There was a representative of ABTA interviewed on the PM programme who said that most travel insurance doesn't cover failure by a scheduled airline, and people should check very carefully.  

My mistake was to assume that Eurostar would actually make some effort to help their customers.  Certainly, in Brussels last night there was no sign of any support at all.  I know Brussels well and thus my first instinct was to find a hotel - they are invariably busy and expensive - and at least I knew where the more salubrious ones were (around Bruxelles Midi station is not a particularly good area and some of the hotels are not good - by some miracle the one I usually use, which is a bit nearer the city centre and rather pleasant, had a room, but I paid handsomely for it).  And there was no help at all with making flight bookings - no contingency plans at all, apparently.  The staff were indifferent and rude, claimed the customer service team was "too busy" to deal with passengers (!) and the phone number they gave me for the customer services department connected me to the Electoral Services Department of Brentwood District Council (I kid you not).  

I noticed on the BBC News last night that Eurostar staff at St Pancras were assisting travellers with finding hotels and booking flights, so it's obviously a Brussels problem.  Perhaps if we'd had camera crews on site like they had in London and Paris, the staff might have bothered.  The attitude of Swiss Airlines when I got stranded in Basel a while ago thanks to a broken down aircraft was completely different; with almost miraculous speed we were booked on early flights the following day and whisked off to hotels (I was asked whether I had any objection to staying in Germany, which amused me).  A different world, but then that's Basel for you.

Eurostar claims to offer a premium service but emerged from this more like the Ryanair of the permanent way.


Actually, for all this, I remain a great fan of the Tunnel (but then I get very seasick!).  On the two occasions when they have had fires they have got everyone out safely, and the emergency procedures have worked, which is really quite reassuring.  And I still regard the Eurostar as one of the most civilised ways to travel - when it works.  But clearly at the Brussels end at least they have a lot of work to do.

Well, you must admit that the cow is by then beyond help. 

When I was at Heathrow last July, I was too cheap to take a hotel room, so I stayed up all night catching up on correspondence in the Heathrow Hilton's front lobby. I just sat on a sofa there minding me own business, certainly not taking up much room and most certainly not sleeping (not even wearing my pajamas and stocking cap!) -- but at 2am a fellow came by and asked me to leave. So I wandered Heathrow proper for the remainder of the night and morning.

SILVER LINING: upon my return to the US I was so tired and disoriented that I had no problem readjusting to the new/old time zone.

Forgive me if I'm missing something, but wouldn't you prefer to be in a sealed train carriage if the area outside was filled with noxious smoke?

NS: Stevie Wonder, Innervisions

Apparently they were breaking the windows to escape the flames and tremendous heat.  I'd rather be outside and gassed than inside and fried.  Presumably the flames had spread from the lorry.

Mucho condolences Andy I've had a couple die on me in the last few years. After the first feelings of disbelief comes the anguished 'NOOOOOOOOO!'. I hate being without my mobile. I don't use it as a phone that much but it's great for keeping in 'text touch' with people that I don't see that often.

I suppose 4 years is pretty near retirement age for a mobile. My brother gets a new one every year, though they aren't always an improvement. Mine's definitely showing its age, the keys are very tatty and the on-off switch has disintegrated. I'm going into Tesco to get a new one - I've got £17 plus lots of free talk minutes on my current Tesco SIM so I hope I'll be able to transfer them over without too much difficulty.

I've had my Nokia for eight years. It's getting to the stage where I feel rather embarrassed to get it out in public, but it works. It doesn't take photos or anything, but why would I want it to?