"BA obviously had a spare 747 or they wouldnt have been able to charter it out."
That wasn't the case, they cancelled a flight back from Tokyo. It may have been fairly empty, but it certainly wasn't spare.
http://www.britishairways.com/travel...lightops_en_gb
Fair enough, BA have a fairly significant presence in this area - Ryanair and Easyjet don't, but at least Easyjet have done the onboard collections - a relatively easy
PR win. Apart from the odd cheque to a local school, have FR done much in the way of charitable giving?
As far as FR go, their policy is harsh, but if they made exceptions here, they would then be met with thousands of other refund requests, some "reasonable", but many frivolous (burst tyre on way to airport, heavy traffic etc).
I am amazed at the ever-increasing number of people who are making bookings for connecting flights using no-frills airlines, and not considering the consequences if things go wrong. The fact that Ryanair "exploit" people in "desparate" need is the other side of the coin to the fact that they can offer so many give-away fares - you can't have it both ways.
The majority of people needing to book at short notice are likely to be travelling on business, or are likely to be able to afford to do so, but they will often still pay much less than they would with other airlines.
If you don't like these terms, don't book with Ryanair, or take out travel insurance which covers you for missed connections.
Otherwise, work out the probability of a missed connection x the likely cost of getting emergency tickets, and compare that with the money saved by booking the cheaper fare, and make your decision accordingly.