People fly with cold symptoms all the time. I am not sure I see the issue here.
Put on a mask to protect your fellow travelers and you are set.

Unless you have a test result confirming some sort of dangerous contagious disease (I personally don't categorize H1N1 as such) I fail to see why the airline should have accommodated any rescheduling.

People are quick to blame the airline but in reality it's the risk we take when we buy nonchangeable discounted tickets and save a few $.