RaverFlaver,
Thank you for your post. Kinda stole my thunder a little though as, to my knowledge, no passenger has ever been forced to go anywhere they dont want to, and I'm sure that a majority are well aware of potential situations, be they weather or any other hazard, that they will be flying towards.
I'll leave myself totally and utterly exposed to the barrage of abuse I'll no doubt receive here, but I am one of those humble Ops boys who is very much involved in deciding what/who goes where and when.
First of all, believe it or not, of paramount importance to us is the safety of crews, aircraft and passengers. Those on here who are being paranoid, stop it now as I find your whinging a touch annoying and certainly not called for. If any Captain, First Officer or Cabin crew has a concern, no matter how small, we will endeavour to address, reassure and assist them in any way possible. They, after all and just as importantly, will be required to do the same for our passengers. Do you think flight deck will just launch merrily on our say so, completely unaware of what they are flying towards? Of course not.
Second of all, weather systems are only predictable to a degree, in terms of strength and direction and we are occasionally required to make decisions on predictions only, not guarantees and, again, in conjunction with the crew. This system was always going to cause a certain degree of disruption, and, believe it or not, to instigate a series of mass cancellations in order to protect our aircraft and crews was not the way to go in this instance.
Thirdly, all Ops and Commercial departments have refined the ways in which they react to these scenarios over many, many times. Like it or not, they are not just thrown together with scant regard for our staff and equipment. If Thompson saw fit to do what they did, then the decision would not have been taken lightly. Dont be so flippant as to say otherwise.
Sometimes Ops make the wrong call, primarily because we dont have the luxury of time and work to tight schedules, as do crews. Sadly it's all to easy to sit back and complain about situations and environments that we know nothing about.
My rant is now over. Thank you.