easyflyer83 -
I completely accept your point that any airport can suffer days of disruption due to weather and other issues, and tough decisions must be made by the carriers affected as a consequence. But the key consideration from the point of view of MAN customers is that if UAL / AWE / AAL etc cancel your flight you can be pretty sure that the bulk of their flying programme fell by the wayside first. At LHR - where runway capacity is a critical issue - MAN flights ARE (like it or not) always first in line for the chop. And the chop does happen too frequently for me as a customer to entrust my travel arrangements to the main carrier in question. If I thought that they would spread the pain around - eg. cancel half the MAN-LHR schedules and afew flights from elsewhere - then I might be more inclined to give them another chance. However, this does not appear to be the policy so I cannot book a journey connecting via LHR with confidence.
I am aware that airlines must make difficult decisions from time to time and I sympathise with that. But customers have their own decisions to make too, and I also sympathise with those who prioritize their self-interest. In booking their travel arrangements with carriers which only cancel them 'in extremis' rather than at the first whiff of problems affecting their hub, customers can maximize their chances of enjoying a trouble-free trip. That is what I do.
Sadly, LHR's runway capacity is stuck in a time-warp, and however they improve the terminal facilities that remains an issue for pax originating at MAN. Because it is we who get cancelled first. And the notion that we would be refunded if all goes wrong is a red herring ... monies paid for a product which is not delivered belongs to the customer anyway. If you have committed your scarce and precious holiday entitlement to a major trip, a refund and two weeks at home is probably not what you had in mind? You may be refunded money which was already yours. You may receive some additional compensation (if you are lucky). But will you get replacement leave from work? Will you get an alternative vacation?
My recommendation to friends booking travel from MAN is to select the airline which offers the best prospect of providing a trouble-free trip. Or, when things do go wrong, a company which demonstrably does its utmost to get you there by other means. From the point of view of MAN customers, there is one well-known airline which consistently falls short based on those criteria. And worse, they still consider stitching up MAN pax to be their best possible option when problems arise, so the record is unlikely to improve. So sorry - no LHR transfers for me thanks!
Regards. SHED.