A Donegal couple has been left waiting for answers after their Greece holiday descended into a nightmare trip.
John Callaghan and his partner from Drumkeen booked a week in Rhodes with TUI Holidays in August.
They said they had a number of hiccups with their accommodation, but it was two flight cancellations on their return journey, including a nine hour wait at a departure gate, which they say spoiled the experience entirely.
It took the passengers two days to finally get home to Dublin airport, resulting in John missing his long-awaited birthday celebration at a Coldplay concert.
“It was a disaster,” they said.
They claim they were brought to Rhodes Airport three times, and two flight delays turned into two extra nights on the island between the 31st of August and 2nd September in a hotel they could only describe as a ‘kip’.
“We booked a week package with return flights, on the Saturday we were checked in to fly home and through security when word got around our flight was delayed. Next thing we were told there were technical issues and the flight wasn’t happening.”
“They took us back to the airport on Sunday again, they kept us nine hours that day with no water, no food tokens, nothing.”
John and his partner said they tried to book their own flights home via England to get home in time for Coldplay in Croke Park on Sunday, but they were too late.
His partner too, needed to get home for routine medical services.
Now that they are home, they say they are having great difficulty getting any support.
“TUI let us down badly,” they said. “We are getting zero headway with them now.”
“They offered €200 compensation in an email on the Monday, but we were wary of accepting it.
“Every number we ring we are getting passed around. We cannot try to claim EU 261 compensation because their system won’t accept the flight details.”
“It put a whole dampener to the whole thing, it would put us off travelling again.”
Donegal Daily has contacted TUI multiple times for a response.