usage cases for「ありがたい」?

I am having trouble with thinking of usage cases for 「ありがたい」.

The usage case of ありがた迷惑 does not make sense to me. Even though I don't know that particular phrase, I can use it as a template. Therefore, I would expect all of the following to also be correct：
ありがたい案内者
ありがたい説明
ありがたいお土産
ありがたいオゴリ
....

But none of those sound correct to me. I've only heard 「ありがたい」 used as a substitute for 「ありがとう」 in an informal situation. However, 「ありがとう」seems a little different because it seems to bring a complete end to a thought, while「ありがたい」might be followed by a conjunction such as 「ありがたいけれど...」、「ありがたいでも...」

What are some examples of how to use「ありがたい」、as well as examples of how to use it in an inflected form?

Answer

By itself, ありがたい can mean "thankful" or "fortunate". So in many (all?) cases it can replace 感謝する. Or any place where you'd use ありがとうございます you can make it more informal by just switching to ありがたい (although be careful in doing this!).

Here are some examples:

• 来てくれてありがたい　→　Thanks for coming. (Sounds flaky to me though)


• ありがたいことに私はいつも健康に恵まれている　→　Fortunately I have always been healthy.


• ありがたく招待を受ける　→　Accept the invitation with gratitude


• あなたの協力は実にありがたい　→　Your help will certainly be welcome.


• ありがたいことに朝になって雨はやんだ　→　Fortunately, the rain stopped in the morning.

If you want to sound really humble when thanking someone, you can use 〜ありがたく存じ上げます.