Originally Posted by
lightyear40
The law is not on your side, in your case, because if two or more flights are offered by an air carrier and each flight has been assigned a specific flight number for a particular route, then the applicability of the regulation must be determined for each of those flights separately.
I don't believe you have read that in either Reg 261/2004 or precedent case law...
For the OP's clarification and to expand a little on
ft101's correct response above, if your friend's flight was not delayed departing the EU but was delayed departing from an intermediate point (non-EU member state) on a multi-flight itinerary on a single PNR then 261/2004 does not apply, notwithstanding that they may have arrived >3 hours late at their final destination.