I got a text message from BA at 0530 on Wednesday morning advising my LGW/IOM flight had been cancelled and inviting me to log on to BA.com or to call an 0870 number to discuss options.
I logged on and couldn't do anything on the site - BA normally shut down many of the options within 24 hours of departure anyway - but got a screen telling me to call them.
Sod that. Went online. Looked at the Gatwick TAF (aviation weather forecast) which didn't look that good. Booked Virgin (train) from Euston to Lancaster and Northern train to Heysham. Booked IoM Steam Packet from Heysham to Douglas. Had breakfast and set off at 0730. Got home at 1800.
Co-incidently I subsequently discovered that had I rebooked to a later flight, I would have got home at a similar time...but:
a) I hate telephone queues
b) I hate the BA messages in their telephone queues
c) There would have been loads of people trying to sort out their travel arrangements, and the queus would take a while to shorten
d) if I headed to LGW from London and failed to get on a flight I would have had to stay over another day
e) boats and trains don't usually suffer from fog
f) better some certainty in the arrangements than rely on luck and goodwill to get a seat on a plane
In the end I spent a pleasant day catching up on the newspapers and reading a book. I didn't have to sweat it out at Gatwick.
Perhaps we have forgotten that journeys by air are at the behest of the weather. As posted elsewhere, the entire airline industry has taken the weather out of it's planning...and BAA's plan to run mixed mode operation at LHR will make matters there significantly worse!