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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
David Walker

Milngavie family's fury as Orlando holiday ruined after bags lost by airline

A family had their dream holiday turn into a nightmare after their airline lost bags containing vital medication.

Stuart MacDonald, 60, and his wife Alexia, 53, and their kids Morven, 17, and Innes, 14, flew out to Florida via Dublin on December 18 for a special Christmas trip.

However the Milngavie family arrived in the US to find their bags had gone missing, with the airline seemingly impossible to get a hold of, the Scottish Daily Express reports.

Alexia's daily medication which she needs for her debilitating health condition ulcerative colitis was in the lost luggage and couldn't be tracked down.

This meant that she was forced to spend the second week of their two week holiday stuck in pain at the hotel, while her family enjoyed the expensive theme parks.

Mr MacDonald, who is a retired company director, was forced to spend more than £3,000 on clothes and other items while on holiday while also forking out cash on phone calls to Aer Lingus's call centre.

He slammed the company for their poor customer service and has demanded compensation from them.

The family flew to Orlando with Aer Lingus (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

He told the Scottish Daily Express: "It absolutely ruined the holiday, when we landed in Orlando we found that all of our baggage was missing, and there was no Aer Lingus stand at the airport.

"We spent about £220 on our mobile phones trying to get in touch with them and eventually got through to the call centre and every time they said they would get back to us and they never did.

"Eventually on the fourth day I used a website to track our bags and found that they had been sent to New York instead so I got hold of the company who sent them, JetBlue who told us that our baggage had arrived the night before but Aer Lingus had not told us.

"I had to take an Uber to the airport only to discover that only three of the bags had been delivered meaning that one was still missing, and that was my son's which also included my wife's medication.

"She had enough for four days in her hand luggage and we were unable to get prescribed anymore abroad.

"My wife was in so much pain that she never went to the theme park the second week we were there because she was in no fit state to go, so it was a horrible ordeal for us all."

Aer Lingus have offered to pay Mr MacDonald £1,112 in compensation for the money he spent on clothes and materials for the four days without baggage.

However, he wants them to compensate him for their lost luggage which has yet to be officially declared missing forever.

And he also wants a proper apology from the airline.

He added: "Their customer service has been absolutely dreadful, no one from the airline has actually ever picked up the phone and had a conversation with me about this.

"The fact is that they never showed us any concern for our situation or any empathy because they never actually did anything to help us.

"I told them I'd like a minimum of £1500 to cover the cost of the telephone calls, the taxi fares and they did not confirm whether the compensation would include the bag that is still missing which has roughly about £800 or £900 worth of goods."

Aer Lingus have been approached for comment.

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