I've kept my council to see what would happen. I have looked at several flights - tonight's ARN is a case in point.. It is 3x3 tonight and it is full. There are 30 people in C. In the back there are about 13 blocked seats (whatever that signifies) which may still need to be allocated.

It is clear that if I were faced with being left behind or getting home or away - then for the sake of 2-3 hours a middle seat would be better than nothing. If the decision was made to clear backlogs of people caught by cancellations and Y needs to be filled and that to do so every spare seat needs to be used then I see the sense. If BA had actually gone and given letters to be used as vouchers - apologising and offering £100 off their next flight or some such - it would have eased the sting. People may still not be happy, and there will be those who never are, but a gesture, an acknowledgement that this is not as it should be would go a long way. This may have been unavoidable but the PR is appalling. They have managed to make a bad situation worse and whoever allowed that is a fool.

This is a perect storm that the penny pinching has managed to produce. Of course BA can do nothing about the weather - but it could have sorted out the horror story that occurs any time one needs to phone. It has flogged off the staff who worked at the out stations and it has managed to seriously antagonise their customer facing employees. Baggage services are in chaos and the outcome is that they will lose custom. Grief, I bet if I rolled up looking for a job they'd take me back - at my age. They pay peanuts and they expect the earth. People have been leaving in droves and they think that they can manage with what is left and now this has come and bitten them where it hurts. I think that it would take one more IT collapse and they will be in even deeper trouble. People will not want to fly them any more and I do not blame them.