A bit of a long story of IRROPS here. Maybe interesting. Maybe not. I don't know.
I recall the interesting time I had in Frankfurt in Dec 2010. Where the snow closed LHR. On the day I was due to fly, LCY and FRA also had snow problems. So, unsurprisingly my flight was cancelled along with others. So, I was pretty quick off the ball and rebooked to the next day's flight (to LHR, since it was Saturday). On the Saturday I seem to remember I had a succession of flights I managed to get "onto" which were cancelled one by one.
Eventually I could no longer use MMB (too slow) and it was impossible to get through to BA. So, I went to my company travel agent. They said everything to London was booked up for Sunday. I was mulling the idea of taking a flight to MAN and getting a train down when I had an idea. Ultimately, it's what saved me. I asked about the evening flight to LCY. The lady said she hadn't seen that and saw there was space. So I said take it!
I had one more beer in FRA then popped back to my hotel (for some more).
Sunday, I arrived extremely early so I could gauge the situation. I found out quite quickly LHR was closed, and intended on being closed all day. However, my investigations were showing that both FRA and LCY were operating, albeit with some delays involved.
When it came to check in time I found they wouldn't take my bag. "No flights are going to London today, didn't you see the news?"... I politely pointed out both FRA and LCY were operating and that my flight wasn't showing as cancelled (yet).
Nope, not taking your bag. It's not going, I should just go back and try again tomorrow. I wasn't having any of that. So, I stuck around. By this time FRA T2 was extremely busy and by now I actually recognized a group of people from the previous days and sat down to go "British style" and just deal with the situation by talking nonsense.
Eventually it was getting close to when the flight would depart. There was nothing on the board (and by that I mean my flight wasn't even listed. Not cancelled, just not there). On MMB it showed as "on time".. So I went to drop my bag. Same lady "No, not taking your bag". So I sat down again. Eventually, the flight status DID change to cancelled. So I said goodbye to the "group" again and headed back to the hotel.
Now, here's where something that I had only seen happen once before (and also on BA). I always thought cancelled had a finality to it. You had a delay which meant "probably you will go" but cancelled meant, forget it. The flight is done for.
When I got to the airport I got a strange message from my mother. It said "Oh, it looks like you're going to make it after all". Confused by this I replied that the flight was cancelled "No, it's boarding it says on the internet"....
By now I had a beer and was already taking off shoes etc in the hotel. So, when I saw "Boarding gate 6" I was somewhat less than amused. Also, to put it into perspective I was 25km away from FRA.
Shows went back on. Bag closed. Beer still in hand I went back down to the reception to explain the situation. A taxi was called, let's say after the situation was explained to him the unrestricted autobahn played a part here. In the snow (which was now falling again) we thundered back to FRA in what I would call the record time for this journey (well maybe it could be beaten in the dry). I paid (with a decent tip for that) thanked the driver profusely and then ran inside.
The lady saw me coming and was already on the defensive "It WAS cancelled, talk to my supervisor". So, I did. He said "If you go now, without checking the bag, maybe you can make it". So, I did. Off I went. Threw out some oversized bottles at security, haggled over a bottle that was 175ml in volume but definitely had less than that inside. Won the haggle and got to keep it (lost the same battle with LCY security some weeks later mind you).
I waltzed through and joined the back of the line to board the plane.
Happy ending yes. However, it introduced a new word that I've only seen twice, and both times with BA. "Uncancelled".