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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Jack Thurlow & Nisha Mal & Peter Hennessy & Michele Theil

Pregnant mum 'cried all day' after Ryanair mix up left her stranded in different country

A pregnant mum ended up "crying all day" after she was stranded in a different country due to a Ryanair mix-up.

Tia Watson, 24, who was 23-weeks pregnant at the time and was left stuck in France due to a miscommunication by the budget airline.

She, her partner Martin Beard and their daughter, four, were scheduled to fly to Fuerteventura on Monday, February 14, before returning to England on Friday, February 18.

However, as the plane attempted to touch down at Manchester Airport on Friday, bad weather conditions led to an aborted landing.

The flight was then diverted to Bordeaux in the South of France, Nottinghamshire Live reports.

The family then waited at Bordeaux's airport for nearly three hours before they were told to go to a hotel overnight, paid for by the airline.

Tia said: "We received a text on Friday night to say, 'We apologise for your overnight delay, your new flight time will be 7:40pm on Saturday evening local time.'"

As a result, Tia and her family went to sleep and prepared for a leisurely morning as they had nearly 24 hours until their flight.

However, when they arrived at the hotel's restaurant for breakfast, Tia said: "There was literally no one at the hotel from our flight."

She continued: "We thought this was really weird because the flight we were on was full and there was hundreds of people in our hotel.

"Reception then told us that they all got picked up on free coaches this morning."

"We assumed that everyone else had been told the correct flight and we're the only ones that had received the error," she said.

Ryanair told the family to arrive at the airport at the scheduled time, but they found there was no flight to England (AFP via Getty Images)

The family then phoned Ryanair to ask about the situation, but were reassured that they were still booked on the 7:40pm flight they had originally been told to board.

But, when they got to the airport, there was no such flight on the departures list, and a Ryanair delegate told them that the only flight to England that day left at 10am, meaning they'd missed it.

"After being on the phone for hours all day, getting to the airport with a four-year-old, I'm pregnant myself and obviously it's very, very stressful," Tia explained.

"Then they said there's a flight today (Sunday February 20), so they wanted us to lug all of our stuff to the airport again, three hours before the flight, go through check-in and everything, on the off-chance that three people don't show up."

"That's stressful in itself," she added.

The family were then booked to fly home on Wednesday, February 23, which would have left them stranded in France for a few more days.

Luckily, they managed to get back home late on Sunday, February 20.

Tia said that her partner is a reception teacher and it was "a nightmare" having to contact the headteacher at the school to let him know about the situation.

Additionally, the family were not logistically prepared for the mix-up.

Tia said: "We were in Fuerteventura so we obviously only packed summer clothes. So, now, we're in 8 degree weather in dresses and sandals with no money, no clothes."

"If I don't laugh, I will cry. Yesterday, I was just crying all day," Tia added.

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