Liz Hurley has shared her distress as she's been stranded in Antigua.
The model and actress fumed she's been left "with no food or water" at the airport in the Caribbean country.
"Stranded at Antigua airport with no food or water, taxis or hotels offered yet. Plane delayed 20 hours," she tweeted this morning.
Adding an hour later: "Still stranded- no food, water or hotel. Pretty dodgy service."
British Airways quickly responded and blamed the delay on a "technical issue with our flight planning".
A spokesman tweeted: "We’re experiencing delays to some of our flights due to a technical issue with our flight planning. We're sorry for the disruption to your journey, we’re urgently investigating this so that you travel as soon as possible."
A British Airways flight from Antigua to Gatwick was scheduled to arrive at 9.10am on Tuesday, but is now not expected to touch down until 5.25am on Wednesday.
Since Monday night at least 18 flights to and from Heathrow have been cancelled, affecting routes serving the US and Canada.
There are also long delays to a number of other flights serving Heathrow and Gatwick.
They include arrivals from the Mexican resort of Cancun and the US city of Philadelphia, which are expected to land more than five hours behind schedule.
British Airways said in a statement: “Our teams have now resolved a temporary issue that affected some of our long-haul flight planning systems overnight, which resulted in delays to our schedule.
“We’re sorry for the disruption caused to our customers’ travel plans.”
There were already concerns about disruption to Christmas flights due to a strike by Border Force workers.
Hurley was not the only delayed passenger to express her frustration on Twitter.
A person with the username @NormaJeanRobin7 wrote: “BA flight cancelled. Awake for 24 hours! We have not been offered food or fluids. There are children in the queue.
“@British_Airways are telling everyone to book their own accommodation and flight back home to the UK. What a disgrace!!! Stranded at the airport. Help.”
A passenger with the Twitter account @kalim00 posted: “Our flight BA212 Boston to London Heathrow was cancelled after four hours sitting on the tarmac.
“We were told we’d be rebooked on tomorrow’s flight automatically, but when I check my BA app this doesn’t seem to be the case. I’ve tried calling eight times but nobody picks up! Help!”
A Twitter user with an account named @R_S_Thomas wrote: “My 13-year-old daughter was due to fly home on cancelled flight BA114 from New York.
“Now possibly stuck for days with the shambles of an airline. Sort your company out and get my daughter home.”
There is incredibly high demand for flights to and from the UK this week as it is the first Christmas without coronavirus restrictions in three years.
Under consumer laws, affected passengers are each entitled to up to £520 compensation from British Airways.
The airline must also provide vouchers for a reasonable amount of food and drink, and overnight accommodation as required.
Meanwhile, travellers in the UK have been urged not to travel on Christmas Eve due to strikes, making getting home for Christmas much trickier for potentially millions of people.
Network Rail has warned that services on December 24 will be severely impacted by a RMT union rail strike.
It advised passengers to travel only if "absolutely necessary" or consider travel on another day.
The strike action begins at 6pm on Christmas Eve, so travelling by rail earlier in the day may be possible.
For those working until late on the day before Christmas and without access to a car, getting home before the big day may prove very difficult.
Have you been caught up in Christmas travel chaos? Email webtravel@reachplc.com
