Not so sure that the bus trip was a bad call. This is the latest from Ben Sandilands on Crikey
"There is also an issue of communication between the airlines and their passengers. While Virgin Australia says it has resumed flights by 7 am today on the ash affected routes it has canceled a number of those flights and ground staff are telling passengers there could be extensive delays, meaning the situation is the same as it appears to be at Qantas and Jetstar from mid-morning, although Qantas has not committed to restoring flights, but only to no operations before mid-morning."