A Welsh nurse has vowed never to fly with the TUI travel agency again after a nightmare trip from Bristol to her wedding in Greece.
Gwenllian Lewis-Ashton and Jonathan Ashton of Ammanford experienced a “big bang” when lightning struck their plane in takeoff, claiming that the pilot flew for more than an hour before finally turning. above Luxembourg and back to Bristol. The couple and their wedding party experienced more than 30 hours of communication and “horrible” delays, they said.
The marriage of community nurse Gwenllian and retail manager Jonathan had to be postponed in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic. They rescheduled for June 5 this year and arranged to travel with 14 family and friends to their dream wedding on the island of Santorini, through a TUI package that cost over £ 3,000.
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Gwenllian, 27, said recent reports of huge queues at Bristol Airport led them to arrive early for their 6 a.m. May 31 flight. “We stayed up all night and left home at midnight to make sure we got to Bristol on time,” he said. . “Even though it was early, we still queued for a few hours to register, but we managed to bypass security after buying the expressway.
“With a late knock on the door, all 16 of our weddings, including my 85-year-old grandmother and my two-year-old niece, managed to get on the plane. An announcement was made to say that the plane had lost his and we were 12 minutes late to wait for the next one.At this point we were happy to be on the plane without any problems.
“During the take-off, the plane was struck by lightning, where all the passengers heard a big explosion and some claimed to have seen the lightning. Jonathan thought the engine had shut down. It happened just when we take off and the plane was in the air.The captain spoke to us and confirmed to us that we were struck by lightning but assured us that the planes were built to withstand things like these.
“We continued to fly for over an hour. We were in Luxembourg when the captain made another announcement, stating that he had to return the plane to Bristol for engineers to inspect them after the previous incident. a great frustration we had been in for so long. “
On his return, the wedding party went through passport control, claimed his luggage and received £ 10 TUI vouchers to eat at the airport. Gwenllian said they had to wait two hours to get on a bus to the Bristol Hotel in the city center, half an hour from the airport, where the travel agency accommodated them for the night. .
Gwenllian Lewis-Ashton at the airport on a honeymoon (Image: Gwenllian Lewis-Ashton)
He added: “The lack of communication only made the situation more stressful due to the unknown of when or if the flight would be rescheduled. We called the TUI helpline several times and they didn’t know what was going on. It was not until 2.40 the next day that we received an e-mail stating that the flight had been rescheduled for 1 p.m. “
By that time, the couple had already spent £ 120 on the last three seats of another flight because they feared they would be lost at the ceremony. Gwenllian, Jonathan and their son were ready to fly on the evening of June 1 if their original flight was not rescheduled.
“At the time we thought only the three of us would go to Santorini,” Gwenllian said. “That was pretty annoying and stressful. We were all a little tearful. The only reason we were able to sleep that night was because we knew we had booked the booking flight. We should have gone alone because we had already postponed everything. and we couldn’t do it again so little in advance. We saw online that the original plane had flown to Tenerife the same day and we didn’t understand why we couldn’t have gone that afternoon.
“Our rescheduled flight was delayed by an hour. While we were waiting to take off, we were informed that no hot food was available. We were delayed by a total of 34 hours, which resulted in the loss of two days of vacation, but also from the planning of our wedding, where we were forced to meet the vendors and see the places of the special day.It had to be a bit rushed.
(Image: Gwenllian Lewis-Ashton)
“We were all exhausted. My grandmother Joan is still recovering. But we were very relieved to get there and the wedding day was beautiful.
“Before the return flight we were delayed two hours in a hot and small airport, to be informed that there were minimal snacks and drinks available and no duty free shop. Once we arrived in Bristol, we were greeted, of course, with two “Waiting time for luggage. That was the last thing we all needed at the end of a short vacation.”
The bride and groom filed a claim for compensation with TUI, which states on their website that passengers may be entitled to compensation for delays of more than three hours, but were rejected. “They said something about natural disasters when we asked why,” said Jonathan, 37.
Gwenllian added: “We will never fly again with TUI after their poor communication and terrible customer service and urge all future customers to think again about who they chose to fly with. We are going to have a little honeymoon. this weekend, but all the flights were in. TUI, so we thought, “Don’t bother.”
A TUI spokeswoman said: “We are deeply saddened by the wedding party on flight TOM6212 from Bristol to Santorini, which suffered some disruptions to its flight due to lightning. The safety of our passengers and crew was not compromised. and it always remains our top priority.The plane was not damaged in any way and was completely safe to land.
“The aim is to communicate with customers as soon as we can if there is a change in their holiday and to offer transport, accommodation per night, meals and refreshments as needed. We understand that delays and cancellations of They are incredibly disappointing at the last minute, and we would like to reassure them that they have done their best to enjoy the celebrations as planned. We would like to apologize again for the inconvenience and thank the customers for their understanding. “
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