Originally Posted by slim_slag
There was an interesting post recently from a PPL who took his first trip to a reasonably busy UK airport. He planned it carefully, phoned up for an arrival time, agreed to pay the various charges asked of him, and was given a 'slot'. The GA pilot appeared to arrive in good time, was told to hold by ATC, then vectored to final approach and cleared to land. At less than 2 mile final he was sent around because a commercial jet who was number two to land was coming up behind.
This pilot though ATC were great, so I sort of questioned him, but he still thought ATC were great so I thought he had a good time so why introduce doubts. Me, I'd have been cursing them as I followed all their instruction to the letter, had agreed to pay the money requested by them for their professional services, and yet at a very late stage had been assigned a lower priority than a commercial jet behind me (and which didn't have right of way in the technical sense). Instead of being gushing with praise for ATC, I'd have wanted to send them an invoice for the extra cost I was paying on the Hobbs.
I would put that in the "ATC stuffed up" category by possibly misjudging the gap required behind the PPL and they took the easiest and safest option to sort it out.
We're human and we stuff up now and again, pilots are human and they stuff up now and again. Do we bill the PPLs for the extra fuel used by 747s and the like when we're vectoring them around CAS infringers as I was doing (not for the first time) a couple of days ago?
Rather I'd hope that the "guilty" party, on whichever side, learns from the experience and doesn't repeat it.