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A couple have said they were “dumped” for five days at an “unfinished” hotel in Turkey after the global IT outage led to their flight home being cancelled, costing them hundreds of pounds in food and transport costs and missed work.
George Williams-Sales, 26, from Wandsworth, booked his first ever all-inclusive holiday with TUI where he stayed for seven days at the Prime Beach Hotel in Marmaris, Dalaman in Turkey with his girlfriend, Lulu Mann, 24, who works as a receptionist.
The couple enjoyed their stay and were due to return home on July 19, but their flight to Gatwick Airport was delayed then cancelled because of the global IT outage caused by a faulty update rolled out by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
After the couple’s flight was cancelled, it then took five days until TUI were able to provide them with a replacement flight.
While their accommodation was paid for by TUI, the stay cost them more than £100 for food and another £253.80 as a result of unpaid leave from work.
Lulu, who lives with arthritis and manages her condition through maintaining her stress levels, noticed her skin began flaring up and became swollen, which caused her to have multiple breakdowns and resulted in George experiencing an anxiety attack.
“I felt hopeless, helpless and lost – I just feel like I was dumped at a hotel with no one to speak to,” George told PA Real Life.
The couple arrived at Dalaman Airport at about 9.15pm on July 19 expecting to fly to Gatwick at about 11.25pm, but waited for three hours before being told by their pre-booked taxi at Gatwick and by a passenger at the Turkish airport that their flight was cancelled.
“There were no TUI reps at the airport, there wasn’t any staff – the airport staff we tried to contact just completely ignored you and everyone was so frustrated,” George said.
“Everyone was panicking because everyone knew they had to get outside the airport to the TUI check-in desk to get to a hotel … people were pushing and shoving, and there was just no control at all.”
They were told to collect their baggage from the arrival belt and proceeded to wait outside the airport in 35C heat at 2am and without any water to queue at the TUI tour operator desk and find out where they would be staying for the night.
They boarded a coach which took them to a hotel George said did not appear to have been completed.
“The coach took us to, not a TUI hotel, but an airport hotel which had just been built – it was three weeks old and it wasn’t even finished,” George said.
“Some busses went to TUI resorts, which was all-inclusive where the TUI reps were and we were completely dumped at this brand new hotel and there was not a single TUI rep in sight.
“There was supposedly a gym at the hotel, but it was just a completely empty room.
“We didn’t have any hot water – it was very off and on – and TUI hadn’t spoken to the hotel about what we could get, so they were charging us for soft drinks.”
George said he “didn’t expect” to rack up a bill of nearly £500 for food, drinks and telephone costs and unpaid leave and the couple received money from their family to help with expenses.
“We budgeted for our holiday, so we had no money left – my girlfriend’s dad had to send her £50, and my mum had to send me £50,” he said.
“You budget for the holiday and you’re there an extra five days, and it’s just not something you expect.”
On Saturday July 20, George tried to call the TUI customer helpline, but said “they completely cut all the numbers because there was too much volume in calls, so we had no one to speak to”.
George was informed that a TUI representative would collect the couple at 10pm on Saturday evening and they waited until 11pm but decided to go to bed after waiting for more than an hour for the representative.
In a room located close to reception, George “heard all this commotion” at around 11.30pm and walked to the front desk to find out what was happening and was told by three TUI representatives there was a flight at 6am on Sunday July 21.
“If I didn’t go to reception, they would have completely forgotten about us,” he said
“That was a complete disaster. I was so angry after that.”
They arrived at hotel reception at 3am, as advised by TUI, but were then told by the representatives their new flight had to be cancelled because of a technical error at Gatwick.
He attempted to contact the travel company but the live chat had been “cut off”.
“They cut the live chat two days after you’re meant to be home, but I said, ‘I’m not home. How can you cut my only means of communication?’ (That) was outrageous,” he said.
George said he later found out through a Whatsapp group with other stranded travellers that the majority of passengers from the same Gatwick to Dalaman flight received a text saying they had been put on a flight for on Tuesday July 23 at about 4am, but the couple were not informed and missed a potential flight.
The marketing manager eventually received an email on Tuesday from TUI telling him his flight had been moved to 2.55pm on Wednesday July 24, but pleaded with a representative to find an earlier flight to avoid taking any more time off work.
TUI were able to find a 12.45am flight on Tuesday and the couple checked in at the airport only to find their boarding passes stated their flight was over 14 hours later at 2.55pm on Wednesday.
He told the TUI representative at the time: “I can’t do this anymore. It’s just crazy. I just can’t believe how abysmal it’s all been.”
He added Lulu was told by her workplace to take two days of her annual leave – which she had planned to see her family and take time off to see George’s family in South Africa at Christmas, but will now re-evaluate whether she can go.
“I’m going to fight until I get a good amount of compensation,” George said.
“The website keeps crashing, because I assume so many people are trying to claim.
“I’m not going to let this slide. I just think it was completely unethical, unprofessional and the communication was disgusting.
“You don’t know what to do and you feel completely stranded and isolated – it’s an experience you can’t really picture and I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
A TUI spokesperson said: “We would like to apologise to our customers who were impacted by the global IT outage that resulted in some delays and cancellations.
“Whilst the original IT issue was outside of our control, the impact, alongside air traffic control restrictions over the weekend, meant we had to cancel some flights and delay some return flights home.
“We would like to reassure customers that if they are currently overseas our TUI team will look after them and flights home (will be) provided.
“We will continue to update customers with more information and can confirm that if a return flight time has changed we will contact them directly 24 hours before departure.”
