Vicki Saunders with her eight-year-old twins Harry and Amelie and dad Michael Cary, 76, who relies on a walking stick. Their flight back to the UK should have been on Saturday morning, but as they were on their way to the airport, she received a message saying the flight had been cancelled. Ms Saunders, who lives in Kingswood, Surrey, went to Nice in France for half term with her husband Robert, their eight-year-old twins Harry and Amelie and her parents Michael and Anna Cary. Vicki Saunders told i easyJet had just “abandoned” her with two young children and elderly parents and described the situation as an “utter shambles.” “We just want to go home and feel like we have been abandoned,” said Mr Yates. However, he only managed to get train places for the three of them, and his parents and other relatives are staying in a hotel in Paris, before flying back with a different airline on Sunday. Mr Yates booked them a train from Paris to Lille, a Eurostar train across the Channel, and a train from London Euston to Liverpool – with the 11-hour journey set to cost £1,200 for Mr Yates, his wife and daughter. With airlines in chaos, the family opted to try and get home via rail instead. Charlotte has a birthday party booked tomorrow in Liverpool with 10 of her friends (Photo: Jonathan Yates) She went on a family holiday to Paris for half term, but they had their flight back home cancelled with only a few hours’ notice. “My daughter has her birthday party booked with her friends tomorrow and there’s also all the knock-on effects a cancelled flight has such as my parents having their cats in the cattery and my brother having his dogs in the kennels.” Charlotte Yates, who is 10 today. He said: “It seems there has been an unprecedented number of cancellations this morning and the email we received had no telephone number to call for support, so we had to try and work out what to do for the best. He criticised easyJet for their lack of communication and support and says the overriding feeling they have is one of “complete abandonment” as easyJet left them to their own devices to book a way home. He says they felt “completely abandoned” by easyJet and faced a scramble to find an alternative way home (Photo: Jonathan Yates) They had their flight back home cancelled with only a few hours’ notice. Jonathan Yates with his daughter Charlotte, who is 10 today, during their family holiday in France. However, he said their joy evaporated as they then faced the ordeal of trying to find an alternative way back home. It was the family’s first holiday together since the Covid-19 pandemic and they enjoyed time in Disneyland Paris as well as sightseeing in the city. “However, with easyJet only giving us a few hours notice that the flight had been cancelled, we struggled to find any other flights as everyone else was booking them and there was a real lack of availability.” “When people have things like school, work and college to worry about, this was absolutely unthinkable and we needed to get home a lot sooner. “But when we clicked through this, the earliest flight we could find was on Tuesday. “The email didn’t offer any explanation for the cancellation and it gave us a link to find an alternative flight,” he said. Instead, Mr Yates said he awoke at 6.15am to discover an email sent by easyJet an hour earlier informing him the flight had been cancelled. The family had their flight back home cancelled with only a few hours’ notice. Charlotte Yates, who is 10 today, at Disneyland Paris. This shouldn’t have been an issue as the family were due to arrive back in the UK at lunchtime. Saturday is his daughter Charlotte’s 10th birthday, he explained – and she had a party with games and food booked in Liverpool with 10 friends planned for Sunday. He told i the idea of offering people an alternative flight days later is “totally absurd” and doesn’t take into account the knock-on effect on their lives as they need to return to work and school and have other responsibilities.
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