An intensive care nurse was devastated when she turned up at the airport 'head to toe in Disney gear' with her family only to find their flight to Paris had been cancelled. Kelly Matthews had saved up thousands so she could take her son Noah, nine, and her mother Mandy to Disneyland, but had to call the entire trip off at the last minute.
Kelly, from Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire, hoped the surprise trip would be an opportunity for her to spend some with her family abroad after a tough couple of years working through the pandemic as an intensive care nurse at Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen. The holiday had already been rescheduled once due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
She said she spent about £2,000 on the holiday in total. The family stay were supposed to be staying in a hotel near the Disney resort between May 26 and May 29, Wales Online reports.
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Before travelling to Bristol Airport for their easyJet flight, Kelly checked for any delays on the app. But it wasn't until she checked again once she'd arrived at the airport she found out the heartbreaking news that their flights had been cancelled "with no reason".
Kelly, 35, said: "It was cancelled in the time it took us to get from west Wales to Bristol, and just four hours before it was due to take off. We tried to get on another flight but they were all fully booked; we tried to see if we could get to Paris from a different airport but it just wasn’t possible.”
Kelly and her family were left with no choice but to head home from the airport back to Wales on a long journey which involved getting caught up in horrendous traffic near Cardiff caused by an Ed Sheeran concert. The mum says she has since been told that easyJet cancelled the flight due to “crew issues”.
To make matters worse, Kelly has lost out on hundreds of pounds because she cannot get a refund from Disneyland or her accommodation. The park will not issue a refund as she did not cancel or reschedule her trip within a 72-hour window, while the Paris hotel will not return any of the money put down because the family’s failure to arrive was not the hotel’s fault.
Kelly remains hopeful that easyJet will reimburse her for the flight tickets, and that she can claw back some of the other costs through her travel insurance. But she is devastated that her son has had his dream Disney trip snatched away from him.
“I worked hard throughout the pandemic and my mum helped me so much with childcare," Kelly said. "I just wanted to say thanks with this trip.
"Noah was so excited. We were all head-to-toe in Disney stuff at the airport - we had the ears and the T-shirts on and everything! Now I’m fighting just to get my money back; whether I will or not I don’t know."
“We were looking forward to taking Noah to Disneyland so much,” said Kelly. “The worst thing is, nobody is taking any responsibility for it, and there was no help from easyJet at all. Even if they refund the flight, I want the holiday that I worked so hard for and it’s been taken away.”
Luckily, Kelly and her family were able to enjoy a holiday of sorts as they managed to arrange a last-minute break at the popular Bluestone resort in Pembrokeshire. EasyJet has been asked by WalesOnline to comment on the reason behind the cancellation of the flight and to confirm if passengers will be fully refunded.
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