My friend got this money from Aer Lingus for a flight that was delayed until the next day because of weather. They could have argued it was unforeseeable but they didn't. They just paid up. It doesn't always work this way.

The money was more than the flight was worth but the whole ordeal was terrible, literally every hotel in Dublin was booked out on every website (this wasn't the only flight cancelled, every one of them was) and she had to stay in this horrible dirty hostel. So it was kinda nice to get that money.