A MUM has told of her "nightmare" easyJet experience after her family's flight to Tenerife was cancelled twice.
Nicola Caine, 37, said her family was treated "like animals" during the ordeal which saw them pushed from pillar to post before sleeping on the floor at Gatwick Airport.
Nicola, from Cheshire, was due to fly from Manchester Airport to Tenerife on Monday with her husband, kids, and several other family members.
The group of 13 splashed £2,500 on a seven day package with easyJet to celebrate Nicola's parents' 40th wedding anniversary and 60th birthdays.
But when they boarded the plane, they waited over an hour due to baggage issues and were eventually told the flight was cancelled.
They waited another 30 minutes to get off the plane and were eventually told to download the easyJet app to book new flights.
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Nicola told Manchester Evening News: "The app didn't work because we were on a package holiday. While we were stood there, two cancelled easyJet flights came through from Turkey and Egypt."
The family, who live 30 minutes from the airport, decided to go home for the night – not knowing whether they were going on holiday or not.
Then, at 5:30am, Nicola received a text, telling her to be at Manchester Airport for 10:30am, where a coach would take them to Gatwick Airport to catch a flight to Tenerife at 7:10pm that evening.
She said: "I just thought, how can I go on a coach for almost five hours and sit in an airport for three hours, and then go on a four-and-a-half hour flight?
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"EasyJet said it was a suitable alternative and that we would lose our money if we didn't go on that trip."
At the gate, waiting to board the flight to Tenerife, passengers had to wait over 30 minutes while the plane was cleaned.
They were then told by easyJet it could no longer operate the flight, but stand-by crew would be there for the flight in an hour.
Nicola said: "We had to go back to departures, which was a tell-tale sign that we weren't getting back on the plane.
"So we went back to departures and stood at the customer service desk for another 45 minutes.
There should be a level of service – and the nearest hotel was £690 for the night.
"Again, there were no easyJet people there. At 9pm, we all got an email to say the flight was cancelled."
The passengers were asked to move to another gate and look at new flights on the easyJet app.
But Nicola was furious because she had "heard it all the night before".
The mum-of-two said: "A police officer advised us to stay in a hotel overnight.
"We said, why should we have to do that? There should be a level of service – and the nearest hotel was £690 for the night."
Exhausted, the family decided to stay in the airport to wait for news of another flight.
They had no food or accommodation and resorted to sleeping wherever they could.
It meant Nicola's 60-year-old mum was lying on the floor while her kids were sprawled across chairs.
'TREATED LIKE ANIMALS'
"It was an absolute nightmare," Nicola said.
"It was freezing cold. My husband and I had to lie on the floor. EasyJet didn't even provide food vouchers.
"The children were tired and upset. You wouldn't even treat animals the way we have been treated."
A new flight was arranged – but with a three-hour delay.
And when Nicola's parents went to check their booking – which they had made separately to the rest of the family – they were told they hadn't been allocated seats.
At this point, the family cut their losses and went home.
EasyJet arranged for taxis to take them the four-and-a-half hour journey.
When they checked the app, they noticed none of them had even been allocated seats on the plane.
It comes after a week of airport chaos for passengers across the country with thousands of easyJet passengers left stranded.
Hundreds of flights were axed on Thursday after an IT system failure caused all easyJet planes to be grounded.
Meanwhile, at Gatwick, Bristol and Manchester airports – the worst-affected by the cancellations – huge queues stretched back as Brits battled to travel abroad.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: "Unfortunately, we were unable to operate the EZY1903 from Manchester to Tenerife on Monday, due to air traffic control restrictions earlier in the day leading to the crew reaching their maximum operating hours.
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"We're very sorry that the flight the family transferred on to from Gatwick was also cancelled.
"We always aim to minimise the impact on our customers, providing them with the options to transfer to an alternative flight free of charge, or receive a refund or a voucher. Our customer team are in touch with the family to talk them through their options."
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