A mum who lost her entire family's luggage on a TUI flight finally spotted her suitcases - but they were 1,300 miles away.
Laura Simpson, 35, managed to get to Menorca from Manchester for a family holiday, beating the swathes of queues that have faced holidaymakers during the half-term and ahead of the Platinum Jubilee weekend.
But when they arrived at their holiday destination, the group of seven soon realised they were missing clothes, toiletries and important medication.
Two days of their holiday had passed before Laura spotted her suitcase in a photo after reading an online article showing rows of luggage lined up at Manchester Airport.
She had previously tried to call TUI, spending hours on the phone to the airline, to try and figure out where the luggage had gone but had no luck.
Despite informing TUI that she had seen her luggage online, the mum-of-one said she was still not sent any of the suitcases, the Manchester Evening News reports.
She was sent €25 a day by the travel operator to buy essential items instead.
In a post on Facebook, Laura from Warrington said: "When Manchester Evening News do a better job at finding your luggage than TUI... 43 seconds into the clip and there are all of our seven suitcases. Day five into the holiday with nothing and no communication."
Laura and nine other members of her family were due to fly direct from Manchester Airport to Menorca on May 27 but say they were told the night before they'd have to go via Ibiza due to ongoing "technical issues".
Despite checking in seven suitcases, which contained asthma and eczema medication, they were disappointed to not receive what they needed.
Laura said: "The flight took off about an hour-and-a-half late. When we got to Ibiza everyone got off and the 25 of us going to Menorca remained onboard. Passengers started getting on who were going back to Manchester, who were then told we’d be diverting via Menorca.
"It was all over the place. By this point we’d already waited for two hours on a hot plane. We finally got to Menorca and waited an hour for our luggage and then someone came out and said it hadn't arrived at the airport."
Since then, Laura claims she has received no contact from TUI, and has had to call them multiple times for updates. She claims they were told to go to Menorca airport to collect their luggage, only to find it hadn't arrived when they phoned the airport.
She added: "The person I spoke to yesterday said they had actually closed our investigation because our bags had been returned even though they hadn't so they had to reopen it.
"We are now on day six out of seven without the cases. They have given us €25 a day per suitcase, but a swimsuit here is €45 alone. Nowhere sells underwear so we’ve had to travel to a nearby town for that. We have nothing.
"We arrived at the airport in jeans and hoodies and it’s 27 degrees here. One of the children needs an inhaler and skin cream if he has a flare up. His parents took the bare minimum of what they needed in hand luggage but if he does have a flare up the stuff that would stop him needing to go to hospital is in the suitcase."
Laura claims during the video clip on the MEN website, all seven of their missing suitcases can be seen at 43 seconds in.
She added: "We told TUI this and we've still had nothing from them. We are only here for a week and we are already on day six so if anything I want to make sure they stay in Manchester now for when we return.
"This holiday has been rearranged for the past three years because of the pandemic. There are bigger things happening in the world but you still don’t expect this to happen to you when you go on holiday."
A spokesperson for TUI said: "We’re aware that some customers have been impacted by baggage delays at Manchester Airport and we’d like to thank customers for their patience and understanding at this exceptionally busy time.
"We’re working closely with airport staff, baggage handlers and our teams in resort to ensure customers receive their luggage as soon as possible. We’ll be in direct contact with customers once we have more information to share."
