Bride and groom face cancelled wedding after Tui axes flight
A bride-to-be has had to cancel her wedding in Cyprus and another woman says she is £6,000 out of pocket for tickets to Sunday’s Grand Prix in Monaco after Tui and easyJet cancelled their flights.
Scores of holidaymakers faced travel chaos after Tui axed a “small number” of flights and easyJet announced it will scrap more than 200 over the next 10 days.
Lisa Trenchard said her daughter Seren Rounds, a primary school teacher, and her fiance, electrician Adam Howells, had their flight to Cyprus on Saturday 28 May scrapped.
Ms Rounds, 27, and Mr Howells, 29, of Caerleon, South Wales, had been planning their big day since 2020, but have postponed it after Tui cancelled their flight to Paphos.
Ms Trenchard said 34 guests were due to fly from Bristol on Saturday, with 11 guests already in Cyprus, but their 1.30pm outbound flight was first delayed and then cancelled.
She said the wedding was booked for Thursday June 2 and they had an appointment at a town hall on Monday.
She said there is now “no way” they can find flights for all 34 guests, so the wedding is “ruined”.
Ms Trenchard, 55, a health visiting manager from Caerleon, said: “We have families with babies and a devastated bride and groom to be.”
She added: “Absolutely I blame Tui, not necessarily for the initial problem, but their lack of visibility and compassion, and how they have taken the easy option to cancel.”
Mother-of-one Sunita Ramjee, 50, of Swansea, Wales, said she spent £6,000 on tickets to take her daughter, 19, and brother to the Grand Prix in Monaco for his 40th birthday present.
They were meant to be flying from London Gatwick to Nice on Friday, but the flight was delayed and then cancelled while they were at the airport.
She says there were no alternative flights available because of the Grand Prix and the Champions League final in Paris on Saturday.
Ms Ramjee said: “We had tickets to the Grand Prix and now easyJet has cancelled my flight and I’m not going to get a refund (for the Formula One tickets).
“I’m really disappointed in the way it was handled. Nobody helped us to try and figure out alternative flights or make hotel bookings.
“It is something my daughter has been looking forward to since we moved to the UK, it was my brother’s 40th birthday present.”
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Michele Farmer, 56, tweeted: “Our easyJet flight to Naples at 17.30, yes, in less than an hour’s time has been cancelled.
“We’ve been sent through baggage collection with luggage thrown on the floor now standing outside Bristol Airport.
“No help. Poor on every level.”
She was meant to be taking her daughter Madeleine for a half-term holiday they booked for the same week in 2020.
A Tui spokesman said: “We would like to apologise for the inconvenience to customers who have experienced flight delays or a flight cancellation.
“Delays have been caused due to a combination of factors and we are doing everything we can to keep customers updated, and will provide refreshments and, where appropriate, provide hotel accommodation.
“Where we have made the difficult decision to cancel a small number of flights, customers will receive a full refund within 14 days and we will contact them directly to help them try and find another holiday.”
An easyJet spokesman said: “We have taken the decision to make advance cancellations of around 24 Gatwick flights per day starting from May 28 until June 6.
“We are very sorry for the late notice of some of these cancellations and inconvenience caused for customers booked on these flights, however we believe this is necessary to provide reliable services over this busy period.”