One passenger criticized the “horrible treatment” they received from TUI after their flight from Newcastle to Tenerife was canceled and “they ran out of food”.
The passenger, who wishes to remain anonymous, was due to board the Tenerife flight from Newcastle airport at 3.45pm on Friday, but was informed by text message that the flight had been canceled. , 45 minutes after departure. He said TUI gave them £ 10 vouchers to spend at the airport, but Greggs was the only place open and “ran out of food” due to the influx of people.
He and his partner ended up sharing a Greggs cake and were told by text message shortly after 7pm that a bus would pick them up and take them to the Holiday Inn at the MetroCentre at 7.30pm. However, they said they were not picked up until 9.15pm and when they arrived at the hotel they had stopped serving food.
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It means they haven’t eaten well since 3pm and were worried about families with children. Since then, the passenger has criticized TUI for its “embarrassing” communication saying they left it to airport staff. He said: “At no time did we have anyone from TUI come to see us, they left it to the airport staff and everyone asked them questions.
“They gave us a £ 10 voucher to spend at the airport, but the only one that wasn’t closed was Greggs, but they ran out of food because everyone was trying to get food. There were no sandwiches, I think we brought a cake.
“There were about 200 people queuing up for a £ 10 voucher to eat for 45 minutes and then they made us queue for the bus tickets for another 45 minutes, so we didn’t catch the bus until 9pm. : 15.
“We didn’t get to the hotel until after 10pm and there was no food. The only place open was an Asda open 24 hours a mile away, but we were stuck, so we didn’t have anything. There was a continental breakfast in the morning, but no one had told us. “
TUI arranged for a taxi to pick them up on Saturday morning at 6am to take them to Doncaster for a flight at 12am. However, the passenger, who was waiting for a week-long break in Tenerife, said TUI handled the situation “horribly” and said the days in the sun are now lost.
He said, “We’re going for a week and when we got there, we missed two days. We tried to call TUI to ask for compensation, but we only get an automatic message saying it’s one hour. Wait, so we just hung up. “TUI has just left us hanging, they’ve handled it in a horrible way. The passengers were treated terribly and the communication was nothing short of embarrassing.”
In response, TUI said they intend to communicate with customers “quickly” and provide transportation, overnight accommodation, meals and refreshments as needed and apologized to affected customers. It comes as the aviation industry struggles to cope with rising travel demand amid severe staff shortages.
A TUI UK spokesperson said: “We would like to apologize to customers affected by the delayed departure of TOM1558 from Newcastle Airport to Tenerife. We aim to communicate with customers as soon as we can if there are any. change to your holiday and offer us transport., accommodation per night, meals and refreshments as needed.
“We understand that last minute changes are incredibly disappointing and we would like to assure customers that we are doing our best to make them go on holiday as planned. We thank customers for their patience and understanding.”
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