Visually impaired woman's Christmas 'ruined' after being stranded in airport for 24 hours
The woman, who was left visually impaired after developing a brain condition, still feels ill as a result of the stress caused by the travel nightmare
A visually impaired woman has criticised budget airline easyJet after she was forced to spend 24 hours in Glasgow Airport because her flight was cancelled.
Megan McKeown, who was left visually impaired after developing a brain condition, travelled to Stirling for a pre-Christmas break with her boyfriend and was scheduled to fly to Belfast International Airport on December 22 but her travel plans were thrown into chaos when her flight was repeatedly delayed before ultimately being cancelled.
Ms McKeown feels that her first Christmas with her boyfriend was "ruined" as a result of her travel nightmare and revealed to Belfast Live that she is still ill as a result of the stress caused by the experience.
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"We got to the airport at three o'clock in the afternoon, and our flight wasn't until 8.30 that night. We got there early because we had spent all of our holiday money, so we were completely broke by this point, and two days before Christmas, we had spent the last of our money on presents. We thought that we would be home in a few hours and so we would just eat then," she said.
"It was the day of the incident at Belfast City Airport and even though we were flying into the International Airport, there had been rumours that some flights were cancelled or delayed.
"Then at eight o'clock we were told there would be a one-hour delay. On the easyJet app it was saying that our plane was to fly from Southampton to Glasgow then it would take us to Belfast."
Because Megan's condition requires special assistance when travelling, they received information on what gate to go to but when they went to the gate, there were no other passengers there.
"We kept checking the app and then it said the flight was delayed until 10 o'clock, then it was 11 o'clock, then it was midnight but there was no easyJet staff around to ask what was happening," she said.
"It got to the point where we left the departure lounge and went back to the baggage hall to see if there were any staff there who could help us but they told us that they were actually Swissport employees and had no information.
"We went back through security again and went to the gate and eventually at 20 minutes past 12 we saw a guy in an easyJet high-viz and asked him if he knew about our flight. He said that he was off to tell some passengers bad news but he would be back with us in a second and that was the last we seen him."
After the multiple delays, the flight disappeared from the screen but no easyJet staff at the airport explained what was happening to Megan, who ended up contacting the airline's customer service via telephone and were offered a hotel room in Glasgow, the costs of which they would be able to claim back.
But because the couple had no money for a taxi and Megan is not able to see well in the dark, they asked if the airline would be able to put them up in the airport hotel but this request was denied. The couple ended up spending the night in the airport until they could fly back on the rescheduled flight the next afternoon.
"It just seemed like they didn't care about vulnerable people. At no point during the delays were we even offered vouchers for food," she added.
"At the time I was completely exhausted, I felt ill. To this day I still feel ill because obviously, it made me sick because of it, from the stress and everything.
"It was just a horrendous time and it just completely ruined my first Christmas with my partner."
EasyJet has confirmed that it has since been in touch with Ms McKeown and has offered her a flight voucher as a gesture of goodwill.
A spokesperson for the airline said: "We can confirm that flight EZY425 from Glasgow to Belfast on 22nd December was delayed overnight and operated the following day as a result of adverse weather in Belfast which caused an earlier diversion to the aircraft due to operate the flight.
"Whilst this was outside of our control we worked hard to minimise the disruption for passengers, keeping them regularly updated via the app and Flight Tracker with details of their new flight and advised them to speak to our ground handling provider at Glasgow if they needed hotel accommodation for the night.
"We are really sorry to hear about Ms McKeown’s experience at Glasgow as we would always provide hotel transport if this was raised to our ground handling provider at the airport. Whilst weather disruption is outside of airlines’ control and compensation is not due on this occasion, our customer support team have been in touch with Ms McKeown to offer a gesture of goodwill.
"The safety and wellbeing of customers and crew is always easyJet’s highest priority."
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