December 18, 2009 was a beautiful, sunny day at London's Heathrow airport. It was cold. There was just enough snow on the ground to give the grass a thin white dusting. There was no ice on the ground.

Why then were almost all of British Airways flights delayed or canceled and somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 passengers stranded. The official statement was weather, but there was no ice. Furthermore; many flights landed on time, yet sat for 2 or more hours on the tarmac waiting for stairs and buses for disembarkment. Even the untrained eye could see there wasn't enough snow and ice to warrant the delays. Could it have been the fact that courts blocked the planned 12/22-01/02 walk out and, rather than giving up, British Air employees were protesting?

To make matters worse ground, security, and booking staff were not communicating. I, as well as many others; were sent from line to line, desk to desk in an effort to reschedule connecting flights to bring us to our planned destinations. After 8 different stops I was directed to a long snaking line. In front of me were a couple of thousand people, soon there were a thousand or more behind me. Rather than fully staff the desk handling the request BA had 3-5 agents at any given time handling the onslaught, and, rather than adding new agents to tend to the existing que, they constantly redirected the lines to create new ones. Many people spent an hour or 2 in line and were on their way. Many, many more were in line much longer. After 10 hours in line with absolutely no communication, British Airways announced at 11:30 pm they were no longer taking any re-bookings that day, with an estimated 1000 in line still.

BA offered hotel vouchers and no way to take up the existing place in line. Travelers were told return in the morning and line up again. I and a couple hundred others decided to keep our place in line and stay the night. As vouchers were being handed out, BA stated they would provide buses to the rooms. They never proposed a way back to the airport. Taxis were charging anywhere from 30-100 GBP for services.

In the morning after 15 hours total in line BA agents again began booking. Security agents decided to split the lines taking people from the back and starting a second line. The agents were to draw from both lines. With this decision people who had been waiting a fraction of the time others were, were helped and sent out ahead of those who had been in line 15+ hours.

Saturday is shaping up to be another beautiful day, with many British Air cancelations. The strangest thing about the weather here, it seems to only affect BA planes, all other airlines seem to be operating normal. My duo lost a 200 euro job to this, many others lost hotels, car rental, and other travel costs, but of course BA is not responsible for that; after all it was a weather issue.

www.reverbnation.com/sheavanwinkle