Jet2 holidays: Pensioners furious after airline put them on flight to Menorca instead of Majorca

Disabled pensioners were left furious after they ended up on a Jet2 flight to Menorca instead of Majorca - ruining their holiday. The two women, Linda Trestrail, 69, and Wendy Russell, 71, were flown to the wrong Spanish island by Jet2 who blamed “human error”. 

They had booked a package trip through Jet2 and despite getting their tickets checked five times by different members of staff, the pair were placed on the wrong flight. It was only when the plane's captain made the announcement they were about to land in Menorca that they became aware of the mix-up.

Jet2 issued an apology for what they described as a "human error" and blamed it partly on the third-party special assistance provider at Bristol Airport. But Linda and Wendy said they are furious about the "catalogue of disasters" and have not yet received any compensation.

Linda, from Plymouth in Devon, said: "You hear of bags going on the wrong flights but not people. The reason we booked Majorca is because of the short flight, we knew our mobility wasn't good so didn't want to do much travelling - we are disabled pensioners. You get compensated if you get delayed or loose luggage - but they lost us, not the b***dy baggage.” Linda explained how the pair showed their tickets to the initial luggage desk, security, a person at the gate desk, as well as a member of ground crew staff on the bus - who even did a head count and confirmed the numbers.

She added: "Jet2 are the only ones who do a double security check on tickets - so they did that, and then we were directed to our seats on the flight. One of the cabin crew came over to us and asked if we were sat in the correct seats, I said yes but she went off with our flight tickets - took them away and came back and said we were in our correct seats.

"Then the captain says we are arriving in Menorca in 10 minutes. All hell broke loose. I asked the flight attendant and told her we were on the wrong plane - and she burst out laughing. Five times our tickets were checked - even by the flight attendant twice on the plane itself.”

Wendy, who has had three brain operations and arthritis, said: "We went through five major checks there and no one picked up the error - it begs the question about what is going on." When the two women enquired about their luggage they then discovered their bags had made it to their correct destination, Majorca - without them.

The ladies waited in Menorca Airport for several hours with a "kind" Jet2 manager until travelling on an internal plane with other workers. Linda said they finally arrived at their resort around 17 hours after they left home at 3am on 26 September.

The pair said two days after the incident they were offered a “free excursion” from a different Jet2 rep even though they cannot walk. Linda said: "He told us that because of our ordeal, they were going to give us a free excursion - I said 'Are you joking - a what? Do you realise we can't even walk let alone go for an excursion? We've been in a state.

"He replied it was a gesture of goodwill for what we've been through, I honestly thought he was joking and said I'm putting in formal complaint before we leave - we couldn't go anywhere with our legs and feet swollen and we were in such a bad state." The pair flew back to England on 6 October and have been waiting ever since for contact from Jet2.

The women only received an apology from Bristol Airport but nothing else. A Jet2 spokesperson said: "We would like to offer our sincere apologies to Mses. Trestrail and Russell for this incident. We can confirm that the customers went through security correctly, and their luggage was also screened correctly. However, after these checks the customers were taken to the incorrect aircraft, which is the responsibility of the third-party special assistance provider at the airport.

"Upon boarding the aircraft, the incorrect destination on their boarding passes was unfortunately not identified and we apologise for this oversight which was down to human error. We have carried out additional training with the team to ensure this does not happen again.”

The airline added: "As soon as we learned of the issue, our team booked Mses. Trestrail and Russell onto the soonest available flight from Menorca to Majorca and they also provided all the assistance they could both throughout their journey and the rest of their holiday. We have been in touch with Mses. Trestrail and Russell to offer an appropriate gesture of goodwill and once again offer our sincere apologies.”