Oh the joy of ferries. I often book the late afternoon ferry, arrive in time for the mid-afternoon crossing and am welcomed on board, at no extra charge, with a smile. Why wouldn't they? It's called customer service and common sense. I was once on a LoCo flight from close EU - UK. On teletext my flight was delayed 2 hours, so I arrived at the checkin well in time for the new ETA. The desk was open, but not for my flight. It was open for the following fight, on the same route. Could I check in for my original flight? No. They would put me on the 2nd flight at no charge. So I checked in, went to the gate, saw my original a/c still there, watched it depart, waited 2.5hrs and watched it return, then boarded. AGH! How daft is that. What happened to common sense and discretion? Computers have taken over, but there is always a human activated 'back door' to bypass the system is they want to, or are allowed to. I understand the argument that the checkin desk could have beens swamped by 2 flights at the same time, if everybody turned up later for the first flight, but I was the only one.
Reminds me of a friend on a Newcastle - London via Durham train ticket. It was an off-peak ticket, so cheaper. At the last minute he found himself staying with a friend in Durham, so he arrived to board the train in Durham. Not allowed because the ticket had to be validated in Newcastle. Same mess years go with UK combined ticket. It could be cheaper to fly MAN - LHR - XYZ than LHR - XYZ. But you then had to spend more than the savings to get to MAN. Daft or not?