Heathrow: a tale of disorganization (2 of 2)

This is the second part of a story initially posted yesterday.
If you missed part 1, I suggest you to start there.

After a short night's sleep, we start calling everyone at reach in order to find out how to get re-booked on a flight.
Any flight taking us closer to home, actually.

British Airways sounds like a broken record: all we hear is "we can't help you", "refer to your booking agent" and "we can't control weather". Well, sure you can't but at least you ought to provide your customers alternative solutions in such cases, right?
I tried to contact British Airways over social media, got a first acknowledgement only after 24 hours, then nothing else.

The travel agency tells us BA should definitely act and do something and the only thing they - as a travel agency - can do is assist us to buy a new ticket to Italy which, apart from the extra cost, is no easy task because all flights are fully booked.
The only support we got was from VolaGratis, who claimed they were escalating this whole thing to a higher level so we could at least have an alternative option to fly back to our country.

It's really frustrating when you can't do anything but just wait.

Out of nowhere, we receive a call from the booking agent: "Go immediately to Heathrow, you'll meet a representative person from our affiliate in the UK".
What would you think after such a call. That they found a solution to fly you back home, right?
Well... not quite the case.

We manage to get to Heathrow T5 again and we meet Thelma, your typical lovely 60-ish british lady.
Thelma knows less than we do about flight status but at least she knows few people around Heathrow, being a former BA employee. After trying multiple options, even Thelma gives up: no chance to fly even today, which gets me really upset as I left my safe shelter under the illusion the booking agent had sorted out this whole mess once and for all.

The one and only option we are provided is to fly to Turin from Gatwick the next day.
At this point, we crave so much going back home we agree to the proposal.

We take a bus to Gatwick airport, where we find a kind lady who provides us our new tickets.
The next issue is finding a spot in the surroundings to spend the night and, possibly , rest a bit: no need to say all hotels next to the airport are fully booked.
Eventually, we manage to find a room in Russ Hill hotel, an accomodation 10 minutes drive away from Gatwick Terminal South.

Supposedly, such hotel is served by paid shuttle service but when we get to the bus stop the driver informs us no bus is going to Russ Hill hotel as it's way too far. Which is why he provided a direct phone number for a taxi service (probably run by his cousin). Initially I thought of a scan but when I did realize how countryside-ish the hotel was, I could see we did opt for the best option despite the 30£ fare.

The hotel, obviously, was terribly kitschy but it's not a good time to be picky: all we needed was a comfortable bed with fresh blankets, a shower and some food.
Talking about food, this was definitely the best thing about the evening as the accommodation itself was a tad bit disappointing. Again, no time to be picky but ...those stains on the wall? That's gross.

Our next day starts at 4:00am.
We get a cab to the airport where we finally manage to board for Turin.

How do we get back to Milan, though. We evaluated the quickest option and immediately dismissed public transportation: it takes 1 hour just to get from Caselle airport to Turin central station, then additional time to get to Milan by train. Therefore we resolved to rent a car instead.
Problem is it's high season in Turin because of all the skiing tourism and fares are pretty high: 170 EUR for a couple hours rental! Luckily at the rental desk we find another couple in our same conditions so we decide to share the ride and the costs.

Eventually we made it safe home, even if with a 2 days' delay.
Now another challenge begins: trying to get back some money from British Airways.