An angry Aberdeenshire father has criticised British Airways chiefs after he had to endure a “horrific” 11-hour taxi journey to Gatwick when he discovered his flight had been overbooked at the last minute.
Roy Ferguson, from Alford, had packed his bags and turned up at Aberdeen International Airport with his two teenage children, wife and 80-year-old mother-in-law for a winter break to Greece.
They had been due to fly to Heathrow at 6.30pm before staying overnight in London and flying out from Gatwick at 7am the next day.
But their holiday dreams turned to nightmares when the family were told that the flight had been overbooked and “they would not be able to travel that day”.
Mr Ferguson, 48, told BA this was unacceptable, so the firm offered compensation and an all-night taxi ride to London at a cost of £1,800.
He said: “The response from the check-in staff was that BA routinely overbook flights and we would be compensated for our missed flight.
“We again explained that this was not good enough as we had to be in Gatwick by 7am the following morning to catch our charter flight.
“The last passengers boarded the aircraft and we were told we would not be getting on the flight, and to go back upstairs to the check-in desk and our bags would be returned to us.
“We were very upset by this point, convinced we would not be getting our holiday after all.
“After lots of phoning around, it was established that the only way of BA getting us to London in time for our flight from Gatwick was by arranging a taxi.
“It was a bit of a shock to find the taxi was not a more comfortable one, considering the time this journey was going to take. A taxi with a bench seat for three facing forward and two fold-down seats facing backwards all the way to London from Aberdeen.
“We made it to Gatwick with 30 minutes to spare. Exhausted, stressed, extremely sore and stiff, very unhappy with BA, but we made it.”
A BA spokeswoman said that overbooking was “common practice” in the airline industry and that it led to lower prices for customers.
She said: “We are very sorry our customer and his family were unable to travel on the flight they had booked and for the frustration and inconvenience this caused them.
“It is common practice within the airline industry to overbook flights on certain routes where it is known that a number of customers with flexible tickets are unlikely to turn up for the flight.
“If all such seats were left empty it would prevent other customers from travelling on the day they wanted. The practice also keeps fares low for our customers.
“In this case, although we did all we could to seek volunteers to travel at a later date, none offered to postpone their journey.”