Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
It does sounds poorly organised, particularly in respect of the food, but that would have been easy issue to guess for regular flyers, so it would be worth pinging this forum when it happens, you would probably get advice to self service. And the Signposts thread for disruption may also be useful. You don't have to use the provided hotel / coach, you can make your own arrangement and BA will pay reasonable costs.. I know this sounds a cop-out in terms of what BA could have done here, but there is an element of self service and self preservation that needs to come into play here, so it's usually best to make your own arrangements.
I think one of the big issues was that by the time we actually got off the aircraft, the airport was already closing. All the shops had closed and when we picked up our bags, there was not a single taxi or transport at the exit. It was quite a different scene during normal hours as the hustle and bustle of the taxi and transport companies are fighting for your business.
On the hotels, our preferred option would have been to go back to our original hotel. Unfortunately though, we were unable to make a booking as it was showing as full on booking.com. There were a lot of families travelling with kids which made it more complicated getting larger rooms or extra beds.
The food issue was actually surprise to the cabin crew as they were told by the ground staff the food would be chilled and returned for the morning. When we got on board the next morning, they wanted to know what happened to it as some of the food had expiry dates beyond our re-scheduled departure. I suspect the catering company did not remove the food from the plane and it ended up being spoilt which was probably communicated to BA late as it wasn't until some 3.5 hours before the scheduled departure that we got the message that there would be no food.