A friend of mind was scheduled to fly LHR-MIA on BA for a business trip on thr Apr 15, 2010, when they got in the volcanic ash cloud airport shutdown event in the UK.
They went to a agent at IB in LHR and ask with thevy could get him to MIA on a IB flight from MAD, the agent said yes, He then ask if IB would accepted the BA ticket and change the routing from LHR-MIA-LHR, to MAD-MIA-MAD with a departure on the 17 Apr from MAD and a return on 26 Apr to MAD, The IB agent said yes, but they would have to check with BA first, and a BA agent would have to contact the IB agent that they where talking to, to get the BA agent ok, which they did.
The IB agent ask him how he was going to get to MAD by the 17 Apr, He said by rail, at his expense. The agent said the trains from LON to MAD may be full, He told them that he's has his res and tic pay for already before he contacted IB, just in case, he said all he needed was BA and IB to commuicate.
He said the trains was full, and a long ride, with all the connections, but it was do-abowl.
He said if only the airlines in their alliances and the goverments would commuicate on day one of the airspace shutdown to re-route these passengers, he said a lot of the suffuring could of been shorten. he said if he would of taken AA on the LHR-MIA-LHR he may still be stuck in LHR or MAD, because of the BA, IB deal it made thinks easier.
I told him that the goverments ask the rail company to add extra services to their systems to move the people to other countries with no or least restricted airspace problems with the ash clouds.
He said if the passenger paid 1/3 and the airline paid 1/3 and the goverments in the affected airsplace paid 1/3 of the cost for a train ticket to the a airport in a country that has no or least restricted airsplace, then the passenger should not complain, since the volcanic ash cloud is a nature event, but the management of a event like this is a business and goverment problem.
I told him if AA would put extra flights to/from the US to Spain, if they could contact their passengers at the effected airports with the closed airspace, that if the passengers could get to any international airports in Spain that AA would put a extra flights to MAD, BCN, and start a flight to/from ACP. If AA would do that, thats a different story.