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Travel company TUI has apologised after passengers on its flight from Newcastle to Florida were left without their luggage.
Travellers arrived at Melbourne Orlando International Airport on Monday 9 May only to be told that their bags were more than 4,000 miles away in Newcastle International Airport - leaving people without clothes, medication and other essentials such as baby formula and nappies. Not ideal.
One passenger told ChronicleLive that after arriving in the US ‘excited’ about their holiday they heard an announcement over the public address system telling passengers that the ‘majority’ of the luggage that should have been on their flight hadn't been loaded onto the plane, leaving them with nothing.
The passenger said she felt ‘frustrated’ particularly as the flight had been delayed leaving the UK due to staff ‘putting on the cases’.
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Another passenger told the news outlet that on the following morning, he was still waiting for an explanation about what had happened to cause the error.
He said it was ‘absolutely shocking’, adding that he had been left in Florida in just the clothes he travelled in.
Posting on Twitter, a fellow passenger wrote: “@TUIUK Newcastle to Florida fantastic trip. But now you have left us a family of four with no baggage in Florida and a promise of £25 for compensation. Holiday of a lifetime with TUI.”
Another wrote: “Where are my bags? Left Newcastle to fly to Florida today and have arrived with no bags! You let people fly eight hours knowing that they would arrive without a bag! An absolute disgrace.”
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A third tweeted: “After two very long years of no travelling, today was the day. How I could be so wrong. Not only after two hours delay in Newcastle Airport, we’ve arrived to Melbourne, Florida with no suitcases.”
TUI has now apologised for the incident and said it is working with Newcastle International Airport and its handling agent to try and resolve the problem as quickly as possible to get customers their bags.
A TUI spokesperson said: "We’d like to apologise to customers whose baggage has been delayed on flight TOM858 from Newcastle to Florida.
“We are working with our handling agent to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we understand how frustrating this is and we are sorry for any inconvenience caused."
Claire Reid