"I almost missed my best friend’s wedding, didn’t sleep for days and lost £3,000 in holiday disaster"

Rachel Crowder, aged 32, and her partner Kelly Griffiths, 34, saved up for over a year to attend Fran and Cam Liburd-Godbehere’s wedding on the Greek island.

The holidaymakers fell at the first hurdle when, on the way to Manchester Airport from Sheffield on Sunday, July 21, they got an email from Tui saying their package holiday had been cancelled.

Rachel, one of Fran’s three bridesmaids, said: “I thought it was a mistake or a scam at first, but as soon as we went through departures we saw a huge crowd around the Tui desk. It dawned on us that it might actually be real.

“The Tui rep had a sheet of paper with about eight cancelled flights. I told him we were going to Kos, and he said ‘no you aren't’ - he was giggling, almost.”

The couple went to the Tui desk in the airport, where they struggled to get the attention of the representative who was “talking to her colleague about a stapler” and “wasn’t even listening”.

“She told us, ‘what I would do is probably go to the car, get in it, and go home’. Her attitude was vile,” Rachel said. “I was thinking, ‘who on earth is going to help us?’.”

One-way flights with other companies on the same day cost upwards of £400, so the couple were stuck.

They called the crisis line and were told they had to book another flight and hotel, despite only the flight part of their original booking being cancelled.

They gave in and booked a second room on the other side of the island, paired with a flight from Birmingham, which left at 8am two days later (Tuesday, July 23).

Rachel said: “At that point I didn't care, I just wanted them to get us there. I’m not a crier at all, but you know when you get so angry that you just cry?”

They picked up their car from the dogsitter’s in Manchester, drove back home to Sheffield, then on Monday (July 22) drove to Birmingham and stayed overnight.

Finally relaxing at the airport on Tuesday morning after a long few days, Rachel and Kelly thought they could relax.

Until the departure board, which had been showing the flight as delayed by just one hour, suddenly pushed it back 10 hours, to 7pm.

Rachel said: “They sent one manager from Tui. He said there was never a plane for us, and didn’t know why they allowed us to check in. He told us we could find a day room and claim that and the taxis back on expenses.

“It took another 50 minutes to get our luggage back. We were both close to tears, I thought we weren’t getting there. Fran was crying on the phone.”

At 6.45pm, finally settled on the plane, the pilot told passengers that all the staff had come in on their days off, and an initial staff shortage in the day is what actually caused the delay. 

The passengers waited a further two and half hours on the plane, due to the refuelling truck being trapped by other vehicles.

They eventually landed in Kos at 3.30am on Wednesday (July 24), the day of the wedding, to find their taxi driver had been waiting for them for 13 hours.

Rachel said: “He had been there since 1.30pm. No one from Tui had told him about the delay, and we didn’t have his contact details to let him know.

“Thank god he waited, because there were no taxis or other transport at that time. We thanked him so much.”

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Rachel and Kelly had been promised their new room would be “like for like” with Utopia Blu, the four-star wedding hotel, and although it was on paper, they found cockroaches on the floor and mould on the shower curtain.

After two hours of sleep - the only sleep they had had in three days - they headed to the wedding.

Rachel said: “When we arrived at the wedding hotel, I just burst into tears. It was gorgeous. That was what we had saved up for.

“At reception, they said our room was still available. We had to pay to book it though - so, we paid Tui once, they told us it was unavailable, and then we paid for it again. We essentially paid for the holiday twice.

“The wedding was absolutely brilliant. Both of them had a brilliant time, and that's what matters in the grand scheme of things.

“Fran and I met at football trials when we were eight or nine and we’ve been best friends since then. We played for Handsworth Juniors together for years, and we both still play.

“I was so desperate to make it. One of her relatives said they thought we were going to swim at one point.”

Their original dates for the trip had been July 21 to 28, but they ended up landing on the 24th and returning home on the 30th.

They paid £2,400 for the original package and saved £400 each for spending money.

Those costs shot up over the course of the holiday, due to extra petrol, taxis, the day room, extra nights for the dog-sitter, and lost working hours.

Rachel, an operations manager for a careers service, said: “When we booked the hotel when we arrived, it was £900 for five nights - the flights must be astronomical.

“You just assume it’s a good deal and hassle-free.”

Some of the costs - including £300 for the difference in price between the wedding hotel and the replacement hotel - are due to be paid by Tui, but Rachel is yet to see this money, and is having trouble getting a reply.

Tui sent a generic email giving a third new explanation - that it had all been a knock-on effect of an IT outage - and refused to pay them a refund.

Rachel said she asked Tui for proof that the IT outage had caused the issues, but was told it was not in the public interest for the company to share that information.

“They haven't lost anything from all of that,” she said, “and three thousand pounds would be water off a duck's back for a massive company like Tui. For most people, for the little guys, who work hard and look forward to these holidays, it's a lot of money.”

Tui was contacted for comment six days ago, but is yet to respond.