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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
World
Abbie Meehan & David Walker

Scottish family fuming at Aer Lingus after luggage mistake 'ruins dream Florida trip'

A Scottish family were left bereft after a dream trip to Florida was ruined after popular airline, Aer Lingus, misplaced their luggage that was vital to their trip.

The MacDonald family were booked to travel on the airline to Orlando for a dream getaway in December 2021, when they arrived without their baggage, that included vital medication for wife Alexia, 53.

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As reported by the Scottish Daily Express, Stuart, 60, was fuming after he tried to get a hold of the airline when in America for their four missing bags, that included Alexia's daily medication which she needs for her debilitating health condition, ulcerative colitis.

This huge mistake meant that Alexia spent the second week of their trip trapped in the hotel, while Stuart and their kids Morven, 17, and Innes, 14, tried to enjoy the rest of the trip without their mum.

Stuart MacDonald, who is a retired company director, had to spend over £3,000 on clothes and other essential items during their two-week stay in America, and also had to spend cash on phone calls to the airline's call centre.

Mr MacDonald has since berated the company for their lacking in customer service skills, and demands some form of compensation.

Stuart said: "It absolutely ruined the holiday, when we landed in Orlando we found that all of our baggage was missing, and there was no Aer Lingus stand at the airport.

Aer Lingus plane. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

"We spent about £220 on our mobile phones trying to get in touch with them and eventually got through to the call centre and every time they said they would get back to us and they never did.

"Eventually on the fourth day I used a website to track our bags and found that they had been sent to New York instead so I got hold of the company who sent them, JetBlue who told us that our baggage had arrived the night before but Aer Lingus had not told us.

"I had to take an Uber to the airport only to discover that only three of the bags had been delivered meaning that one was still missing, and that was my son's which also included my wife's medication.

"She had enough for four days in her hand luggage and we were unable to get prescribed anymore abroad.

"My wife was in so much pain that she never went to the theme park the second week we were there because she was in no fit state to go, so it was a horrible ordeal for us all."

Since this ordeal, Aer Lingus has offered to pay just £1112 to Stuart, from Milngavie, in compensation for the money he spent on clothes and materials for the four days without baggage.

Travelers check in at Orlando International Airport. (Supplied)

However, Mr MacDonald feels this isn't good enough and wants them to compensate him for their lost luggage which has yet to be officially declared missing forever.

And he also wants a proper apology from the airline.

He added: "Their customer service has been absolutely dreadful, no one from the airline has actually ever picked up the phone and had a conversation with me about this.

"The fact is that they never showed us any concern for our situation or any empathy because they never actually did anything to help us.

"I told them I'd like a minimum of £1500 to cover the cost of the telephone calls, the taxi fares and they did not confirm whether the compensation would include the bag that is still missing which has roughly about £800 or £900 worth of goods."

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