FURY OF HELPLESS FAMILIES CAUGHT UP IN THE CHAOS
£160 cab to Gatwick, to be told: No flight for you
Bank manager Simon Chapman, 43, was due to travel from Heathrow to Barcelona with his children Violette, 14, and 11-year-old Jack.
He paid £350 for their tickets on the 9.25am flight – only to realise it had been cancelled after they went through security.
Mr Chapman was told he could fly from Gatwick. So he had to fork out £160 on a taxi, spending a total of £900 on flights and travel.
Staggeringly, he was then told by staff at Gatwick they were not listed on the 2.40pm flight – after queuing for an hour and a half.
Mr Chapman, from Reading, said: ‘It’s unbelievable really. I booked this back in april.
‘We’d got through security and it was only by chance I looked at the information board and it said our flight was cancelled.
‘There were no more flights to Barcelona from Heathrow, so Gatwick was the closest place to book from. I was told by Ba staff at Heathrow to re-book and they would reimburse me, so I did.
‘Then when we got here, and after queuing for ages, they told me we’re not even on the flight.
‘They said Ba hadn’t paid the partner airline, but I’ve paid Ba. So Ba have my money and I don’t have any flights. It’s so frustrating. I’ve forked out £900 more than I needed to spend and I’m not even seeing anything for it.’
‘We’re only going for five days and it looks like our first day is going to be a write-off, and we’re not even going very far.’
Cancelled flight – and where were BA staff?
TEACHER Susan Howitt, 38, was hoping to travel to Bologna with her husband Peter, also 38, a civil servant, but received a text as they arrived at Heathrow Terminal 5 with their children Joseph, ten, Luke, eight, and six-year-old Timothy, to tell them that their 2.40pm flight had been cancelled.
‘It means we will now be on a flight at 8am tomorrow and will have to stay at a hotel near the airport,’ she said. Her husband arranged an overnight stay at a nearby Hilton hotel, with the cost of two rooms being £340. She added: ‘Ba have promised that they will reimburse us for the cost of the rooms.’
Her husband said: ‘There have been plenty of airport workers wearing purple ‘Here to Help’ polo shirts but a real lack of Ba staff offering any assistance.’
The family from St albans, Hertfordshire, will lose a night of their five-night airBnB lodgings in Bologna before going to a Rimini hotel for a further week.
Mr Howitt added: ‘It would have helped us if Ba had contacted us before we set off so we could have stayed at home for 24 hours before starting our holiday.’
‘Mess’ that has added £700 to cost of holiday
MARTIN Conway, 55, was looking forward to travelling to the coastal city of Split and then on to Dubrovnik in Croatia, with 11-yearold Zofia, Oliver, 14, and Jamie, 15.
The family were due to be travelling on the Ba842 at 1.35pm but the flight was cancelled when they arrived from their Oxford home by bus in the morning.
‘We had to take the bus because we are travelling with bikes as the children like to be active on holiday,’ explained Mr Conway.
‘In the end, we decided to take up the offer of a flight tomorrow with Ba, but from Gatwick.
‘We will now have to get around the M25 and find somewhere to sleep near Gatwick.
‘My wife is due to join us on a separate flight tomorrow. I imagine the whole mess is going to cost us a further £700 on top of the cost of the holiday.’