Single mum of three left to sort out her own travel
A single mum with three primary-age children was left having to sort out her own travel, after Aurigny transferred the family onto a flight to another London airport.
The family was due to fly on the 3.45pm service to Gatwick on Sunday after a holiday in the island.
However, when they arrived at the airport, they discovered the flight had been cancelled.
The mum, who asked not to be named, said they were automatically transferred onto a flight to London City, despite there being a flight to Gatwick at 6.10pm.
The family had checked in with their luggage at the airport well in time, but was told that passengers were transferred onto the remaining Gatwick flight based on when they had booked their tickets, rather than when they checked in.
No priority was given to passengers travelling with young children.
The mum spoke to the Aurigny desk about how staff suggested she travel with her three children and luggage from London City airport to Gatwick, where the family car was parked.
‘They refused to book us a taxi,’ she said.
‘They said they might reimburse reasonable onward travel costs, but would not tell me what that might be.’
A taxi would have cost £140 – something the single mum could not afford, with no reassurance from Aurigny that any money would reimbursed.
With nearly two extra hours at the airport waiting, the airline did give the family of four a £5 food voucher to share between them. When they arrived at London City, the mum spoke to British Airways, as Aurigny does not have a desk at the airport.
BA contacted Aurigny, who again refused to help any further.
The mum ended up getting three trains to get to Gatwick, finally arriving there with three very tired children at 9pm, and getting home at 11pm. She said she was very disappointed with Aurigny’s handling of the situation and said she was not even sure Aurigny would reimburse the family’s train fare.
An Aurigny spokeswoman said it did not comment on queries on complaints with individual cases and stated travellers should contact Aurigny’s customer services team.
The airline’s conditions of carriage states when a flight is cancelled and passengers are re-routed, the airline will offer to ‘re-route you to the destination shown on your ticket by our own services or those of another carrier, or by other mutually agreed means and class of transportation without additional charge.’
