When things go wrong, I like to think that BA will make things right. They left me in a lurch last December, and I will honestly say that in 30 years of flying it was the only time I felt I had been left in an unsafe situation that could have been avoided by the airline. The ONLY time I considered it UNSAFE. And yet I still regard BA as the most safety conscious airline I fly.

So when they send me an apology voucher, I take it at face value, and that they have acknowledged they didn't meet normal expectations. Now that I have tried to redeem the voucher, it's not working online, I've gotten run around three different numbers already, been told to wait until Monday (even though the voucher expires in less than a week and I'm trying to buy a flight for Wednesday.

Seriously, and I realise I'm venting a bit now, but if you can't make an apology work, then maybe you shouldn't bother trying. After about four calls the last chap really seemed like he understood and that he'd try to get me sorted, so I've got my fingers crossed, but this was absolutely not what I expected when I went to redeem this apology gesture from BA...

By way of background, I was caught up in the December 10 diversions and ended up stranded in Bournemouth after many hours of delay and many more not being permitted to disembark until it was so late that no one could help me. I was promised by BA transport to London, but that didn't happen. I along with many others was assured by the Captain my bags were being unloaded, but they were left onboard and ferried to LHR the next day. That would have been fine with me, had they not told me to wait for them, which took away precious time at 11pm on a freezing evening in a tiny airfield.

I had basically left all this behind, in part because BA sent me an email on 20 December apologising and offering a credit for a future flight. Here we are six months later, and I'm re-living it all as I make multiple phone calls and try to buy another flight on BA using the good will voucher. Am I crazy?