When an airline cancels your next leg ? What are your experiences ?

You go on the next flight out with an available seat, including ones on code-shares. They also give/offer you money. What bites you on the tail is, that if you're somebody that makes hotel reservations amd such, you have to decide if you want to skip the first day or try to restructure the whole mess. Anecdotal, but of maybe twenty international flights a year, at least one goes to pot.

They will rebook you on the next available..it is called Rule 48. There are a few airlines who do not participate in this agreement but very, very few. It may not be non-stop, but they will try to get you on the best available. If the next available is tomorrow, it is customary for the airline to give you a voucher for a hotel and possibly food. Try not to think about what might happen..the cancellation last night could have been due to weather or some other unforseen problem. These thoughts can ruin an otherwise
wonderful trip.

They will try to reschedule you to the next flight on the airline, its air alliance if any, and sometimes (it's not as frequent as in the past) other airlines. My suggestion, if you want extra peace of mind, is not to schedule something extremely important on your first day in Europe, such as cruise embarkation, a very expensive pre-paid hotel/dinning experience/tour etc. That way, you build some "cushion" should a flight delay happen.

Andre has good advice. We've been bumped and had flights cancelled, but I think we've always made it to the destination the same day, albeit sometimes half a day late. But we try to never have the type of situation Andre cautions against scheduled for the first day.

Gerard, never book separatly-ticketed legs, such as Sydney > Hong Kong, then Hong Kong > Rome, because if there's a problem with your first leg, the airline isn't obligated to accommodate you of the second leg! Same thing applies if you use Australian Airlines for the first leg, then Hong Kong Airlines for the second leg. Always book the entire trip on one itinerary! Having said that... They typically put you on the first airplane with available seats going to your original destination. It may not be on the original airline. If you checked luggage, you'll get it whenever :-( Depending on your travel plans and the airline, you may ask to be rerouted to another location if that would work better for you. For instance, you have only two nights planned for Rome; you could ask the airline to send you to Munich instead if that is the next location in your travel itinerary. Sometimes it works... Also, pay close attention to the amount of time given to transfer at Hong Kong! That's probably your most realistically potential problem. Don't automatically trust the airline to give you enough time. They often don't.

It seems like I pass through HKG every second Thursday. It's a well-oiled machine. If you have an hour, you can almost stop for lunch.

thanks for the replies. The flights are being booked as one through either the airline or flightcentre, this week. FWIW to au readers Earlybirds tickets appeared this week for a number of carriers. It's just a reality that there will be one and more often two stopovers to get from Australia to Europe with any carrier. BTW I couldn't find "Rule 48" in my google search last night with any clear reference to this. I'm still waiting on advice from flightcentre.
thanks again.

Rule 48 is (or was) part of the IATA tariff. I think it is still in use.

Sorry it is Rule 240, not 48.

Thanks
I'll add what Wikipedia said. Federal Aviation Administration Rule 240 mandated that an airline with a delayed or canceled flight had to transfer passengers to another carrier if the second carrier could get passengers to the destination more quickly than the original airline. The original rule, referring to a federal requirement before airline deregulation in 1978, is long-obsolete; however, the major US airlines have filed "conditions of carriage" with the U.S. Department of Transportation guaranteeing their similar provisions. These provisions vary from airline to airline, and generally apply only to delays that are absolutely the airline's fault, such as mechanical delays, and not to "force majeure" events such as weather, strikes, or "acts of God". The European equivalent is EU Regulation 261/2004.