“Does anyone owe me anything, or is that only a Europe thing?”
Largely a Europe thing, and the important word in that sentence is “largely” rather than “only”, because whether a European rule reaches your flight depends on facts about your flight rather than on where you are standing.
The rule everybody quotes, and where it actually applies
The compensation figures circulating on this subject are European. They come from the European Union’s air passenger rights regime, and they set out fixed compensation amounts for delays and cancellations above stated thresholds.
They do not apply because you are inconvenienced. They apply because of where the flight is going, where it started, and which airline is operating it.
In broad terms, and this is a matter for the regulation’s own text rather than for this page: the European regime is generally about flights departing from an airport in the covered territory, and about flights arriving into it operated by a carrier licensed there. The United Kingdom operates its own equivalent regime after leaving the EU.
Which produces a distinction that surprises people:
A flight from Dhaka to a European destination, operated by a European carrier, may be within the arriving half of that regime.
The same route operated by a non-European carrier may not be.
And a flight from Dhaka to a regional destination is generally nowhere near it.
So two travelers on the same day at the same airport with the same delay can be in completely different positions, and the variable is the airline and the route rather than the delay. We are not going to tell you which position you are in. Read the regulation’s own scope, or ask the regulator that administers it, or take the question to someone qualified.
This page publishes no compensation amount and no delay threshold, because those belong to a specific regime whose applicability we cannot determine for your flight, and quoting a euro figure to a reader whose flight is outside the regime is worse than useless.
What you have regardless of any compensation regime
Three things, and they are worth more in the moment than a compensation claim you will pursue for months.
1. Your contract with the airline
Every ticket comes with conditions of carriage, which are published by the airline and which say what happens when a flight is delayed or canceled: rebooking, refunds, and in some cases meals and accommodation.
This is a contract, it applies to every passenger on every route, and almost nobody reads it. It is on the airline’s own website and it is the document that actually governs your situation.
Ask for it by name at the desk. “What do your conditions of carriage provide for this situation” is a different and more productive question than “what compensation do I get”.
2. Your right to a refund on a cancellation
A flight that does not operate is a service not delivered. The remedy varies by airline and by ticket type, and a cancellation and a delay are different things with different consequences.
Get the airline’s position in writing rather than accepting a verbal offer at a counter.
3. Whatever your travel insurance covers
Read your policy’s delay and cancellation sections before the trip, not during it. Most policies require documentation obtained at the airport, which you cannot go back for.
What to do in the first hour, which matters more than the law
Get the reason in writing. This is the single highest-value action available to you and almost nobody does it. Technical, weather, crew, operational, air traffic control. The reason is what determines your position under any regime, and airlines record it.
Photograph the departure board showing the delay or cancellation.
Keep every receipt for anything you spend as a consequence.
Get the rebooking offer in writing before you accept or decline it.
Ask specifically what the airline is providing, meals, accommodation, transport, rather than waiting to be offered.
Note the times. Scheduled departure, actual departure, when you were told, by whom.
Do all of this at the airport. Every one of these becomes harder or impossible once you have gone home, whatever route you eventually take.
Where a complaint goes
First, the airline’s own complaints process, in writing, with everything you collected above. Most claims of any kind are resolved or refused at this stage.
Then, the relevant regulator. Which regulator that is depends on the regime, the route and the airline, and it is a different body for a European claim than for a Bangladeshi one. The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh is the domestic aviation regulator, and a claim under a European regime is administered by the enforcement body of the relevant state.
We are not going to tell you which applies to you or what to write. This site explains what a decision maker assesses and does not coach anyone through a claim.
The honest expectation
Compensation regimes exclude what they call extraordinary circumstances, which typically covers weather, air traffic control decisions and security events, and those account for a substantial share of the delays travelers experience.
So a delay does not equal a payment even inside a regime that covers your flight, and a page implying otherwise is selling you an expectation.
What is reliably worth doing is the documentation, because it is free, it takes ten minutes, and it is the only thing that improves every possible outcome.
Planning around it
A delay is not only an inconvenience when a visa or an onward connection is involved. A missed connection on a separate ticket is your problem rather than the airline’s, and a delay that runs into a visa’s validity window is a separate and more serious problem.
If you are planning a first trip, the sequence and the margins are covered in your first international trip from Bangladesh, and building slack into connections is the part of it that pays for itself.
And a destination requiring no visa removes one of the ways a delay can escalate, which is covered in visa-free countries on a Bangladeshi passport.
What we will not do
Tell you whether you have a claim. That depends on the regime, the route, the airline and the reason, and it is a legal question about your facts.
Publish a compensation amount or a delay threshold. They belong to a specific regime and quoting them to a reader outside it is misleading.
Recommend a claims company. These take a share of anything recovered and this site names none. The airline’s own complaints process is free and is the required first step in most systems anyway.
Draft your complaint for you.
FAQ
Can I get compensation for a delayed flight from Dhaka?
It depends on the regime that covers your flight, which depends on the route and the operating airline rather than on where you are standing. The European and UK regimes have their own scope rules, and many flights from Dhaka fall outside them.
What are my rights if my flight is canceled at Dhaka airport?
Your airline’s published conditions of carriage govern your situation on every route, and they cover rebooking, refunds and sometimes meals and accommodation. Ask for the airline’s position under those conditions in writing.
What is the most useful thing to do when a flight is delayed?
Get the reason for the delay in writing from the airline. It is the fact that determines your position under any regime, it is recorded by the airline, and almost nobody asks for it.
Do weather delays qualify for compensation?
Compensation regimes typically exclude what they call extraordinary circumstances, which usually covers weather, air traffic control decisions and security events. A delay does not equal a payment even inside a regime that covers your flight.
Should I use a claims company?
This page names none and recommends none. They take a share of anything recovered, and the airline’s own complaints process is free and is the required first step in most systems.
This page publishes no compensation figure and no delay threshold, because those belong to specific jurisdictions whose applicability to any individual reader’s flight this page cannot determine. The scope of the European and UK air passenger rights regimes is set out in their own texts and administered by their own enforcement bodies; the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh is the domestic aviation regulator. Your airline’s published conditions of carriage govern your ticket.
General information, not legal advice. It does not tell any reader whether they have a claim, does not draft or coach a complaint, and recommends no claims company.