I wouldn't be so quick that there is no pain shared by the airline.

In fact, even if AC didn't care about its customers, you still have the fact that a delay in the morning will have a sprialling impact on operations further on in the day. This means more money AC needs to spend as a result of increased labour costs and a big time screw up in ops plan for that specific plane and the routes it flies on (if we looked at this situation in a bit of a a vacuum).

Now, add back in the fact that there are customers, these inconvenienced folks as yourself are peeved as hell and thus may now go to a competitor.

So while the new EU Regulation is a good thing, perhaps it over does it. Consumer protection is good. Over-protection is not. Like I suggested in other threads, it's definitely more political and has a resonance of some kind of European Parliament doing.

And it's funny -- this type of Regulation doesn't exist for trains or buses -- so why should there be this double standard?

Heck, do you think WS or any other airline would welcome such a thing? I don't think so. Maybe a little bit of protection, but no way in hell would they say you should get 500CAD cash++ for a ticket that you paid only 250CAD for (and only 130CAD of it went to the airline to pay for the service and the good).