Scots mum claims she and daughter were left stranded in Germany after “nightmare” travel company cancelled booking

A SCOTS mum and her daughter were left stranded in Germany after their booking was allegedly cancelled by their “nightmare” travel company.

Kerry Fleming had been preparing to travel home from Munich with daughter Kaelynn on Sunday when she discovered that her booking had disappeared.

The 40-year-old had booked the trip to Germany for 16-year-old Kaelynn’s kickboxing tournament through third party company Expedia, using a £450 credit note to pay for the flight home.

However, upon arriving at Munich International Airport on Sunday, Kerry, from Dundee, was allegedly informed by KLM staff that the tickets hadn’t actually been issued by Expedia, leaving them stranded.

Despite Kerry claiming that she had received the booking confirmation from Expedia, she was allegedly left unable to check in and speaking to Expedia representatives for over five hours.

Kerry claims that she was informed that she would have to fork out a whopping £880 to fly home the next morning – meaning that Kaelynn would miss school.

Kerry says that it was only when she began to threaten a lawsuit that Expedia paid for the new flights – but that she still had to fork out an extra £310 for a hotel, food and baggage on the new flights.

Speaking to Kerry today, she said: “We were in Munich last week for the International Sport Kickboxing Association World Kickboxing Championships.

“Our return journey was from Munich to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Edinburgh.

“It was booked months ago through Expedia for KLM flights, using a credit note we had received from previous flights that didn’t go ahead.

“I had confirmation of booking sent to me for Sunday’s flights home, however when we got to the airport, we were unable to check in.

“We were on KLM’s booking system, but they couldn’t check us in as Expedia needed to reissue tickets.

“I knew then there was going to be a problem as Expedia were a nightmare to deal with in the first instance of booking the flights it took hours and they made it difficult then.

“I spoke to five agents for over five hours before we eventually got it resolved – saying that we were now on different flights and were arriving there at 10:30pm with the next flight to Edinburgh at 8am on Monday.

“By the time I got through to the fourth agent on live chat, I had lost all hope of it being resolved and pretty much begged the agent to call me rather than the dead-end messages – which, to my shock he did.

“He admitted it was an error on Expedia’s part but still insisted I would have to pay £880 pounds to get us home.

“I told him that wasn’t going to happen and said I’d be contacting a solicitor and would also go live. I insisted on speaking to a supervisor and went through the whole thing again.

“This wasn’t easy, however he agreed to book us new flights, but he refused to put us on the original flights which would have just made sense, time wise due to the extra cost to Expedia, as I refused to give them more money, so he was looking to get it as cheap as possible.

“Once I knew our original flight wasn’t going to happen, I just had to accept the next possible flights as all I wanted was to get Kaelynn home.”

Kerry explained the predicament that followed – with a gruelling stopover in Amsterdam overnight before the pair’s long-awaited flight home finally departed on Monday morning.

She said: “The flights we were given were going into Amsterdam at 10:30pm with a 9-hour 55-minute stopover there before the connecting flight to Edinburgh at 8:25am.

“He advised me that the baggage was included, however when I checked in, I had to pay £96 to get our stuff home.

“On top of that, I had to book into a hotel at Amsterdam airport at £137 and then the extra food on top of that.

“I still had separate flights to pay for – the credit note was just for flights coming home. We [also] flew with British Airways, which was a separate cost not included in the £450.

“The trip overall was thousands including flights, hotel, competition spends etc. – kickboxing is self-funded with support from sponsors

“I will never use a third-party company again after my experience.

“The whole process from the initial booking, to trying to redeem my credit, to the nightmare at the airport, to them thinking it’s acceptable to leave us with such a long stopover and the extra cost of baggage and hotel.

“I’ll always book directly with the airline in the future.”

KLM and Expedia have been approached for comment.