A Belfast man whose flight back home from London was cancelled on Sunday has branded the airline’s customer service "disgraceful"
Michael Doran, from Four Winds, was travelling back to Belfast City Airport with a friend and had already made it through the security gate at Heathrow when a text from Aer Lingus confirmed the flight had been cancelled. With no hotel offered for Sunday night, the pair are now out of pocket by more than £600 between them.
They had to book a new flight with FlyBe on Monday morning and missed work due to the last minute cancellation. Aer Lingus apologised to passengers on Monday and blamed strikes and ongoing issues at airports for cancellations at Belfast, Dublin and London Heathrow.
READ MORE: Aer Lingus apologises after Belfast passengers hit by flight cancellations
Speaking to Belfast Live, Michael said while it was understandable that flights may be cancelled, the standard of customer service when dealing with the issue was well below what was expected.
He added: "We arrived at Heathrow, passed security and on our way to the gate when we received a text confirming the cancellation of our flight to Belfast City. While we can understand the cancellation, these things happen, the lack of follow up and support from Aer Lingus has been disgraceful.
“We were led to the gate and provided with a piece of paper with details of a phone line and told that hotels were not possible as all of their providers were booked up, and that all flights to Belfast and Dublin were cancelled so we could not be rebooked last night.
“Some elderly people beside us were very upset at this. I was then on hold to Aer Lingus for two hours, once I finally got through to be rebooked, the agent hung up on me and did not call back.
“If we could have rebooked ourselves online we would have done so but this was not possible. We were left with no choice but to take a day off work and book a hotel and new flights with Flybe today at our own expense, with a view to claiming these back from Aer Lingus although the process to do this is not clear.
“At such short notice, this cost us hundreds of pounds. There has been no further communication from Aer Lingus since the flight was cancelled last night which is simply not acceptable."
In a statement released by the airline on Monday following the cancellations, Aer Lingus apologised for the disruption it caused passengers.
It said: "Aer Lingus anticipated the return of demand for travel once Covid restrictions were removed and built appropriate buffers into our plans in order to deal with a reasonable level of additional disruption.
"This weekend, system pressures from ATC strikes, and ongoing issues at airports and among third party suppliers have regrettably necessitated the cancellation of some flights.
"This pressure on the system has been compounded by a spike in Covid cases among our own teams in the last number of days. Where cancellations have occurred, Aer Lingus has sought to re-accommodate disrupted passengers on the next available alternative service.
"Aer Lingus wishes to apologise to those customers that have been impacted, and has shared detail regarding customers’ rights the airlines’ obligations under Regulation (EC) 261/2004 which can be found here: www.aerlingus.com/support/legal/regulation ."
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