Stuck at Airport - Any Advice Welcome

[Clariana]

Hello wise Mumsnetters, after some advice really please. We have had a lovely week in Mallorca, weather lovely, hotel fantastic etc, but we are now stuck trying to get home at Palma Airport. Flight from Doncaster / Sheffield and we were on the return leg. Outward has been cancelled, and we are being given no info at this end, other than flight expected some time after 6pm, it was supposed to be 11.10am.

I have rung Tui, they were supposed to call back an hour ago and haven't, and we have had a food voucher. The airport info staff just shrug and say they have no information.

Has anyone any advice as to how we can get some info, or what we can do to help ourselves in this situation?

you could consider Twitter. It always amazes me how often I can’t get a phone call or an email response but a tweet asking for help gets a reply.

There really isn't a lot you can do other than watch the boards and listen for announcements.

Find somewhere you can set up camp and get as comfortable as you can.

Can I get a different flight, different operator, and expect them to pay?

Not usually no, only if the flight is cancelled and they can't prove an alternative but check you T&Cs.

Even compensation for inconvenience is not guaranteed www.tui.co.uk/destinations/info/flight-delay

Its best if you use the food voucher and watch the screens for when your flight is rescheduled.

What a shame after a lovely holiday. Hope you get sorted.

I don’t know if this helps, you’ve probably checked this yourself already, however flight TOM3780 from Doncaster to Palma is scheduled to leave at 14:15 instead of 06:25.

I live on the flight path for Doncaster Airport, and am a bit geeky, so check the flights in flight radar as they go over. If it is this flight you’re waiting on, I’ll let you know when it leaves.

Thanks everyone so far. Really frustrating after a lovely holiday, almost beginning to wish we had stayed at home!

If yours is a return have a look at the departing flight heading to you on a flight tracker! No help for being stuck at the airport but it might give some idea on when it's likely to take off .

My parents were delayed coming home last week and the TUI app was awful for updating . We were picking them up so wanted to know when they left Cyprus . TUI app didn't update the flight info untill well after they landed back in the uk but flight stats website was very accurate !

I fly very often and I don't think I've had a single journey depart on time for over a year. It's such a mess. I travel with my work laptop just in case I'm stuck abroad

I hope you get some information soon!

It is the holiday company who would have to advise on that if you wanted the guarantee that you would get your money back.

So frustrating for you. Airports are an absolute disgrace at the moment. And customers aren’t being kept informed, really not good enough. I hope you are on your way home soon OP.

Sympathies - I’m stuck on a BA plane on the runway at Palma - been here 2 hours and counting … crew are blaming air traffic. Chaos! Supposed to leave at 12.10 local time.

Thanks everyone, being told it is possible the flight will be at 7pm tonight, but not guaranteed. If not, then it is tomorrow :(

Oh no! Poor you! If it's tommorrow I hope they let you leave the airport soon!

If there is a high chance.of being stuck overnight then personally I would reserve a hotel at the airport now before the rush. I've had delays or cancellations on more than half the flights I've taken this year, both for work and holidays. Expect the worst but hope for the best.

Good plan heli. Esp if you can get one with nothing to pay upfront.

By the looks of it you maybe airborne now..but anyhow Eurocontrol were warning of delays into Gatwick due capacity.

Looking at Departures and Arrivals at Doncaster Airport, your flight is showing as due in at 20:15, which is something. I'm sure @TheFairyCaravan is right and the outbound flight is TOM3780, now showing as departing at 14:45. Flightradar thinks this flight is cancelled, but the TUI website is still showing it as (very) delayed.

I would definitely do as @Heli1copter suggests and see if you can get a cancellable hotel reservation now, although it seems likely you'd have to cancel it before you knew for sure if the flight was going to take off today. It does seem very likely it will be delayed until tomorrow.

Agree with the thoughts about getting a handy hotel lined up if you can get a reservation that can be cancelled.

Bear in mind TUI probably won’t want to nightstop a crew/aircraft in PMI if they can help it so the southbound flight departs from the UK in the next few hours their intention almost certainly will be to get them, aircraft and booked passengers back to the UK at some point tonight.

Also agree at this point in proceedings that one of the tracking sites possibly give more detail more rapidly than is available from airline sources.

My Flight Radar skills are a bit rusty so one to a second opinion but but it looks to me as if the aircraft scheduled to operate the Doncaster-PMI return (G-TUKP) has just positioned into Doncaster from Manchester.

It landed at 1430 UK time so t a guess it looks like there is some sort of recovery plan in progress….

I don't think that the 20.15 time can be correct, that's not long enough for a return flight that has taken off yet unfortunately but once it does take off hopefully you'll know that you'll get back today

Airport issues are totally putting me off even looking at a holiday abroad this summer

Yep, agree, sound sounds like the 2015 arrival is still predicated on 1445 BST out of Doncaster so it’s now a work of fiction.

Best bet now for rough guess ETA back in Doncaster tonight is to look at the actual time of departure from Doncaster southbound and add 5 hours 30 minutes and even that assumes a slick turn in PMI and no other delays.

The Doncaster flight information web page is a bit rubbish, it seems to now be showing the outbound flight as being on time!

But the fact that it's changed is positive imo, suggests something might be happening soon

Fingers crossed for you @Clariana

Fingers crossed you do make the delayed flight. If there's any more cancelations, make sure to research alternative flights including other airlines yourself before calling them. Also, try calling other numbers, if necessary international ones. It helps if you have Skype or other calling app installed and calling landlines enabled so you don't pay a fortune for the latter.