A family who was returning from a skiing trip at the Alps got treated badly as they were forced to sleep outside in the cold after their TUI flights home were delayed by bad weather.
Ben Denton, from Whitford, Clwyd, says he and his family spent 13 hours at Chambery Airport, in the French Alps, on Saturday. They were waiting to return to Manchester Airport.
The skier said they spent seven hours outside the small airport building, as temperatures plummeted to -2C.
Mr. Denton spent thousands on his week-long trip, he also shared shocking photographs of his children. His kids were lying on a makeshift bed which they made from ski equipment bags.
The dad was forced to buy a fur blanket at the airport to save them from cold.
Hours later, the family was finally told to go to a sports hall where the Red Cross provided camp beds, blankets and food for hundreds of stranded passengers.
Ben complained to Crystal Ski Holidays who is owned by TUI, on Facebook writing: “So been at Chambery Airport for 13 hours, our fight canceled.
“Standing outside for seven hours.” Referring to one of his children, he added: “Arabella bloody freezing!
“Nobody has a clue what’s going on where we are staying. Staff look like rabbits in headlights and half of them have disappeared.
“It is a complete shambles. Everybody kicking off and l been told to stop filming. Ha what a laugh.
“Just had to buy Arabella a blanket. Dire situation. come on Crystal (Ski Holidays) sort it out.
“Lots of very small children outside cold.”
Hours later he wrote: “So now we are all going to a gym emergency accommodation why the f*** didn’t they tell me at 1.00 pm so we could have got a taxi ourselves and go to a decent hotel.”
The family was later shifted to a conference center in Grenoble where Mr. Denton captured the driver using his phone to text whilst driving.
They came back home on Monday when Ben updated his post, writing: “It was a terrible experience and they are saying it was bad due to the fog but planes were landing all day.”
The photographs of their worst experience got dozens of comments from social media users.
“They won’t let you travel in adverse weather conditions but will let you stand in the cold? Awful!”
Gemma Rae said: “Thank god you were able to get a blanket for Arabella. Hope everyone gets sorted out including other families.”
Lowri Sian Pope wrote: “Standing outside? That’s ridiculous!
Graham Haughton wrote: “Feeling for you guys. We had a bad experience with TUI and no compensation.
“We will never holiday again with them.
“Hope you get some good luck and a warm bed for the kids soon.”
Dozens of other customers also shared their disappointment and took to Facebook to complain about the situation.
On Saturday evening, Howard Perks wrote: “We have now been here for 16 hours.
“The terminal is freezing, many are outside where it’s seriously cold, now women are in tears trying to comfort young children.
“There’s been no hot food for hours, we are told there will be hotel rooms made available but then some are told they will be taken to a camp in a sports hall.
“The weather is not Tui’s fault but this shameful shambles at Chambery is.
“Today will cost the company greatly, which is the only shred of comfort I can think of right now.”
A Tui spokesperson said: “We can confirm that several customers were impacted following adverse and changeable weather conditions in Chambery on January 4.
“The safety of our customers and crew is always our highest priority and our teams worked hard to get everyone to their destination as quickly as possible.
“Customers were provided with food and drinks and were supported by our Crystal ski reps.
“We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and would like to thank our customers for their co-operation and patience.”
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