Few years ago we were EZY from Stansted to somewhere in Europe and the night before the French ATC, bless them, went on strike.
Duly arrived first sector of the day and surprised to find the aircraft boarded on time, although there was a pre boarding announcement that the aircraft would be delayed. pulled off gate and taxied to remote stand and parked up. the crew offered free water and soft drinks but not food as 'we could get a take off imminent call'. and we did delay of approx 45mins so quite happy, pilot got the foot down and we were only late by 10 minutes.
Another was Air Transat from Vancouver to Gatwick, all at the gate at time and so was the aircraft. however a call there would be a delay as the chariot was broken and the part was being flown in on a scheduled Transat flight from Toronto, The spare part landed and the aircraft stopped behind out aircraft and the part, think it was the Captains coffee maker, was dropped off to the mechanic and he entered the cabin, we boarded 10 min later and off into the wild blue yonder. Tannoy's were excellent and advised the customers NOT to travel too far away with regular expect boarding calls. Everyone was back in time
Last was Toronto, first blizzard of the season and the runway was reduced capacity, several flights were heavily delayed or even cancelled. we were Westjet and FR24 showed our aircraft was in Montreal and to Position to Toronto and do the Gatwick flight. However due to the weather our inbound was delayed by 5 hours and we got free snack voucher and a great cheer went up when the aircraft arrived, loaded, taxi to de ice and away, overall delayed by 4 hours and upon arrival handed a letter confirming the weather delay for our travel insurance needs
What I am saying is that airlines do want to keep the customers happy and do what they can to make a situation bearable