Two pensioners had a nightmare experience when airport staff put them on the wrong flight – they were flown to Menorca instead of their actual destination of Mallorca in Spain.
The two women, Linda Trestrail, 69, and Wendy Russell, 71 – both disabled – booked a holiday package through Jet2. While their tickets were checked at least five times by different staff members, the duo was placed on the wrong flight.
Wendy and Linda became aware of their situation only when the captain made the announcement that the flight was about to land in Menorca, a more low-key Balearic island when compared to its neighbour Mallorca.
Around three seats on the flight were empty and Wendy and Linda occupied two of those, as per reports in the English media. Their seat numbers coincidentally matched what they were given on their original flight to Palma De Mallorca
Jet2 has issued an apology for what they labelled as a "human error" and blamed it partly on the third party special assistance provider at Bristol Airport. Linda and Wendy have not received any compensation yet and are "furious" about the "catalogue of disasters".
"You hear of bags going on the wrong flights but not people. You get compensated if you get delayed or lose luggage but they lost us, not the bloody baggage," Linda, who is based in Plymouth, a port city in Devon, said in an interview.
The staff at Bristol Airport provided special travel assistance to Wendy and Linda, who were taken on wheelchairs onto the shuttle bus and the plane.
Linda added that she and Wendy showed their tickets to the initial luggage desk, security, a person at the gate desk, and also a member of ground crew staff on the bus - who even did a head count and confirmed the numbers.
"One of the cabin crew came over to us and asked if we were sat in the correct seats, I said yes but she went off with our flight tickets, took them away and came back and said we were in our correct seats," Linda said further.
Making their situation more miserable, Wendy and Linda's luggage reached their correct destination, Mallorca, without them.
Wendy said: "I had my injection in my suitcase, our families were so worried. Our luggage was on the right plane as it took off with two bags without the passengers, that's so concerning."
The captain of the Jet2 flight introduced himself to the women and admitted he had never heard or experienced such an error in his whole career.
The two women did make it to Mallorca eventually. Upon arrival at Menorca, Wendy and Linda received "kind assistance" from a Jet2 manager. Still, they had to wait several hours until they could fly on an internal plane with airline workers.
When the pair finally made it to Mallorca, Jet2 arranged a private car to their resort.
