I was the happiest man in the world as BA 284 left the SFO gate 15 minutes ahead of time and I had a fairly empty flight, a WT+ B/H with two seats to spare, and an early return home.

20 minutes later we were still stuck by the gate and sweating in a non air-conditioned plane, when the captain told us they failed to start the right engine, so we were pulled back at the gate to run diagnostics and the like. I knew we were in trouble: it happened me once already, and I knew the drill: spend a couple of hours in the plane, then disembark for a canceled flight. Did anyone with a failed engine ever manage to get airborne after checking at the gate?

Guess just what happened? After two hours we were doing the long line exercise in front of BA's staff frantically trying to protect us on BA286, leaving in 45 minutes. Something they could have started at least a good hour before. I luckily managed to score a seat, even though my missed LHR connection will cost me 8+ hours of overall delay (I'm sitting in T1 Terraces now, and I just learnt that the MXP flight will be delayed). At least I'm gong home, eventually.

I have to say that BA was pretty bad in handling people, having us seat in parked fuselage for 2+hours with an OJ and no news whatsoever, then lining us up for the rebooking circus (for $DEITY sake, airlines, get a clue... you have all our data and then some, why can't you do the rebooking yourselves and offer us a chance to just grab our new boarding passes or line up if we fancy discussing alternatives?), then sitting on the new aircraft for another 2 hours, again with little news, a few tactical lies and the usual OJ. Next time I'm confronted with a failed engine, I'll do my best to disembark right away and try my luck elsewhere...