Originally Posted by MKE-MR

Not a lot of sympathy from folks here, apparently! I would be annoyed/gutted as well if I'd just shelled out $$$$ moments before finding out that somebody else had a similar/same situation and had gotten resolution for free--and I'd imagine that most of the "too bad, you bet and you lost" crowd would as well were they in an airport instead of in front of a keyboard.

That being said, two points:
1) no chance you'll get any joy after the fact. Customer service will not comprehend your annoyance nor be empowered to do anything about it. A shame but that's what it is. 3000 is their standard "go away" amount (which I've also received before when complaining about a similar situation, in fact, now that I recall)
2) travel insurance is for just these types of things. Eases the sting a whole lot

And, the inevitable "next time" advice: Since you had lots and lots of time to solve this, you can always be "that guy" who refuses to accept the first answer from the staff. After all, it's not like the BA price would probably have gone up much a couple of hours later, while the odds of finding a supervisor or somebody like that may have increased as the flight was further delayed (at least, that is what actually happened, though no guarantee it would be the same next time). As long as you're not making a total ... of yourself, no reason not to politely but firmly continue to ask for what you believe is right, along the lines of "that doesn't solve my problem, is there anybody else I can talk to who might be able to help?"