A couple have said they were “dumped” for five days at an “unfinished” hotel in Turkey after the global IT outage led to their flight home being cancelled, costing them hundreds of pounds in food and transport costs and missed work.
George Williams-Sales, 26, from Wandsworth, booked his first ever all-inclusive holiday with TUI where he stayed for seven days at the Prime Beach Hotel in Marmaris, Dalaman in Turkey with his girlfriend, Lulu Mann, 24, who works as a receptionist.
The couple enjoyed their stay and were due to return home on July 19, but their flight to Gatwick Airport was delayed then cancelled because of the global IT outage caused by a faulty update rolled out by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
After the couple’s flight was cancelled, it then took five days until TUI were able to provide them with a replacement flight.
While their accommodation was paid for by TUI, the stay cost them more than £100 for food and another £253.80 as a result of unpaid leave from work.
Lulu, who lives with arthritis and manages her condition through maintaining her stress levels, noticed her skin began flaring up and became swollen, which caused her to have multiple breakdowns and resulted in George experiencing an anxiety attack.
“I felt hopeless, helpless and lost – I just feel like I was dumped at a hotel with no one to speak to,” George told PA Real Life.
The couple arrived at Dalaman Airport at about 9.15pm on July 19 expecting to fly to Gatwick at about 11.25pm, but waited for three hours before being told by their pre-booked taxi at Gatwick and by a passenger at the Turkish airport that their flight was cancelled.
“There were no TUI reps at the airport, there wasn’t any staff – the airport staff we tried to contact just completely ignored you and everyone was so frustrated,” George said.
“Everyone was panicking because everyone knew they had to get outside the airport to the TUI check-in desk to get to a hotel … people were pushing and shoving, and there was just no control at all.”
They were told to collect their baggage from the arrival belt and proceeded to wait outside the airport in 35C heat at…
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