Having voluntarily been bounced of a flight back to the UK by a mate who had serious parent problems going on (Father later died I believe), I happilly took over the stint in FI over Xmas and NY. Later given the clearance to return to the UK by next available flight I jumped on a C17...only to be turned back 5hrs outbound to pick up a comp A from MPA....Now as a smoker (sorry) this was a little un-believable, but the comp A was in fact the father of a suicide attempt (son) in Cyprus... I happilly went back to MPA for a ciggie..
On arrival at Ascension lots of hours later (and one ciggie) I learnt there was no onward flight.
But on the tarmac was a Tommy, so I enquired as to the chance of jumpin on it to get to the UK and the response was...speak to the Captain, which I did, and for a couple of cups of coffee (en-route), myself and the comp A got back to Brize. Comp A was transited straight to a private jet to Cyprus, and I went home by own means..
Bottom line... If it aint broken.....