TUI customers slept on conference floor amid IT outage

Following a week-long holiday in Rhodes, Greece, Brooke Champion arrived at the airport on Friday, July 19 to discover that their flight had been cancelled.

Brooke had travelled to the Greek island to celebrate her birthday with her boyfriend Noah Pedder.

The 19 and 20-year-old claim they were bundled into a coach at 2 am with 'around 200' other passengers who were meant to be on flights back to both Gatwick and Manchester airport.

TUI had arranged for all passengers to spend the night at a hotel.

However, when the couple arrived at their hotel, they claimed they were shown to a conference room with tables and chairs and told to 'get comfy' rather than being allocated a room.

A 'frightened' Brooke says she stayed in this conference room for two nights with her boyfriend and four friends they had made on the holiday, who all had to take shifts sleeping to look after their valuables.

After two nights of being left to sleep on makeshift beds consisting of sunbed mats with tablecloths on and sofa pillows, Brooke and Noah finally made it home but claim they were told it was 'unlikely' they'd receive compensation.

TUI have apologised for their customers' experiences but said that their holidays were 'impacted by the global IT outage that resulted in some delays and cancellations'.

Brooke, from Adisham, Kent, said: "We had to wait three hours to get our bags back and they hadn't even been put on a plane.

"We got on this coach with no TUI rep. We had no idea where we were going or what we were doing.

"This must have been at about two in the morning. We were knackered.

The 19 and 20-year-old arrived at the airport on Friday night and after hours at the airport, were informed their flight had been cancelled. (Image: Kennedy News and Media)

"We get to this hotel and we queue to check in. One of the workers looks at us and says 'oh you're not checking in for a room, we've put you in a conference room'.

"There's probably about 200 of us and there's tables and chairs. They told us to find an area and get comfy.

"It was frightening as you're in a room with 200 strangers. We had all of our valuables. You don't know who you're sleeping with. Anyone from the hotel could walk into the room.

"There were also children, pregnant women, and elderly people sleeping on the floor. It was all in one communal room, there was nowhere safe to put your belongings and passports.

"Families were blocking their children under tables so they would be safe for the night.

"As soon as we got there we had to try and find stuff to make a bed with.

"We went outside and used the pool lounger mats off the sunbeds to use as mattresses. There were sofas in the lobby of the hotel so we had to go and get the cushions.

"As soon as the staff realised we were taking them, they started locking them away from us.

"The tables in the conference room had tablecloths on them so we were using them as bedding.

"We were like that for two nights.

"Luckily we made friends out there so there were six of us. We were sleeping in shifts just to make sure no one would take our stuff.

"I wouldn't have felt comfortable just me and my partner on our own in that room."

The couple had to fork out an extra £300 alone to cover extra days for their travel insurance and for their car, which was parked at Gatwick airport for fears it would be clamped or towed away.

The 'stranded' passengers were advised to use public toilets and had to pay for water after the water fountains ran out.

The 19-year-old even claims TUI reps 'scoffed' at her after she enquired about receiving compensation.

Brooke said: "We had to pay for all of our expenses for nearly three days. We had to pay extra parking [back at Gatwick airport] and extra travel insurance.

"Me and my partner spent over £300 extra on stuff we shouldn't have had to do. We didn't want our car to get clamped or towed away.

"It was ridiculous.

"We had to use public toilets for two nights to brush our teeth and wash our face. Children had to have their nappies changed in these toilets. It was disgusting.

"We asked for compensation and they scoffed. They said it would be blamed on unforeseen circumstances.

"I didn't choose to spend an extra £300, I'd have been happy for my holiday to end on the Friday. I wanted to come home.

"We were stranded in another country with no help.

"Some people don't take money with them when they book an all-inclusive holiday as you don't expect to have to sort out £500 for a room, £400 for food for three days.

"You don't take that into consideration."

On Saturday evening, holidaymakers were told there would be two flights available with the first going to priority passengers such as pregnant women and children that evening and the second flying at 3am Sunday morning.

Brooke and her group of five 'begged' the hotel for a room before their 3am flight but were 'refused' and made to sleep for a second night on the floor.

She now feels her amazing holiday was 'ruined' and claims she is struggling to receive compensation from TUI.

Brooke said: "We just wanted somewhere to have a shower and if the flight was cancelled we wanted somewhere to still go.

"The flight was delayed until 7am. We were still begging for a room, we'd had two hours sleep each, we were so sleep deprived. They just refused.

"As we were going to sleep, we could hear TUI reps shouting saying 'there's a coach coming to get you in five minutes, if you aren't on this coach you are no longer TUI's responsibility and you will be left'.

"We had five minutes to pack up our belongings and get onto this coach. Bear in mind the plane hasn't even left Gatwick yet.

"We have tried to get in touch with TUI since being back. You're allowed 500 characters to write a complaint and I don't think my experience can fit into that.

"It's terrible. It was the best holiday I've ever been on, apart from this. It has ruined it completely.

"It was my birthday while I was out there as well and I've had to come home to this."

A spokesperson for TUI UK & Ireland 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.

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"We understand how frustrating this would have been and recognise that many of these delays happened when our customers were already at the airport.

"We would like to reassure customers that if they are currently overseas our TUI team will look after them and flights home 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.

"We thank our customers for their understanding and continued patience."