delay compensation (4+ hour delay on a transatlantic itinerary) because the vouchers are compensation too?

UPDATE 27-9-2016:
The airline just told me that my EU 261/2004 claim has been approved, and that the full €600 compensation is on its way to me. So now we've got official confirmation that meal vouchers don't exclude you from the monetary compensation.

pnuts
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EMotion
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    No, it does not. Go ahead and make your claim. – mts Sep 13 '16 at 08:01
  • @mts can a claim be made when the delay happened in the US, rather than in the EU? – Giorgio Sep 13 '16 at 10:00
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    @Dorothy what matters for the EU regulation is "travelling to an EU member state on an airline based in an EU member state", see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_261/2004#Applicability – mts Sep 13 '16 at 10:41
  • For general information: http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm – N.I. Sep 14 '16 at 11:11
  • @EMotion - your edit would be better placed as an answer – CMaster Sep 27 '16 at 14:53
  • Compensation is seperate from reimbursement of additional expenses. If the meal vouchers opt you out of anything, it would be reimbursement of meals. – Fax Sep 18 '19 at 11:48
  • I suggest you make a small edit to the question specifying which airline operated the IAD-CPH route (as only flights operated by an EU based airline would be covered by EC 261/2004 here); p.s. I'm assuming it was SK – scibuff Sep 21 '22 at 11:03

1 Answers1

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You were given meal vouchers because the EU air passenger rights regulations require the airline to provide "meals and refreshments in a reasonable relation to the waiting time" (regulation 261/2004, art. 9(1)(a)). This is in addition to any cash compensation the rules may also entitle you to.

So go ahead and make a claim for the delay.

hmakholm left over Monica
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