Mum refused £730 KLM refund 'disgusted' after being left stranded in Amsterdam; Leigh Elsaghier says she was 'aghast' to be refunded only £50.40 instead of the £730 airline staff had told her she was entitled to.
Byline: By, Catherine Furze
A relaxing break in the school holidays turned into an expensive nightmare for a Ponteland mum and her 14-year-old daughter, who were left £700 worse off after being caught up in August's air traffic control chaos.
Two months later, Leigh Elsaghier is still battling with Dutch airline KLM, who refused to repay her expenses when she and her daughter were left 'stranded' at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam after their flight to Newcastle was cancelled. The pair had flown into Amsterdam from Nice, where they were due to take a connecting flight home on the same evening, August 28.
And Ms Elsaghier says she is 'utterly disgusted' at the way her complaint has been handled by KLM, who she says told her to pay for food, drink and accommodation as the voucher machine in the airport was broken, then turned down her receipts when she sent them as she says she was told to do.
And the confusion was compounded when KLM told The Chronicle they would pay the £730 Ms Elsaghier had run up on her credit card after all, then the next day sent her an email saying their original decision to reject her claim would not be changed.
The mum and daughter's problems began when they arrived at Schiphol in the early evening of August 28 and found out at around 10pm on the same night that their scheduled flight to Newcastle International Airport had been cancelled due to air traffic control failure in UK airspace.
"We sought advice and help from the KLM team and there were no available flights for us to book," said 45-year-old Ms Elsaghier, a deputy headteacher. "We were told the voucher machine was broken, so KLM could not issue vouchers for food or for a hotel, which we were entitled to receive under EU law. It was clear to me that the KLM team were not trained or prepared in any way for such an event and didn't really know what to do.
"They booked us onto a flight 48 hours later, on August 30, from Amsterdam to Edinburgh at 21:50pm, with no onward transport to Newcastle. We do not live in Edinburgh, had not paid for a flight to Edinburgh and Edinburgh is 97 miles from Newcastle. When I complained, KLM staff at the airport told me to cancel the Edinburgh flight and make our own arrangements, which KLM assured me the company would reimburse as they said all airlines have a legal duty to return you to your original destination.
"With this reassurance, I paid for a hotel for the first night and a cheap meal on my credit card, as I felt we had no...
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