Couple ‘will never leave’ UK again after hols hell
HOLIDAYMAKERS’ VOW OVER THREE-DAY JOURNEY TO GET BACK HOME FROM STORM-HIT DUBAI
A COUPLE facing a 12-day wait for a flight home from stormstruck Dubai have made it back to Manchester - after taking three flights and seven taxis over three days.
Alison Shah, 60, and her partner, Richard Kay, 52, were coming home from her birthday trip to Bangkok and Thailand when they got stuck in Dubai last Tuesday (April 16).
With their flight home to Manchester rescheduled for next Sunday (April 28) - and the airport in chaos - they decided to take matters into their own hands. They managed to get a five-hour flight from Dubai to Istanbul, where they were able to hop on a shorter flight to Dalaman - and then another five-hour flight home.
Alison, an emergency control operator, from Manchester, said the ordeal was a ‘nightmare’ but they needed to get back to work. Their detour journey home took a total of three days.
Alison, who finally arrived home on Sunday said: “We were originally due to get back on April 17 and we didn’t get back until the
21st. I have never experienced anything like this.
“I told Richard that I never want to leave the country again which is sad as I love travelling. We paid a lot of money for the holiday and it has ended in a nightmare.”
Alison and Richard were flying to Dubai from Thailand on their way back home to Manchester. Alison knew there were severe storms in Dubai but no announcements were made about the flight so she went to the airport and boarded the plane.
She said: “The plane circled above Dubai for an hour and a half before being able to land and we had a few hours to wait for our flight to Manchester.”
Alison and Richard’s flight to Manchester was due to depart Dubai airport at 3am but due to the bad weather, their flight kept getting delayed and delayed. Alison said: “Finally at 8am, we started to board the plane, the plane was there.
“We then sat there for two and a half hours in the holding area waiting to get on the plane. Nobody was answering any questions and people were getting frantic. We were then told our flight was cancelled and we had to leave the airport.”
Alison and Richard stayed in a hotel for the night which they paid for and braved the airport the next day. Alison said that they were offered a flight to Manchester on April
28.
She said: “We couldn’t do that. We had to go to work and we had already been out of the country for a month...They got us a flight to Istanbul.”
On arrival in Istanbul on Friday before their flight back to Manchester, Alison and Richard discovered their luggage was missing. She said: “We have had to buy clothes.”
In an open letter from Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline, he said: “The UAE experienced its highest rainfall in 75 years. Lashing storm winds and rain disrupted activity across the cities.”
We paid a lot of money for the holiday and it has ended in a nightmare Alison Shah