A holidaymaker has revealed her ‘horrible’ six-month ordeal after an airline’s last-minute flight change caused her to miss a connection.
Edina, 48, was flying from Granada, Spain, to Gatwick on September 1, 2019, when she found herself stuck.
The Hungarian, who moved to the UK 13 years ago, was travelling with her partner, a breast-feeding infant and two young children via Iberia.
The family had booked a connecting flight with the same airline from Madrid to Gatwick and was supposed to arrive at the Spanish airport at 8.05am.
Originally, the connecting flight was due to depart Madrid at 8.50am, but it changed to 8.20am, making it impossible for them to make it on time.
At the airport, Edina was presented with two options and exclusively told the Daily Mail: ‘They told us that we can either wait two days until the next available flight … or we have to fly back to Malaga, and then from Malaga we can fly to Gatwick.’
In the end, the family decided to choose the Malaga route so they could get home sooner.
But, they were left stranded in Madrid for some time and had to pay for their hand luggage, food and drinks.
Edina, 48, was flying from Granada, Spain to Gatwick on September 1, 2019 when she found herself stuck
‘They even made us pay for the hand luggage, they didn’t give us any food or drink, water, nothing,’ she recalled.
‘I had a small baby that was still breastfeeding, so that was also challenging, and the others were a little. One was five and the other was nine, so they were bigger, but still three kids.’
She described the situation in Madrid as ‘complete chaos’ and the family landed in Gatwick eight hours later than they were supposed to.
After the ordeal, Edina tried to claim compensation and was hit with further hurdles which she described as ‘horrible’ to deal with.
The holidaymaker didn’t receive anything for six months and first approached Iberia who she says ‘didn’t reply at all’.
She then approached the Spanish aviation authority who advised her to submit again to Iberia and wait one month.
Eventually, Iberia agreed to pay compensation and Edina received around €2,000 (£1,738).
She recalled how difficult the process was and that it was ‘half in Spanish’.
At the airport, Edina was presented with two options and exclusively told the Daily Mail: ‘They told us that we can either wait two days until the next available flight … or we have to fly back to Malaga, and then from Malaga we can fly to Gatwick’
‘I don’t speak Spanish, so it was very difficult to even figure out who to turn to and how to actually complete this,’ Edina said.
Fortunately, the money she received covered most of what the family had spent, including the €100 (£87) for luggage check-in, food and the entitled compensation.
Under EU regulation holidaymakers can receive money back if their journey is held up for longer than three hours, under certain circumstances.
Edina isn’t alone with her compensation ordeal.
Some 18,397 passenger complaints were submitted to the Civil Aviation Authority between January 2021 and July 2025.
A huge 75 per cent of claims related to delays or cancellations, according to new figures obtained by Confused.com.
Around 45 per cent of the 18,397 complaints were upheld in favour of passengers, and just 16 per cent were resolved in the airline’s favour.
According to a survey, many holidaymakers find the process of claiming compensation confusing.
She described the situation in Madrid as ‘complete chaos’ and the family landed in Gatwick eight hours later than they were supposed to
It’s so overwhelming that nearly one in three gave up on their claim, or decided not to pursue one at all because they didn’t know they had the right to compensation.
Meanwhile, one in five avoided it completely because of how stressful the process felt.
As for those who did try to claim compensation, 28 per cent said the system was too complicated.
The Daily Mail has approached Iberia for comment.
