A mother-of-three says she was left nearly £1,500 worse off after her all-inclusive package holiday was cancelled by tour operator Jet2 following a simple mistake. Karen Cassidy was left "in tears" when she tried to check into a Spanish hotel at midnight and discovered her reservation had been cancelled.
Karen and her husband George Gale had been due to fly to Malaga at 7.15am on August 14. However, after being kept awake late by a crying baby, they slept through their alarm and missed their flight.
Alternative flight found but hotel booking gone
Realising what had happened, Karen searched online for an alternative flight and found one that would take them to Malaga late that evening. But when they reached the reception desk of their booked hotel, they were told no rooms were available for them.
"Our new flight was around 4:00pm then we were delayed for over an hour so by the time we got to the hotel it was midnight," Karen said. "Obviously they were like 'We can't find your booking.' Then they explained 'actually there is a booking but it's a past booking.' Jet2 had cancelled our entire holiday at 3pm. After everything I felt we had gone through, I was just shocked."
Over £1,500 in extra costs
After calling Jet2 and "crying for 20 minutes", Karen says she was told there was "absolutely nothing they could do" and she had to pay a further €350 (£300) to stay the night in the hotel. In total, Karen and George spent over £1,500 on alternative accommodation and travel, meaning the family holiday originally expected to cost £1,114 ultimately set them back more than £2,600.
Karen shared a video about her ordeal on TikTok, hoping to highlight the issue so others avoid the same trap. She said that despite negative comments from fellow users, she was determined to alert others to what she described as Jet2's "unclear" policy: "Through loads of rubbish comments from people calling me an idiot or people saying 'what grown up can miss a flight', there's hundreds of people that don't know. If I could save one person, I'm happy."
Jet2 response
A spokesperson for Jet2holidays said: "We're sorry to hear about Ms Cassidy and Mr Gale's experience and we understand how disappointing it must have been to arrive in Malaga and find that their holiday arrangements had been cancelled. Unfortunately, as the customers did not travel on their booked outbound flight or let us know that they planned to make their own way to Malaga, their remaining holiday arrangements were cancelled in line with the terms and conditions of their booking. When they got in touch with us after arriving in resort, our team offered to try to help and support them."
Karen said that upon finally reaching the hotel she was "exhausted and just in tears". She added: "They [Jet2] came back to me and said there's absolutely nothing they can do, they have a no-show policy, because it's been cancelled, they can't go back on that." Having arrived at the hotel so late, Karen said they were left with very little choice: "At this time, midnight, we don't have that luxury option of going to shop around."
