If you have to wait at the airport, you have the right to care.
Mostly that means free food and free hotel accommodation.
If you are flying with KLM, and your flight is delayed, cancelled or there have been last-minute changes, it’s their responsibility to take care of you. If you have to wait 3 or more hours extra, KLM must offer you free meals and drinks in a reasonable relation to the waiting time. In case of an overnight delay free hotel accommodation must be provided.
Right to Care From KLM
In Europe and with European airlines you have the right to care.
With KLM it applies to most of its flights to and from the EU.
It’s all possible thanks to Regulation (EC) No 261/2004.
Short Delays (3+ hours)
You can get: food and drinks.
If it’s a rather short delay during the day, KLM must offer you free meals and drinks, two free phone calls, e-mails or faxes. Mostly all of that is offered in the form of coupons.
Long Delays (overnight)
You can get: food, drinks, accommodation and transfer.
If your flight is leaving only on the next day, free hotel accommodation (including free transfer) should also be provided by KLM. Get in touch with KLM if you haven’t yet received anything.
Extraordinary Circumstances
Flights get delayed and cancelled due to number of reasons.
Some of these reasons are within airline’s controle, others – outside of it. Whenever a flight is delayed or cancelled due to something that’s outside of the airline’s control, due to some extraordinary circumstances, you aren’t entitled to flight compensation anymore.
However, in this case it doesn’t matter — you still have the right to care. It doesn’t matter what was the cause of this particular flight delay, cancellation or change of schedule.
By Europe and EU here on this page we mean all EU Member States, the United Kingdom (UK), Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Reunion, Mayotte, Saint Martin (French Antilles), the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland.