A couple were stranded in Greece for nearly 20 hours after their Wizz Air flight kept getting delayed. Sally Brown and Anthony Kingdom from Pembrokeshire said they felt as though they were "treated like animals".
The duo had been enjoying a week-long break in Crete to celebrate Anthony's 54th birthday before they were due to fly out from Chania International Airport on Tuesday, May 10. But after a series of delays, Sally, 46, said she and other passengers were left wondering when they would land back in the UK.
Sally said: "There were roughly 200 of us due to fly back to Gatwick at 11.40pm. Then we all had messages from Wizz Air saying the flight was going to be delayed by an hour. Then at about 12am our phones went off again. I checked my phone and it said the flight had been delayed [by 12 hours] until 12pm tomorrow."
Sally claims everyone was confused as they could see a Wizz Air plane outside. She said nobody could tell them why they couldn't get on it, but a member of airport staff said they would arrange them a hotel.
"We ended up at the hotel at about 4am," Sally said. "We were told the flight was definitely going to leave at 12pm and to not worry about it and we said fair enough. We set our alarm so we could be ready to be picked up by the bus at 9.20am to bring us back to the airport. I had about three hours of sleep. At 8.30am I woke my partner up and said: 'We have to go soon, I don't want to miss this flight'.
"I looked outside and there were a group of people from our flight. Then some of them walked back to their rooms with their suitcases."
Sally said she went outside to speak to them to ask what was going on. She claims they had been told by hotel staff that they were no longer being picked up at 9.20am. Instead, the flight had been delayed again until 7.10pm and they would be picked up at 4pm, they were told.
"We still had to check out of the hotel at 12pm. The hotel was willing to give us breakfast, but that was it," Sally said. "We were all in reception giving our key cards at 12pm. There were people there with babies, children and we asked if we could have some food. We were told no even though some offered to pay. We were told if we wanted food we'd have to walk a quarter of a mile up the road and pay at a restaurant."
Sally claims the situation caused a lot of stress for the group, which included babies, children and disabled people. She said Anthony suffers from painful arthritis so walking to a restaurant was not a suitable option. Instead, she said they relied on junk food snacks from a minimart to keep them going.
When everyone got back to the airport that afternoon, Sally claims there was still no justification given for the delays. She said she was extremely homesick and feared another delay would happen. However, this time, Sally said the passengers were able to board the plane on time.
Sally said she wished Wizz Air had been transparent with the passengers from the beginning. She said although it still would have been inconvenient, knowing why the plane was delayed would have saved them a lot of worry about further delays.
"If they kept us informed we wouldn't have been panicking about whether we'd get home on that 7.10pm flight," Sally said. "Some people already missed their connection flights from Gatwick to Dublin."
Sally said the whole experience was extremely stressful for her and the other passengers. She said they felt as though their feelings were not taken into account.
She said: "Some people had their cars in parking which were only paid until the flight was originally supposed to come in, people lost lifts and also train tickets. It felt like we didn't matter, we were made to feel like prisoners and felt like we were being treated like animals. We were left in the dark with everything. We were their passengers, but we didn't matter."
Wizz Air has been contacted for comment. To get the latest news from across Wales, subscribe to our WalesOnline newsletters here.
