A woman from Co Antrim has spoken out after a family holiday to Portugal turned into a disaster after a flight cancellation led to her dad running out of vital medication.
Laura McMullan, from Carnlough, was on a 10 day holiday in Faro with her parents, partner, and her eight-year-old daughter when their flight home was cancelled on Monday, June 6.
The delay in returning home has resulted in her dad in fear of running out of extra stoma bags and tablets to manage his high blood pressure despite packing some extras.
Read more: NI man says holiday 'turned into day of hell at Belfast International Airport'
As well as this, Laura recently opened her own hairdressing business and has had to cancel client appointments for the rest of this week.
She said they were "stranded" in Faro Airport by easyJet on Monday night after their flight was cancelled, with no staff on the ground to offer guidance. After calling customer services, Laura was told different things from different members of staff, leaving the family confused as to their rights.
Now, they're £2,000 out of pocket after having to dish out for alternative return flights for Friday, June 10 and three nights of accommodation.
"It was absolutely appalling. We were stranded at Faro Airport and had to go fend for ourselves," Laura told Belfast Live.
"I was trying to call easyJet on Monday night but couldn't get through to them. I got through on Tuesday morning after being on the phone for 38 minutes. The girl was so rude to me, and said we didn't chose the next available flight which was Tuesday, but it wasn't offering me any flights for that day.
"I rang back and got somebody else who was lovely, he was trying to get me to go to another airport in Portugal which was two and a half hours away and we had no way to get to it.
"I got an email on the Tuesday morning, but I think it was one of those apology ones they send everybody.
"They tell you to go in and 'manage bookings' but the site crashed. You couldn't even get on to managing your booking, it just came up saying 'error.' That's why we've had to go and book our own flights home, but the next one we could get was Friday.
"By luck my sister was here until Thursday, so we were able to stay with them on Monday night. But it was nine of us in a one-bedroom flat.
"We've spent £2,000 between flights and everything else. It was just luck we had a credit card on us. You go on holiday and you just don't have an extra two or three grand with you."
Laura said the family are now "on edge" as to whether they will get home on Friday, and are worried as her father is running low on his medication and stoma bags.
After opening her own hairdressing business weeks ago, Laura has also had to cancel her clients for the rest of the week as a result of the cancellation.
She added: "He packed enough stoma bags for the 10 days and extras, but he's going to be pushing it for having enough. We found a pharmacy who said they can hopefully get some if we really need it, but it's just ridiculous. You always pack a few days extra but we didn't think we would be an extra four days.
"We're sitting on edge, wondering if we'll even get home on Friday. I will never ever fly with easyJet after this. It might be different if it was just me and my partner on our own, but my parents are with me, they were really looking forward to this holiday after Covid and now they're both sitting on edge.
"We were looking forward to getting home. I've just opened my own hairdressing business three weeks ago and was supposed to be back in work on Tuesday, but I've now had to cancel clients for the rest of the week. That's money I'm probably not going to get back."
Share your views on this story in the comments section
She said the "lack of information from easyJet" made them feel "stranded" in the airport as they were left unsure what to do after not being able to manage their booking online and with no staff from the airline visible in the airport.
"That whole plane was left at Faro Airport with no information," Laura continued.
"They said we wouldn't be compensated as we booked on to the Friday flight, but we didn't know what to do, we were left stranded and couldn't get help. The next flight we could see available was Friday, not Tuesday.
"We were told if we booked our own accommodation we may not be compensated, but we were left on our own, we didn't know what to do.
"The staff said they couldn't do anything as we had booked our own flights and accommodation. But what did they expect us to do? They left us with no help.
"It's just put a downer on the holiday. You're sitting thinking do you even want to go on holidays again."
A spokesperson for easyJet said: "We are sorry that Mr McMullan’s flight EZY6796 from Faro to Belfast on 6 June was cancelled and fully understand the difficulty this will have caused the family.
"We offered Ms McMullen and her family a flight home the following day to help get them home as soon as possible, however we are aware Ms McMullen chose to return from Faro at a later date.
"We have been in touch with Ms McMullen to reimburse her for her alternative flights and to provide her with the compensation she is due."
Read more: NI family 'stuck' overnight at Faro Airport after easyJet cancellation
Read more: Clever hack passengers can use to avoid paying Ryanair's hand luggage fees
To get the latest breaking news straight to your inbox, sign up to our free newsletter.
