MAG,
In defence of Captain airprox and Flybe, in your original post you stated that all later flights had been cancelled - which would imply that you were refering to flights from EXT and BHX as well as LGW. Therefore he was quite correct to mention the Dash 8 services.
In my experience Flybe/British/Jersey European try very hard on the Channel Islands routes. Their aircraft have often despatched from BHX and EXT with both islands below limits, held overhead and then returned to base, thus incurring great expense to the airline in an effort to operate the route and serve the CI community.
Regarding staff travel in business class I have certainly travelled in their business cabin on a standby ticket, although not to/from GCI or JER so maybe those routes are different.
Incidentally do you work for Flybe or a rival - I ask because this thread seems to be a deliberate (and in this case I would say undeserved) attack on their reputation.