A young family from Clydebank has been left devastated and out of pocket after a surprise trip to Disneyland Paris turned into a nightmare.
Chelsea McMillan had booked a trip to Paris for her six-year-old daughter's birthday with the family, including her partner and one-year-old son, set to fly out on December 12. But just hours after little Aria was told she would be meeting all her favourite princesses, they received a text from easyJet to say their flight had been cancelled due to bad weather.
Desperate to salvage their trip, Chelsea took up the airline's offer for them to fly from Bristol the same day - if they were able to get there themselves.
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After a seven-hour drive, the family were then met with a three-hour delay at the airport and once again told their flight had been cancelled - this time due to the length of time they had been delayed.
With no where to go, the family had to abandon their plans to fly to Paris and instead cough up money for a hotel and travel back to Scotland.
The mum-of-two told Glasgow Live: "We had planned the whole trip as a surprise for Aria. On the morning of, we showed her a video from Elsa telling her she was coming to Disneyland to meet all the other princesses. She was so excited.
"Just as we were getting ready to leave, we received a text to say the flight was delayed and then cancelled. I phoned easyJet straight away and they said the only flight they could get us on was from Bristol and we would be reimbursed for our travel.
"They never offered to get us a connecting flight we instead had to drive seven hours with both of the kids. When we arrived the flight - which had come from Glasgow - was delayed three hours and then cancelled because we weren't able to land in Paris.
"We went to speak to an easyJet rep at the airport and they wouldn't help us at all with accommodation. We were essentially just left to sort it out ourselves.
"I was panicking because I'd never been to Bristol, I don't know my way around or where the nearest hotel was. Luckily we were able to get a room at a nearby Hilton.
"I noticed there was a flight to Edinburgh appearing on the app for paying customers so I walked into the airport at 4am and demanded that we were put on that. We were told we could only get it if we paid for a fast pass so we didn't miss it.
"We then got into Edinburgh and then had to get a coach and a taxi to get back home.
"It was just a horrible experience. Aria was so upset having just been told she was going to Disneyland but not actually getting to go. "
After getting back home, Chelsea began the process of trying to claim back money from the cancelled trip including flights, accommodation and expenses for food.
However, because the flight was cancelled due to bad weather, easyJet has said that they won't be paying out. The family are now facing having lost out on nearly £2,000.
Chelsea added: "It was basically two full days of travelling for nothing. We've been told that we can't get any money back because it was due to weather, but the flight from Bristol to Paris wasn't impacted by the weather.
"Luckily we've been able to get some of the Paris hotel money back through the company we booked with, but easyJet is refusing to pay out on any of our claims.
"Dealing with their customer service has been awful. One person even hung up on me when I tried to explain our situation. We had only flown to Bristol because they told us we could get to Paris from there and now we're expected to pay for it ourselves.
"Because our flight back from Paris wasn't cancelled, the airline has said that they won't refund us that money either - but we weren't on it because our initial flight was cancelled. It doesn't make any sense.
"Luckily I've been buying my Christmas presents ahead of time so we're sorted for that."
A spokesperson for easyJet said: "We are very sorry for Ms McMillan’s experience as a result of the severe weather conditions last week, which resulted in disruption to airline flying programmes. While this was outside of control, we did all possible to help impacted customers and provided the option to transfer to an alternative flight for free or receive a refund, as well as providing hotel accommodation and meals for those who required them and advised any customers who booked their own that they would be reimbursed.
“Due to the weather impacting all airlines, we are aware that options on some routes were limited at this time and so Ms McMillian transferred her flight to fly from Bristol, which was also unable to operate as a result of the weather. As there were no seats available on flights from Bristol to Glasgow, they then transferred to a flight from Bristol to Edinburgh. The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and while the weather was outside of our control we fully understand the difficulty this will have caused, for which we are sorry.
“We take our consumer responsibilities seriously and we have refunded Ms McMillan for her return flight from Paris to Glasgow that she wasn’t able to take and are reimbursing them for their onward travel to Glasgow, as well as their fuel to and hotel accommodation in Bristol. As Ms McMillan transferred her cancelled flights for free and then travelled with us from Bristol to Edinburgh, in line with regulations she is not due a refund for her outbound flight.”
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