A hopeful bride has vowed to "never fly with TUI again" after her wedding nightmare which included long delays and the plane being struck by lightning.
Gwenllian Lewis-Ashton and Jonathan Ashton were hoping to tie the knot in 2021 but it was postponed due to the pandemic. Rescheduling for June 5, 2022, they arranged for 14 family and friends to join them for their dream wedding on the island of Santorini, costing them more than £3,000.
However what was supposed to be an exciting time, soon turned into a nightmare after over 30 hours of "appalling communication" and delays, WalesOnline reports. Despite arriving early for their 6am flight on May 31 at Bristol Airport, they still queued for a few hours before fast-tracking through security.
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But with a late call to the gate, when the wedding party were finally on the plane, an announcement was made to say there was a 12-minute delay after the plane missed its slot. But passengers then heard a "big bang" as the plane was struck by lightning. The 27-year-old community nurse said: "During take-off the plane was struck by lightning, where all passengers heard a big bang and some claimed to have seen the lightning. Jonathan thought the engine had blown off. It happened just as we took off and the plane was in the air.
"The captain spoke to us and confirmed we were struck by lightning but reassured us that the aircrafts were built to withstand things like that. We continued to fly for over an hour. We were over Luxembourg when the captain made another announcement, declaring he had to return the aircraft to Bristol for engineers to inspect following the earlier incident. It was definitely a big frustration that we'd carried on for so long."
Upon their return, the wedding party faced further delays before arriving at a hotel, arranged by the travel agency but they were unaware of when their flight would be rescheduled to, or if it would be at all. With a "lack of communication", it wasn't until 2.40am the next day they received an email to say their flight had been rescheduled for 1pm.
But the couple had already paid £120 for seats on another flight for fear they would miss the ceremony - meaning just three of them would be going to Santorini, which was "upsetting and stressful".
She added: "We would have had to go by ourselves because we'd already postponed everything and we wouldn't be able to again at such short notice. We saw online that the original aircraft had flown to Tenerife the same day so we didn't understand why we couldn’t have gone that afternoon.
"Our rescheduled flight was delayed an hour. While waiting to take off we were informed that there was no hot food available. We were delayed a total of 34 hours, resulting in two days lost of our holiday, but also our wedding planning, where we were required to meet vendors and view the venues for the special day. It had to be a bit rushed.
"We were all exhausted. My grandmother Joan is still recovering. But we were very relieved to get there and the wedding day was lovely."
But upon their return, they were faced with further delays with "minimal snacks and drinks" and once back in Bristol, a two-hour wait for baggage. The newlyweds attempted to claim for compensation via TUI but were rejected.
Gwenllian told Wales Online: "We will never fly with TUI again after their poor communication and dreadful customer service and urge all future customers to think again who they chose to fly with. We were going to go for a little honeymoon this weekend but all the flights were TUI so we thought, 'don't bother'."
A TUI spokeswoman said: "We’re incredibly sorry to the wedding party on flight TOM6212 from Bristol to Santorini who experienced some disruption to their flight due to a lightning strike. The safety of our passengers and crew was not compromised and always remains our highest priority. The aircraft was not damaged in any way and was completely safe to land.
"We aim to communicate with customers as quickly as we can if there are any changes to their holiday and offer transport, overnight accommodation, meals and refreshments as needed. We understand that last minute delays and cancellations are incredibly disappointing, and we would like to reassure them that did everything we can to get them to enjoy the celebrations as planned. We’d like to apologise again for the inconvenience caused and we thank customers for their understanding."
Bristol is not the only airport facing holiday chaos as holidaymakers right across the UK face long delays and huge queues. It comes following chronic staff shortages, but Liverpool John Lennon Airport currently remains unscathed.
TUI has come under fire in recent weeks after cancelling hundreds of flights in a bid to resolve the issues faced in airports across the country. The decision comes amid ongoing tales from travellers of missing luggage, holidays being cancelled by text and mammoth flight delays.
