British Airways have said they are 'sorry' after a family’s luggage for their dream trip to America went missing including a two-year-old's asthma medication.
Dad Scott Shields said their £45,000 huge holiday to Orlando Disney World with five other families was ruined after all of their luggage was lost between Edinburgh and London. Scott and wife Alison were traveling with their two-year-old Eleanor and five-month-old Nathan along with four other families on the trip of a lifetime to celebrate four milestone birthdays and a wedding anniversary with all their loved ones.
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The family from Dundee caught a flight from Edinburgh to London in order to get the long haul flight to Florida, only for nine suitcases to go missing. All five families were left travelling to their dream holiday with no personal belongings.
This was especially distressing as the dad-of-two explained that essential medication for his children's health conditions were packed in the luggage and they would not be able to replace it. He said the airline first assured their luggage would be reunited with the family in 48 hours. But after a week passed and little Eleanor's medication had nearly run out, they had still heard nothing.
The distraught parents were then forced to spend the first couple of days of the trip in shopping outlets, traipsing around with two toddlers and spending hundreds of pounds on replacement clothes when they should have been meeting princesses in Disney Land.
Replacing clothes and belongings to enjoy what they could of the trip cost all five families a total of over £1000 - but replacing the asthma medication that two-year-old Eleanor relies on to help her breathing is more difficult.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Scott said: "We have travelled to Orlando via London in a party of 13. Nine adults, four children under four. We are heading out to celebrate two 60ths, two 30ths, a wedding anniversary.
"We flew to London on the 18.50 flight on Saturday. This is where our bags went missing. We then had to move to Orlando with nine out of ten of our bags left behind.
"We have everything in those cases - including medication for our asthmatic and eczema suffering child.
"It's our whole party's luggage that has gone missing. The flight from Edinburgh to London is where all the luggage went missing.
"The overall cost of the holiday is over £45,000. Now it is plus new wardrobes for each of the 13 guests. We had this booked for 2020 but had it postponed twice due to restrictions.
"We have had to totally change our plans in the first few days. Shopping in outlets rather than going to see the princesses in the parks has not been the start of the holiday that my daughter had in mind.
"We have also had to be doing loads of washing at the hotel each day. Something which we hadn't wanted to do on our holiday.
"The cost of replacing things has been about £200 per family here. So we are now looking at another grand. Which we hadn't planned on spending and we can't claim money back until much later."
He continued: "We need the bags in America. My daughters medicine is in them. We have enough until the end of the week.
"The standard reply I have been getting for days, makes me think that we won't see our bags unless we go to their warehouse and find them ourselves.
"We checked our listing this morning and one of our bags has been located. So we will see if it is delivered but I don't hold much hope."
Despite the family notifying the airline that they would be in America for the next two weeks and giving the address of the hotel, the airline has sent their luggage to their home address via next day delivery where nobody is home and leaving the tot without her medication.
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The fuming dad had taken to Twitter to try and get a response from the airline which they ignored writing: "Hey @British_Airways @EDI_Airport and Co. This is now day 4.5 without my bags. I was told my bags would be with me within 48 hours. Its now been 108 hours. My 5 month old and 2 year old are now NEEDING things from those bags. Where are they?"
The families are still in America awaiting their luggage and have about a week of the trip left. A spokesman for British Airways said: "We're doing everything we can to reunite our customer with their baggage as soon as possible. We apologise for the delay and inconvenience caused."
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