An excited mum who was jetting off to Greece to celebrate her 50th birthday claims she was left "furious" and close to "tears" after she was turned away at the airport by cheery TUI staff.
Sarah Butterworth, 50, from Littleborough, Rochdale, spent a year planning her £2,100 girls getaway to Parva, Greece, when she arrived at Manchester Airport for the flight on Wednesday, June 1.
But the mum-of-three said she was left furious and like she "wanted to cry" when a TUI rep told her the holiday was cancelled as she waited in line to check-in.
Sarah said she and her three friends had been watching the news and regularly checking their flight details before setting off - but claimed they had no warning of the cancellation before arriving at the airport.
Sarah told The Mirror : "We had actually got to the airport and had just joined the queue when a woman with a clipboard came over and asked us where we were going.
"We told her and she said 'I'm sorry it's been cancelled five minutes ago'.
"We had been watching the news and it was saying they were cancelling six flights a day but that if yours was cancelled you would be told the night before.
"We were checking our emails and phones and the flight constantly, and it kept saying it was still scheduled, they were sending us emails saying 'get ready for your holiday'.
"When they told us it was cancelled I was fuming, you feel like crying, I had to go outside because I was so angry."
To make matters even worse, Sarah claims she was left infuriated when a TUI rep described the chaotic announcements as a "day out".
Sarah said: "I said to one of the girls I bet you've been dreading coming to work today and she said 'oh no it's a day out, I've actually quite enjoyed it'.
"I said 'that's really insensitive' and that's when I had to leave the airport. She was only young but she could have chosen her words a bit better."
After failing to get through to six different TUI shops to help her get onto a later flight to the Greek island, Rhodes, instead - Sarah began trying to get away with different providers.
No one was able to arrange a same day flight to Greece for the group and so they were forced to return home to scour the internet for a new deal.
Finally the group managed to getaway for a week to Santorini after securing a Jet2 flight from Leeds Bradford Airport on Thursday evening (June 2).
"It's better than nothing but it's not what we planned or wanted", Sarah said.
"We had booked a lovely big two bedroom apartment in a nice hotel, with a sea view and now we are looking at a car park.
"When they told us it was cancelled I was so upset I wanted to cry, if they had told us the night before we would have still been angry but at least we would have been able to get straight on the computer and start looking for an alternative.
"It was chaos at Manchester Airport, we weren't the worst off - there were wedding parties and I felt so sorry for them.
"By the time they had told us and we had turned back to the skylink to go, the queue had completely disappeared, I think everyone had gone home because there were only three flights leaving."
Sarah claims she later received an email confirming the cancellation in writing and has since been offered a refund for her trip with TUI, but said she was "dubious" about flying with them again.
TUI confirmed that Sarah's flight had been cancelled due to "operational issues" and explained that customers on cancelled flights would receive a full refund within 14 days and an apology.
A spokesperson for TUI Travel said: "We’re incredibly sorry to those customers who have been impacted by the recent disruption to our operations.
"We understand that last minute delays and cancellations are incredibly disappointing, and we would like to reassure our customers that we are doing everything we can to get them on holiday as planned.
"We can confirm flight TOM2390 from Manchester to Preveza was unable to depart as planned on Wednesday, June 1, due to operational issues.
"Customers were notified via email and offered a full refund or the opportunity to re-book with an incentive.
"We’d like to reassure customers that the vast majority of our flights are operating as planned, and we apologise again for the inconvenience caused."
