The families' internal flight connecting to Heathrow was cancelled due to fog, and they were told by the airline that if they took a taxi there, they could connect on to their long haul flight which was running. A mad dash later, 600 pounds poorer, they got to Heathrow but found they were too late for their connection.
"The next available flight is in 15 days" said the airline.
I don't believe everything I read or hear and it strikes me that any airline - even BA who were named in this case - would be very foolish and customer-uncaring to offer such a dreadful alternative in what are, admittedly, difficult days for them. But actually, I believe this case.
I've been at Heathrow it was - let me see - a 14th December. Had my flight cancelled due to ice. "Next flight we can put you on - 28th December". Most unhelpful - "we're not to blame for the weather and can't do anything else".
But ... we managed to transfer our tickets and fly out on 15th December with another airline ... loads of empty seats and I wonder how many other people's holidays were ruined that year, needlessly, and are being ruined this (again needlessly), by an airline who don't care enough about their customers to offer the best available alternatives. (written 2006-12-22, updated 2006-12-28)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Z201 - Holidays and Business Trips [65] Ireland - (2004-09-27)
[81] Caf[83][c2]á keyboards - (2004-10-10)
[368] Vacation Week - (2005-07-04)
[370] From Iceland - (2005-07-06)
[373] Vik, Iceland to Melksham, England - (2005-07-10)
[374] Instant availability - (2005-07-11)
[420] Towards Tebay - (2005-08-20)
[518] Passport office - a much improved system - (2005-12-05)
[548] San Francisco - (2005-12-30)
[620] Familiar names, close to home - (2006-02-23)
[684] Staying in the country - (2006-04-13)
[878] Easy criteria to meet - (2006-09-25)
[1025] Tomorrow's keywords - London, Training, Course, PHP, Ruby. - (2007-01-08)
[1120] 1200 miles in 3 days - (2007-03-28)
[1143] A course in Helsinki - (2007-04-11)
[1150] Helsinki - what comes naturally - (2007-04-15)
[1231] Sur le Continent - (2007-06-13)
[1291] Day trip to Weymouth - (2007-08-05)
[1293] Weymouth - Sunny Summer Sunday afternoon - (2007-08-07)
[1299] In the USA for a few days - (2007-08-11)
[1308] Good to be home - (2007-08-18)
[1454] From Sunday to Monday, from Melksham to the Balkans - (2007-12-03)
[1457] A day in Ljubljana - (2007-12-04)
[1657] Farewell, Newcastle to Stavanger, Haugsund and Bergen - (2008-05-29)
[1740] Vertical London - (2008-08-06)
[1746] London for the visitor, for free - (2008-08-09)
[1868] Liverpool - a friendly city - (2008-11-03)
[1992] A good time to travel - (2009-01-14)
[2030] The final step to being British - (2009-02-07)
[2090] Melksham to Georgia - (2009-03-19)
[2098] A room without a view - (2009-03-22)
[2100] Visiting Family - (2009-03-23)
[2101] A B C D of GA and TN - (2009-03-23)
[2198] On the road, at a Service area thats a cut above the others - (2009-05-25)
[2200] England, Scotland, Northern Ireland - (2009-05-26)
[2208] A beautiful coastline - (2009-05-30)
[2265] A chance to do the tourist thing - (2009-07-01)
[2269] Sipping at York - (2009-07-05)
[2306] Melksham to Mexico for the week - (2009-07-27)
[2313] Seeing Guadalajara - a first glimpse downtown - (2009-08-01)
[2469] Beyond the Pale - (2009-10-22)
[2759] Touching base - (2010-05-10)
[2796] Sunday - waiting for the ferry. - (2010-06-06)
[2797] Sur la T.G.V. - (2010-06-07)
[2803] Travelling across Europe - (2010-06-12)
[3300] Wildlife and other pictures from holiday - (2011-05-24)
[3303] Flying tonight - (2011-05-26)
[3306] Photogenic Place - (2011-05-28)
[3321] Travelling around - (2011-06-09)
[3345] Cruising - (2011-07-04)
[3346] Gibraltar - said to have a few residents less than Chippenham - (2011-07-05)
[3372] Wearing the new London uniform - (2011-07-28)
[3381] Report - day trip from Swindon / Chippenham / Melksham to Weymouth - (2011-08-07)
[3681] Kicking up a stink, the Victorian way? - (2012-04-02)
[3737] Postcards from Barmouth - (2012-05-20)
[3742] Dysenni Valley, and nearby - (2012-05-24)
[3853] Blanford Forum, Dorset - (2012-09-01)
[3998] Travelogue - from the Netherlands to London via Hook and Harwich - (2013-02-07)
[4126] Where are we now? On holiday! - (2013-06-29)
[4215] Great beauty, but great natural danger - (2013-11-26)
[4249] An evening in Glasgow - (2014-03-19)
[4433] Different views of a Welsh Valley - but headed home - (2015-02-20)
[4471] Leopardstown to Rosslare by train - (2015-04-23)
[4472] Rosslare to Fishguard - foot passenger on the ferry - (2015-04-24)
[4473] Fishguard to Melksham - third part of Dublin journey - (2015-04-25)
[4478] Home in Melksham to Gatwick Airport - easy by public transport - (2015-04-29)
[4513] Yesterday, Weymouth - (2015-08-02)
[4643] From last July (2015) - (2016-02-08)
[4728] Visiting Los Alamitos Bay Yacht Club - (2016-11-23)
[4731] To Oceanside and San Clemente Pier - (2016-11-23)
Some other Articles
Date conversion - PHPFriends and familyApache httpd and Apache Tomcat together tipsStirling at nightOld dog, old tricksRoom at the Inn, Guy at the stationMeet the neighbours.pdf files - upload via PHP, store in MySQL, retrieveOne Thousand Posts and still going strongCascading and the buses