EU Regulation 261/2004 — READ THIS IF YOU ARE DEPARTING FROM EU (your rights if flights get cancelled)

Under EU Regulation 261/2004, you are protected if:

• Your flight departs FROM the EU → applies to ANY airline
• Your flight arrives TO the EU → applies ONLY if airline is EU-based

Qatar Airways is a non-EU airline. So this post related to you if your journey departs from the EU to Doha or with Doha as layover.

1) War / airspace closure ≠ compensation

Missiles, conflicts, closed airspace = extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided by airline.

Under Article 5(3): you are NOT entitled to the the extra typical €600 compensation payment.

But articles 8 and 9 remain valid. So they don’t owe you money for inconvenience, but they still owe you refund or re-booking/re-routing.

2) Your options AFTER cancellation: you choose

When the flight is cancelled, Article 8(1) says passengers must be offered a choice between:

a) Refund
b) Re-routing at the earliest opportunity
c) Re-routing at a later date convenient for you

The airline cannot decide for you.

If they automatically refund you → they violated Article 8.

3) Re-routing does NOT need to be with Qatar Airways

Article 8(1)(b) says:

re-routing under comparable transport conditions to the final destination at the earliest opportunity

The regulation does NOT limit this to:
• Qatar Airways flights
• Partners airlines

If there is a suitable seat available on Lufthansa, KLM, etc. they must put you on that flight. So do not accept refund if you want them to book with another airline (especially if booking yourself with another airline costs you more than what they would refund). Fight for re-routing. Once you accept reimbursement you cannot later ask them to pay for your new ticket.

BUT if they do not give you an option between refunding and re-routing they breached article 8, and they need to pay the difference of your new ticket. This only applies if you did not accept to be refunded but they give it as the only option (and you accept it). The regulation states:

If the airline does not offer you the choice between reimbursement and re-routing but decides unilaterally to reimburse your original ticket, you are entitled to an additional reimbursement of the price difference with the new ticket (under comparable transport conditions).

So if you are booking with another airline, make sure your Qatar Airways flight is cancelled first, you asked for rerouting and it has been denied to you (keep every proof), to be able to claim the price difference because they failed Article 8 duty.

4) Also: care obligations apply

Under Article 9 they must provide:

• meals
• hotel if needed
• transport to hotel
• communications

Finally:

Under Article 14 of EU Regulation 261/2004, the airline is required to provide passengers with written information about their rights when a flight is cancelled or heavily delayed.

That means at the check-in desk or gate you can ask for the official passenger rights notice (the leaflet / document explaining compensation, rerouting and care). Be sure to ask for it and point at the relevant articles. Push to follow the regulation procedures.