Our holiday was ruined by delays – we had to pay £800 for taxi back to Scotland

A SCOTS couple has told how a holiday journey nightmare ended up with them paying an £800 taxi fare back to Scotland.

The pair were forced to pay the monumental fare from Manchester to Glasgow after their trip was plagued by a 36 hour delay.

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They had just enjoyed a holiday in Turkey and were due to catch their TUI flight to Glasgow from Antalya airport on Saturday May 28.

They arrived at 6pm for the plane home but claim they were told after an hour that the flight was cancelled and that they would be put up in a hotel.

They said the next day they were hit with the news that they would be flying to Manchester and then getting a coach to Glasgow.

The passenger claimed they weren’t informed of the change beforehand and that staff on the plane said they only had 20 minutes notice before boarding.

They told how everyone on the flight tried to keep “good spirits” but claimed no cleaning had been done and there was no hot food.

He claimed their nightmare began as they touched down in Manchester.

The man and his partner claimed they were waiting for an hour and a half to get their luggage. They then said a quarter of the bags came through before the conveyor stopped and no staff were around to turn it back on.

As they got their bags, the nightmare continued as they made their way to get the coach.

The pair claimed TUI had booked coaches to Glasgow but for the WRONG DAY.

He told Manchester World: “We were told that TUI did book coaches to Glasgow, but they did so for the wrong date.

“We couldn’t believe it.”

The man claimed they were given £10 food vouchers but the only place in the airport still open was a Starbucks that had run out of food.

He said: “No one had any idea what was going on and there were no TUI staff to ask.”

He claimed they were told at 9:30pm on the Sunday night they could get a hotel in Manchester or a taxi back to Glasgow.

He added: “We were so frustrated and stressed we just wanted to get home.

“So we paid £787 for a taxi which took three and a half hours to get us back.

“It was carnage from start to finish. I was so stressed that I have had to phone in sick – I feel drained and broken. You go on holiday to recharge and relax but we feel that was taken away from us.”

The customer said TUI will refund the price of the taxi and that he will be making a complaint to the company.

He said:  “We expected a travel day of about eight to 10 hours,” he said. “Never could we have imagined it would be 36 (hours).”

A spokesperson for the company apologised to the passengers for the delays they faced and confirmed they would pay for the taxi fare.

A TUI spokesperson said: “We’re incredibly sorry to those customers who have been impacted by the recent disruption to our operations.

“We understand that changes to flights can be incredibly frustrating and we would like to reassure our customers that situations like this are extremely rare. 

“We continue to work closely with our supplier and ground handlers at our airports to minimise disruption. Mr Duffy will be receiving a full refund for the taxi expenses he incurred.

“We’d like to apologise again for the inconvenience caused and we thank customers for their understanding.”

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