Duty of Care on Flights: Meals, Hotels and the Rule

Duty of care is the part of air passenger law that applies when a flight is delayed or cancelled, regardless of the cause. It is separate from compensation. Under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, the UK version retained as UK261, and comparable regimes, an operating carrier must provide meals, refreshments, communication and, where a stay becomes necessary, hotel accommodation and transport between the airport and that accommodation. The trigger is a delay or cancellation that meets a time threshold, not the reason for it. Extraordinary circumstances such as severe weather, air traffic control restrictions or a security alert can remove the right to compensation. They do not remove the right to care.

The instrument and its conditions

The entitlement comes from Regulation 261/2004, Articles 8 and 9, and from the UK261 version that applies to flights departing UK airports and to some flights arriving there on UK or EU carriers. Comparable care obligations exist in Canada under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations and in other jurisdictions, but the detail differs. The figures below are from the EU and UK regimes as they stood when checked in 2025. They are not universal.

The care obligation is owed by the operating carrier, not the booking agent and not a codeshare marketing carrier. If a flight is sold by one airline and operated by another, the operating carrier owes the care. That is a common point of confusion when a booking site or marketing carrier is contacted first.

Care is triggered by delay at the final destination, not at the departure gate. The threshold depends on the scheduled distance of the flight. The table sets out the rule and the condition that changes it.

The table shows the pattern: the longer the flight, the longer the wait before care is triggered. The reason for the delay does not appear in the care column. That is deliberate. Regulation 261/2004 Article 9 does not contain an extraordinary circumstances defence. The defence in Article 5(3) applies to compensation under Article 7, not to care under Articles 8 and 9.

What care covers, and what it does not

Meals and refreshments must be in a reasonable relation to the waiting time. A voucher for a small snack after six hours is not the same as a meal. Communication means two calls, telex or fax messages, or emails. In practice, airlines provide a voucher or a code for Wi-Fi or a phone call. Hotel accommodation is owed where a stay of one or more nights becomes necessary, or where an additional stay beyond the passenger’s intention becomes necessary. Transport between the airport and the hotel is part of the same obligation.

Care does not include compensation, and it does not include the cost of the original ticket beyond the refund or re-routing options in Article 8. It does not cover missed events, lost wages or consequential losses. Those are not part of the regulation. They may be recoverable under the Montreal Convention or national law in some circumstances, but that is a separate route with separate conditions.

If the airline provides nothing, the passenger may arrange care and claim reasonable costs back. The regulation does not set a cap on what is reasonable, but the amount must be proportionate to the delay and the passenger’s circumstances. A budget hotel near the airport is easier to justify than a luxury suite. Receipts are required. A claim for a meal without a receipt is harder to enforce, though not impossible if the delay and the airport prices are documented.

Worked calculation: what a two-night delay can produce

The following is an example, not a quotation. It uses the EU261 care rule and assumes the airline provided nothing. The passenger kept receipts.

Step 1: Flight distance
London to New York, scheduled distance approximately 5,570 km.
Distance band: more than 3,500 km.
Care threshold: 4 hours of delay at the final destination.

Step 2: Delay
Actual arrival delay: 51 hours.
Care threshold met: yes.

Step 3: Care owed
Meals and refreshments for the waiting period.
Hotel accommodation for two nights.
Transport between airport and hotel.
Communication.

Step 4: Receipts
Meal 1: 18
Meal 2: 22
Meal 3: 19
Meal 4: 24
Hotel night 1: 95
Hotel night 2: 95
Taxi to hotel: 20
Taxi to airport: 20
Total: 313

Step 5: Reasonableness check
Delay was 51 hours. Two nights of hotel was necessary.
Meals were at airport and nearby prices.
Total is proportionate to the delay.

Step 6: Claim
Claim the 313 from the operating carrier with receipts.
Compensation under Article 7 may also be owed if no extraordinary circumstances apply.
Compensation for this distance band is 600, but that is a separate claim.

The calculation shows the two claims are separate. Care is a reimbursement of reasonable costs. Compensation is a fixed sum that depends on distance and delay and can be defeated by extraordinary circumstances. A passenger can receive care and no compensation, or compensation and no care if the care threshold was not met but the compensation threshold was. The thresholds are not the same.

What people get wrong about duty of care

The most common mistake is believing that extraordinary circumstances cancel everything. They do not. A storm that closes an airport can remove the compensation claim. It does not remove the meal and hotel claim. The reason the mistake is natural is that airlines often present the two as one decision. A letter that says “your claim is refused due to extraordinary circumstances” may be answering only the compensation question. The care question is separate and often remains payable.

A second mistake is waiting for the airline to offer care. The regulation places the obligation on the airline, but it does not require the airline to seek out each passenger. If no voucher is offered, the passenger may arrange care and claim it back. The airline may later argue that it would have provided something cheaper. That argument is weaker if the passenger kept receipts and chose a reasonable option.

A third mistake is claiming from the booking site or the marketing carrier. The operating carrier owes the care. A booking site may help, but it is not the party with the legal obligation. The same applies to a codeshare: the airline whose code is on the ticket may not be the operating carrier.

A fourth mistake is assuming care applies in every country. The US DOT refund rule requires a refund when a flight is cancelled or significantly changed and the passenger does not accept the alternative. It does not require meals or hotels. Canada’s APPR does require care, but the thresholds and the categories of delay differ. A passenger flying to the US on an EU carrier may be covered by EU261 for the care obligation, depending on the route and the carrier. The regime depends on the route and the carrier, not on the passenger’s nationality.

How to claim care directly

Claim from the operating carrier. Use the airline’s customer relations form or the address on the booking confirmation. State the flight number, date, route, scheduled distance, actual delay at the final destination, and the care threshold that applies. List the receipts and the total. Ask for reimbursement of reasonable costs under Regulation 261/2004 Article 9 or the equivalent UK261 provision.

Keep the receipts. Keep boarding passes and any delay confirmation from the airport or the airline. If the airline provided a voucher, keep it or photograph it. If the airline provided nothing, note that in the claim.

If the airline refuses, the national enforcement body for the country of departure or arrival can be contacted. In the UK, that is the Civil Aviation Authority. In EU member states, each has a national enforcement body. These bodies do not award compensation directly in every case, but they can pressure the airline and clarify the obligation.

A claims company may take a percentage of the compensation. For care claims, the sums are usually smaller and the evidence is receipts, so the percentage may not be worth it. For a compensation claim under Article 7, where the sums are fixed and the airline may resist, a claims company can be useful. The share is typically 25 to 35 per cent including VAT, and the passenger should check whether the company charges if the claim fails. This site does not take a share. The information is here to be used directly.

When care does not apply

Care does not apply if the passenger is not at the airport for the delay, if the delay is caused by the passenger, or if the passenger accepts a refund and does not travel. Care is owed for the waiting period created by the delay or cancellation, not for the entire trip. If the airline re-routes the passenger on a flight that departs before the care threshold is reached, no care is owed. If the passenger chooses not to travel and takes a refund, the care obligation ends when the refund is accepted.

Care also does not apply to flights outside the scope of the regulation. A domestic flight within a country that has no care regime, on a carrier that is not an EU or UK carrier, is not covered by EU261. The Montreal Convention covers some expenses after an accident or during international carriage, but it does not create a general meal and hotel entitlement for delay. The instrument that creates the care entitlement is Regulation 261/2004 or its UK or Canadian equivalents. Without one of those, the entitlement does not exist as a matter of air passenger law.