profot,
I am in no way doubting you when you say that your father was extremely ill, but the number of times that airlines are told such things has to be heard to be believed.
Take the situation that I had a while back, when the aircraft went tech. Another one of our A/C was due to leave for LHR in the 40 minutes or so and it had approximately 30 spare seats. One of the ground staff was heard to mention this by a passenger at the front, while we were trying to get as many passengers sorted as we could. It spread through the aircraft like wildfire and suddenly, it seemed that virtually every passenger onboard was going to a funeral/wedding/sick relative etc. I find it hard to believe that all those people were in fact, telling the truth.
In thread recently, someone mentioned that we should show more leeway, initiative and common sense. I personally, would love to, but experience has shown me that all three have a habit of coming back and biting you in the rear. Give an inch and many will insist on taking a mile.
I know this doesn't help you now, but hopefully, it may go some way to you understanding why such a stance may have been taken. It seems that you may have paid for the past behaviour of many selfish people. Fair? No. But then again, life never was fair.
UniFoxOs,
If you had been declared medically unfit to fly, along with all the relevant documentation, then that is a completely different scenario and I would have thought that most airlines would not charge to change the date of travel under those circumstances. No doubt, I will now be deluged by posts from all those that can't wait to prove me wrong!
