Not the worst story here, but amusing at least in hindsight (though perhaps not at the time)...
Earlier this year I had an hour or so's business to do in Geneva. I rented an Avis* car in Monaco for just one day, drove the 30 minutes to Nice Airport, parked in the short term parking, and took the middle of the day Easyjet flight to Geneva. In Geneva, I took a taxi into the city, had my meeting, walked along the lake front, eat an early dinner, and took a taxi back to the airport for the return flight in the early evening.
Of course, you can all guess what happens next... the flight was finally cancelled at 11pm after 4 postponements. Easyjet never did tell us why.
There was a LONG queue of angry passengers demanding hotel vouchers. Instead of joining the queue, I walked over to the Hertz counter and asked for a one-way to Nice Airport. They offered me a Focus or a Mercedes C220 (with half a tank of fuel) for the same price. Guess which I chose!
I then drove via the Mont Blanc tunnel, with the outline of the Alps beautiful under a full moon, and stopped in Aosta for fuel. The automated pump wouldn't take my credit card for some reason, and I didn't happen to have any Euro notes. Fortunately there was a store open, and the (very sleepy) person there told me there was an ATM nearby. I found it after 20 minutes walking around a freezing shopping plaza. After filling the tank, it then took me another few minutes to find out how to release the parking brake on a Mercedes (pedal to set, pull the handle below and to the left of the steering column to release), and I was on my way.
I arrived at Nice Airport at around 5:30am, parked, dropped the keys in the overnight box, and walked to my other rental car. I then drove the 30 minutes back to Monaco, dropped the keys in the overnight box there, and walked the 5 minutes home. I was in bed by 6:15, and slept for a long long time!
Easyjet refunded the cost of the cancelled flight without complaint, but I had to fight them tooth and nail for the extra travel costs despite them agreeing to do so when I contacted them the day after. My cancelled flight was a week or two before the ash saga started, and I think their payment department collapsed under the volume of claims. They did eventually pay for the car rental, but I never got them to pay for the fuel or tolls.
The joys of business travel...
* I normally rent from Hertz, but this one time I decided to try Avis for a change, as the Hertz office in Monaco doesn't allow night drop-offs. A lucky choice as it turns out.