Originally Posted by
GrahamO
folks stuck in an overseas airport with no way of getting home
You are only "stuck in an overseas airport with no way of getting home" if you've booked and paid for a complete travel package.
That is where none of this makes sense any more, because very few people do that and even fewer airlines sell "return" fares. You buy a single journey - maybe or maybe not in conjunction with another single journey in the opposite direction - so the airline should have no particular reason to compensate any traveller for the fact that he or she decided to stray so far from home that he has "no way" of getting back, other than providing a replacement service at the earliest possible opportunity.