Limerick couple back home after Aer Lingus ordeal

A YOUNG couple – who should have been in the clouds – were two of thousands grounded due to Aer Lingus’ issues with its cloud-based reservation and operational system on Saturday.

Katie Glavin, from Anglesboro, and Ben Hurley, Mitchelstown, both aged 26, flew out to Malaga for their first sun holiday together on Saturday, September 3.

They were due to return home on Saturday, leaving Malaga Airport at 4.30pm for the three hour flight to Cork.

“It was a two hour delay announced at first, and after seeing the news stories, we were worried," said Katie, a news reporter with the Avondhu newspaper.

“But it said Spain and Portugal were not affected so we were hopeful. Then another two hour delay was announced and we started checking Twitter and Flight Radar for anything.”

After being contacted by Limerick Live on Sunday morning, she said that they were given €15 flight vouchers but the people handing them out had “no information at all”.

Young Limerick couple on first sun holiday together stranded in Spain with 'nowhere to stay tonight'

“No reps came up to speak to us when it was cancelled. There was a huge group of people all waiting on the flight and no one to tell us what to do or where to go

“We had to go to the luggage belt and collect our bags off a belt for an incoming Ryanair flight then go back to the departures desk for a bus to a hotel for the night with no information on when we can go home,” said Katie. She said they were put up in a hotel on Saturday night, arriving around 11pm.

“We got 'picnic bags' with a sandwich, water and some other things,” she said.

Katie and Ben, a care assistant, were then put on a flight on Monday with a long stopover in Heathrow. For a time Katie said they had nowhere to stay on Sunday night. They got a letter in Spanish saying they couldn't stay in the hotel another night.

“It's awful. Still stuck in Malaga with no communication from Aer Lingus,” said Katie, who was over an hour on the phone trying to get through to Aer Lingus.

“I'm onto my travel agent at the minute and she's not meant to be working weekends but she's contacting me and trying to get something sorted. I know it's not her or the companies fault, but the absolute disregard from Aer Lingus is horrible,” she added.

On Monday, Katie told Limerick Live that late on Sunday they were informed about a flight to Dublin that might have spare seats and to go straight to the airport.

“It was about an hour or two before take off so there was a mad rush to the airport to see if there was any available seats after everyone else boarded. So relieved to be at home again.

“I know it wasn’t an end of the world situation, but when you're going through it and there is so little communication or support, it is pretty awful,” said Katie.

She concluded by saying: “We still have had no direct communication from Aer Lingus. Some people got texts and emails from Aer Lingus, but we didnt.”

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In a statement on their website, Aer Lingus said they “sincerely apologise to customers for the severe disruption caused on Saturday, September 10 by the unavailability of key systems for check-in, boarding and our website”.

A system outage was caused by a break in connectivity in services from a UK network provider.

Aer Lingus had to cancel 51 flights on Saturday, mainly to and from Dublin / European and UK destinations. Transatlantic services from Shannon operated as normal on Saturday.

“Any customer impacted by Saturday's disruptions will be able apply for a refund or change their travel plans, free of charge through aerlingus.com, our call centres and our social media channels. As systems have now been restored we are contacting customers directly in order to re-accommodate them as efficiently as possible. We will also share information regarding customers' rights and the airlines' obligations under Regulation (EC) 261/2004.”