Our dream Turkey holiday turned into a nightmare after Jet2 flight delay led to "hellhole" hotel stay

Denise Tracey had enjoyed a “perfect” holiday at the picturesque Lara Beach in Turkey with her daughter Jodie Tracey, 42, and her three grand-children, Grace, 16, Olivia, 15, and nine-year-old Luca.

That is until the family, from Wickersley, Rotherham, arrived at Antalya airport for their flight home on Thursday, July 25.

After their £8,000 10-day package holiday at a “beautiful hotel” with Jet2holidays, the family have chosen to speak out about their difficult journey home in the hope that it will prevent other families having to endure the same thing.

On arrival at the airport, they were quickly told that their flight, which was scheduled to depart at 9.15pm for East Midlands Airport, was delayed by around an hour. Jet2 stated it was due to poor weather conditions.

Denise, aged 65, said: “It was raining heavily, but planes were still going and they were still coming in.”

What began as a ‘slight’ delay soon became more than seven hours. Jet2 offered the passengers a bottle of water and food vouchers as the hours ticked by.

By 4am, the waiting passengers were asked to collect their luggage before boarding a coach to be taken to a hotel for the rest of the night.

Upon arrival, the Tracey family found that the hotel was fully booked, and they were escorted through the city on foot to another hotel in the early hours of the morning.

At 5am on Friday, July 26, the family of five were given a room with just a double and a single bed, which they had no choice but to share.

Mum-of-three Jodie described the venue as a “hellhole” - adding that it was “the worst night of my life”.

Video footage showed popcorn on the floor of the room, skirting boards that were coming away from the wall, and dust on the drawers. The family claimed the room smelled of cigarettes, and the door would not lock.

Denise described it as “absolutely atrocious”, and said her frightened nine-year-old grandson begged them to find somewhere else to stay.

She said: “I wouldn't even say it was a one star. My grandson said, ‘please, can we go back to the airport? Please, I don't want to stay here’. 

“For us, it was the lack of care that Jet2 had with us. You were just dumped there. You've got no other alternative, it's either the airport for you or you go to these hotels. There were no calls or anything.

“My two granddaughters, in a few more years they're going to want to be going on holiday with their friends. Imagine that happening to young girls on their first trip abroad, and being dumped like that.”

The family returned to the airport after a sleepless night for their rescheduled flight at 4.10pm on Friday, July 26. But adding insult to injury, Denise’s suitcase was left behind in Antalya airport.

A Jet2 spokesperson said: “Due to adverse weather conditions affecting Antalya, the outbound flight from East Midlands to Antalya was diverted to Dalaman. This delay meant that the inbound flight, LS654 from Antalya to East Midlands, had to night stop in Antalya due to crew running out of operating hours. 

“Our teams worked very hard to look after everyone including arranging hotel accommodation. We have continued to communicate with customers throughout, and we can confirm that customers are now on their way back to the UK. 

“We understand the inconvenience that this may have caused, and we would like to apologise to customers affected by this unforeseen delay, which was completely beyond our control.”