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Good question. I haven't been stuck like this but it's always a thought.

Compensation is unlikely but you should at least get looked after if you are travelling in the EU or an EU airline (or a US airline). There are details of this here. It's well worth studying (and printing off) these pages, also click Air Travel Advice from the menu and see the rules for Delays etc.

That's the rules but there is a big BUT coming.....

certain airlines fail to inform passengers of their rights (which is itself a breach of the regulations). There is a case on this board where one cancelled a flight, gave the passengers a refund and told them if they were quick they could get another flight from different airport 10 miles away. The bought-on-the-day tickets for the new flight cost about 10 times the amount originally paid but they didn't find out they had been stung until after they got home - and of course there was no evidence that they had not been offered the correct options. Now you know where to find the rules you can be ready for this tactic.

there is also a case where passengers were given a hotel in accordance with the rules but the bugs were so big and active they didn't dare to go to bed. Which just shows that the regulations still need a bit of work!

Travelling on standby in Brazil MANY years ago, we were flying from Iguacu to Rio when we got "bumped" off the flight at one of the interim stops - Londrino I think it was called. First time in eons of SB travel (used to work for BCal) that I had heard of anyone being taken off a flight once it had left departure airport - but hey you can't complain on the fares we USED to have to pay. Anyway...... This particular airport was nowt more than a clearing in the forest, no hotels, no more flights that day (to anywhere!) and in the end after much heated debate, they decided to lock us INTO the airport while the staff went home for the night. Damn spooky being in a totally desserted terminal, even if a small one!

did get home eventually on the third flight of the day to Rio as everything else was unaccountably full, but were over 48 hours late back to the UK since we then missed the RIO-LGW flight . Had to use a plethora of the back-up tickets that sensible employees carry in case they can't get home (and more importantly back to work on time - sackable offence) as planned due full flights or whatever to travel back in three stops over various European airports!!

I know it's a slightly different scenario from that at the head of the topic, but worth a mention anyway - otehrwise, have been lucky - longest delay on a return leg home was 6 hours - and travelling with kids now, that is more than enough for me thank you!!

I was once stranded in Jamaica for just over 2 days. Major dissaster The aircraft I was supposed to fly home on had a technical problem with the hydraulics. The airline (charter) sent out an engineer with spare parts but the fault couldn't be fixed so they sent a spare aircraft to bring us home. We should have got home on saturday morning but didn't get back while the monday afternoon. That meant we had to stay in a 5* all inclusive hotel for the weekend and had to phone my boss to say I wouldn't be in work on monday because I was stranded in Jamaica. It's the type of call you love to make We got £100 for our 'troubles'. I wasn't bothered about that since we had our holiday extended, although others were most upset. We also had a complimentory bar on the flight back, courtesy of the Captain. That's the type of delay you don't mind having.

Darren

Remember having to spend an extra 24 hours in Spain donkeys years ago,

Things then were so different from now. LOL.

We were staying in my parents place in Salobrena & arrived at Malaga to find our flight couldn't take off as Luton was fog bound, and would't allow landing. We were in a 4* hotel in Torromolinos for the night and flew the following day.

We weren't charged a penny which seems odd as we were DIY, years before everybody did it and Mum and Dad never took out holiday Insurance in 20 years of travelling abroad as they didn't beleive in Insurance. Think it must be a generational thing.

Rather than being upset, we looked on it as a bit of a bonus. We didn't stay in hotels much them due to M & D having an apartment. Went out for a lovely meal and enjoyed being in a 'posh' hotel with all the facilities.

We had a delayed flight back from Palma years ago. Can't remember how long we were delayed now but it went into the next day, maybe 24 hours or so. The whole airport was packed with holidaymakers and it was scorching hot. I remember we had very little money left, we were really young and had spent most of our pesetas and had no credit cards, and we had to bunch what little money we had left together to try to get a drink and something to eat. Nobody came round with meal vouchers or took you to hotel rooms in those days. It was awful, kids were greeting, adults were greeting and the staff seemed to disappear and it was so boring. I remember my clothes being all crushed and sweaty, hair all lank (you get the picture) and I just wanted a shower and get home. This is now always my worst nightmare and dread it happening again, have children now so would be hell on earth. Still, touch wood that was 25 years ago and has not happened since, although a couple of years ago we were stuck on the runway, in the plane again at Palma, because 5 people who had checked onto our flight did not get on the plane. Can understand them not getting on the plane but why book onto the flight? We were stuck for about 3 hours and then missed our baggage handlers spot at Edinburgh and had to wait absolutely forever for our luggage. How we cursed those people at Palma.

we were diverted to Frankfurt on our way back from Singapore a couple of years ago because of the baggage handlers strike. We had a day and a half in a lovely hotel and on our return we got 100 000 airmiles from BA. It was stressful at the time as I missed an important family "do" which we had cut a day off our holiday for. But we couldn't complain at the outcome

Had a 17 hour delay in Cyprus some years ago. We were sitting in the airport watching the screens and it was creeping nearer and nearer to our departure time but nothing was showing. Eventually we were told the flight was cancelled and we were taken to a hotel for the night. As our luggage had already gone through we only had the clothes we stood up in. We were provided with a room and food but no drinks at all - not even tea or water. Although I had credit cards I had no spare cash, there were no ATMs around the area and I couldn't really put a couple of drinks on my plastic. Luckilly I had a few American dollars and a few Hong Kong dollars in the back of my passport and the hotel accepted those for a couple of beers.

We got snowed in in New York 5 years ago. We were staying with relatives of hubbie's on Long Island and the night before we were due to fly home 2 feet of snow fell so we couldn't even get to JFK. Every flight was cancelled and instead of us getting home on Tuesday, BA managed to get us back on the Friday. Fortunately staying with relatives we didn't have accommodation worries as there wasn't a hotel room to be had in New York but we had left our then 2 year old at home with grandparents. Our travel insurance actually overpaid us. We were due £20 each, after the first 12 hours, for every 12 hours we were delayed up to a maximum of 72 hours. We were over the 72 hours but they still paid us for every 12 hour period.