A couple are stuck in Tunisia and have had to fork out an extra £500 after a last-minute cancellation whilst at the airport due to ‘adverse UK weather’. Natasha Carr and her partner, Chris, were left ‘frustrated and disappointed’ after missing work during a five-day wait for a flight back to Birmingham Airport – alongside around 200 passengers.
Ms Carr, from Acocks Green, and her partner were due to fly back to Solihull from Enfidah Airport with easyJet on Sunday night, January 5 – but instead have been forced to stay an extra four nights as there were no flights until Thursday, January 9. The 34-year-old said: “We are still in Tunisia but weather is lovely which is a bonus.
“But it’s left us frustrated and disappointed in easyJet’s handling of the situation.” Her partner, a teacher, has missed the start of term. And the couple have had to pay £350 for a three-star hotel until their flight, plus food and transport, after easyJet only offered accommodation for one night.
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She added: “We can’t understand how they expect us to have to stay here for another three days with no communication and just accommodation for one night and having to pay for our own hotel! Luckily we can afford it but there’s people that cannot!
“easyJet say on the website that they will reimburse to value of 3 star hotel which we don’t know how much that would be here! But we originally stayed in 5 star hotel a 3 star here is not an acceptable standard if we initially stayed in 5 star.
“We have to get all receipts and hope that they compensate and refund all the money we’ve had to spend.” The couple arrived as planned several hours before their 7.40pm flight on Sunday, only to be told of an initial one-hour delay.
More delays followed until, after checking in their luggage, they were eventually told the flight had been cancelled at 9pm.
Natasha Carr whilst on holiday in Tunisia
Ms Carr said: “Everyone checking the app then got email notification that the flight had been cancelled! The Enfidah airport staff had said they had no notification of this and didn’t believe it until a load of us started showing them the app and emails from easyJet. So the app gave the option for us to reschedule the next flight which to my shock was not until Thursday, January 9.”
The pair managed to secure a flight for the closest date, but others were reportedly told they wouldn’t be able to fly home until January 16 – or would face £300pp extra to travel to another city before another flight back to Birmingham on Tuesday or Wednesday.
“Around 150/200 passengers then had to try and book this with some passengers not being able to book anything,” she said. Some passengers were put on the next flight to Bristol – over 100 miles from their original destination – on Friday, January 10, she added.
“We got to book a hotel on easyJet app for one night only. We had to pay £30 for a taxi as the shuttle they where saying that were arranging was not coming until around 1am so we had no choice but to get taxi.
No flights available until Jan 9
“We have now had to pay £350 to stay in a hotel for the next 3 nights from our own pockets as well as taxi to hotel and will have to sort out our own transport to the airport on Thursday as EasyJet failed to communicate or do anything to help us and we can not call due to charges using your mobile here.
“We have missed work my partner is a teacher and he can not return to work as he was meant to. easyJet left hundreds of people yesterday with no option to return the next day!
“People had children that had medical needs like medication and that had school! We feel let down that we can not return home until Thursday, Easy jet need to do better as we will have to wait how long to be reimbursed.”
A spokesperson for EasyJet said: “Due to adverse weather affecting airlines at Birmingham Airport on Sunday 5 January, flight EZY6618 from Enfidha to Birmingham was unfortunately cancelled.
“Whilst this was outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused and worked hard to support impacted customers, offering a refund or free transfer to an alternative flight and increased capacity on scheduled flights from Enfidha to London airports to try and get our customers home as soon as possible.
“We arranged hotel accommodation for all customers on Sunday night and in line with our policy we will always reimburse customers for additional nights’ accommodation as needed. Our customer support team have been in touch with these customers to assist with processing their expenses. The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority.”
Have you been affected by this? We would like to hear from you. You can contact us by emailing stephanie.balloo@reachplc.com