A family with a young child had to shell out £1720 on new flight tickets to Manchester after their Easy Jet flight home from their package holiday in Egypt was cancelled leaving them waiting around for over eight hours.
Askir Ali, 36, wife Sabrina Begum, 30, and their six-year-old child Sophia, six, who suffers from life threatening allergies, were left at Hurghada Airport for over eight hours with no food. After arriving at the airport at 5.30pm for their 10.05pm flight they finally were allowed through to departure gates at 12.45am after purchasing other tickets and flew out at 1.45am.
Mr Askir, from Hyde, says they arrived at Hurghada airport only to see their flight was cancelled with no explanation or alternative. He says he attempted to get through to Easy Jet on his mobile phone but kept going round in circles unable to speak to the relevant department and maxing out his phone bill to £250 until his phone was blocked.
"I made about 20 calls," he says. "I was passed from pillar to post. I spoke to about four people."
After hours of waiting and with a hungry, crying child and no prospect of another flight being offered he paid £1720 for new flight tickets back to Manchester. The flight was not direct and the family had to change at Istanbul and wait for a four hour lay over.
Askir says: "At Istanbul airport I got free WIFI for thirty minutes and I accessed an email from Easy Jet saying they would put us on a flight from Egypt but asking us to stay there for another two days." As the family were at Istanbul airport by this time, it was too late, but Askir says he and his wife had work and his daughter had school to go to.
He says he does not understand why they were not flown out on another flight that day. "There were alternative flights but they did not offer them," he says. The family eventually landed in Manchester Airport at 1pm on June 9. Their original landing should have been 3am.
Since returning Askir says he has been given no explanation and asked to fill out a compensation form - with no guarantee he can recoup the money spent on the new flight ticket. He says: "The flight was a no show on their behalf not on my behalf. I paid for a flight and they had an obligation to get us home."
An easyJet holidays spokesperson said: “We’re really sorry that the Ali family’s holiday was impacted by flight disruption. In a fast-moving situation like this, it’s always our priority to get our customers rebooked onto new flights as soon as possible.
"We contacted these customers to let them know the details of their new flight and the hotel accommodation we had arranged for them until their new departure date. We’ve contacted the family to apologise and let them know how they can claim for out of pocket expenses and compensation.”
