We need to go back to what the regulation says and doesn't say and what airlines do and say in reaction to the regulation.

Passengers shall be offered free of charge

(b) Hotel accommodation in cases
- Where a stay of one or more nights becomes necessary, or
- Where a stay additional to that intended by the passenger becomes necessary;
(c) Transport between the airport and place of accommodation (hotel or other).
Therefore airlines have to offer you hotel accommodation. (Interestingly not hostel, bed and breakfast etc).


Hotel accommodation-It’s been a hard day’s Night

The regulation talks about nights accommodation. There could be an interesting debate as to what constitutes a "night".
We suppose that even airline can't turn night into day. But what is the definition of a night especially if you are travelling to Reykjavik or Anchorage in the summer!

Does night equate with darkness or with a given time of the evening?


When a stay becomes necessary

It says that when a stay becomes necessary but does not refer to this being an objective or subjective test of whether a hotel stay becomes necessary for the individual passenger concerned.

By this we mean that you could be delayed where you have readily accessible accommodation anyway. You could live close by the airport of departure either this being your own residence or holiday home.

Interestingly EU 261/2004 also talks about transport costs between the airport and the "hotel or other" accommodation.

What does EU 261/2004 anticipate and mean by "other" accommodation in these circumstances?

Is the regulation anticipating a passenger going to their own supplied accommodation? If not, which accommodation and whose accommodation is anticipated?

Here there are a large number of possible permutations and there is the possibility that an airline could be flexible and minimise its own financial exposure.

Take for example the delay of an outbound flight from a regional airport in the UK.

It is quite possible that a fair proportion of the passengers could return home to their own homes and stay overnight. These delayed passengers could then return to the Airport and report to the airline at a given time the next morning.

Equally the passengers could say that the regulation simply states that the airline will lodge the passengers.


Hotel Chez Nous

How does an airline know that a particular passenger has their own home or accommodation nearby and would prefer to stay within their own home rather than in the nearest Airport Hotel?

Could the passenger say "no I want to be placed in a hotel at your expense-my car is in the long term car park and I have been drinking and can't drive, etc."

I could go back to my own house but you, the Airline, is obligated to compensate me with what you would have paid for the hotel in any event.


Hotel 53 Acacia Avenue

Equally, if you are staying with friends or relatives could you not ask them to become the "Hotel 53 Acacia Avenue" for that night and charge you for Hotel accommodation for the night? (Your friends could conveniently charge you slightly less than the airport would charge for a night)

Much more likely is the situation that an airline will bus passengers en masse to local hotels if these are available.


Boarding won't be long now (But they said that 10 Hours ago)

How often do Airlines maintain the position that a flight will be "boarding soon" and that this creeping delay extends overnight?

Because passengers don’t know what is going on behind the scenes it may be difficult for an individual passenger to discover whether this is a genuine belief on the part of an airline at any particular point in time or a cynical attempt by an airline to avoid the commercial cost of meeting its obligations under EU 261/2004.

Often a flight is departing from a distant and remote point. Say for example a flight from Cancun to London experiences a technical problem in Cancun and it soon becomes clear that the outstation in Cancun does not have the available expertise or components to repair the aircraft. It might even require the provision of a replacement aircraft to be sent from the UK.

In that event it may need upwards of 10 hours to fly a replacement aircraft from the UK to Mexico to deliver a replacement aircraft or necessary manpower /components. If this coincides with evening it would appear obvious at that stage that passengers should be lodged at hotel accommodation.

Does this always happen and if so why not?

In many cases flights may be charter flights involving all-inclusive holidays where there will in any event be a ready supply of vacant hotel beds. (The new holiday-makers are after all stranded in the UK because the aircraft has not yet left Cancun.


How could an Airline attempt to avoid providing Hotel accommodation?

Flightmole can try to anticipate methods by which airlines would try to avoid altogether their "obligation" to provide overnight accommodation. We welcome input to this exercise from Flightmole.com users.

This leads us back to the fundamental difference in the nature of a delay and a flight cancellation in the Regulation. Remember that EU 261/.2004 gives an airline a possible defence (an excuse) for providing compensation in the event of a cancellation of a flight. This defence does not apply in the event of a delay.

The defence excuses the obligation of the airline to pay compensation (the monetary tariff). It does not remove the obligation to provide assistance-which includes the obligation to provide Hotel accommodation

An airline could rather delay a flight seek to cancel a flight. If they do this they may avoid liability to pay monetary compensation based upon the length of the journey. However at some point an extended delay should amount, de facto, to a cancellation.



An Airline can do nothing, or as little as possible.

One possible reaction is for an Airline to do nothing or as little as possible.
This might be a very sensible means of attempting to minimize an airline's potential financial exposure.

If the passengers start bedding themselves down on the floor or the few available benches why would an Airline wish to disturb this latent sleeping monster.

Secondly the airline could state that they are expecting the departure "imminently" and, if the passengers decamp to a hotel, this would only delay the flight departure further-miss the take-off slot, crew available duty hours and all sorts of other aviation horror stories.

EU 261/2004 does provide an excuse to an airline to provide assistance to delayed passengers if the act of providing assistance might extend duration of the delay.

Yet perhaps sometimes" imminently" isn't in reality so imminent
There must exist the temptation on the part of an airline's staff-to keep promising that the flight will be departing soon-and therefore obviate the need to provide accommodation. .

The airline could and probably does know this information yet once the passengers have spent the night on he floor the passengers can't retrospectively claim for hotel rooms they haven’t occupied.

Therefore to assess the veracity of an airline we need to judge their past statements and performance and relate this to the circumstances existing at the time of the delay.

A clear question has to be asked of the airline. When do you reasonably expect this aircraft to depart and give me the reasoning to support this time line?

The makings of the case have to be made in real time. Only when passengers take these actions in real time can the actions of the Airline be assessed.

Another possible reaction of the airline is to claim that the delay is "beyond their control" and deny a responsibility to provide accommodation. This is just plain wrong.

Possibly an airline will say that there is no available accommodation-all the hotels are booked up. In some small regional airports this might even have a semblance of truth yet you may be in a position to disprove the accuracy of this statement.

Tell us you experience in this area so we can begin to compare airlines
With the advent of web-based hotel finders the excuse of "no available hotel rooms" becomes easier to verify and evidence the veracity of a claim that no airport hotel rooms are vacant.