Well guys, we made it back eventually!

Going back to my initial post & question regarding a refund... apparently we are entitled to compensation of some kind. There was a gentleman on our flight (a Travel Jorunalist) who spent a lot of time going around the departure lounge making sure everyone was aware of their legal rights!! If you google 'Denied boarding compensation' you will get a lot of information on this... something to do with EU Regulation 261/2004.

Something else which hasn't yet been mentioned... to really rub salt into the wounds when we got bussed back to the airport the following day there was no business check-in desk (they did eventually open it about 45 mins later) and out of the 4 'manned' check-in desks only 1 (yes 1!) was actually checking people in!! The business desk (once open) took 1 hour to check in 1 group!

On the bright side, the MGM buffet wasn't too bad