“We’ve been planning this all year”: travelers deprived of the opportunity to stay in Jordan rise up against Vueling

“I should be in the desert as we speak. “Tatiana Carreras still hasn’t realized that her dream of a vacation in Jordan has been taken away from her. On April 14, she, her partner and her two little girls were on board a Vueling Barcelona-Amman flight when their plane had to turn around thirty minutes before landing due to the closure of Jordanian airspace due to tensions in the region. The beginning of trouble.

All passengers then traveled first to Athens and then to their departure point in Catalonia. Up to 48 hours of blur. “We arrived in Barcelona, ​​Vueling told us that we would have two paid nights, but we had no other information. Each passenger individually tried to contact the company, but the versions were different each time,” Tatyana rewinds.

However, this is far from his main complaint about the Spanish low-cost airline. The mother claims that the operator Vueling offered her to cancel the next flight to Amman, scheduled for April 16. “After another call to the support service, we were told that we had to fly the Barcelona-Paris flight at our own expense, and that then we would get our money back,” assures Tatyana.

Confusion

But once she arrived in Paris, Tatiana learned by email that she and her family had finally been put back on the Barcelona-Amman flight on April 16, which she thought had been cancelled. Tatiana contacts the company, which denies that the flight was canceled and tells her that she will ultimately not be reimbursed for the Barcelona-Paris flight. Loss of about 500 euros. “I was told that I returned to Paris on my own initiative and therefore I would not receive a refund, although the operator advised me to do so,” she regrets.

Another Vueling customer also claims to have received incorrect information about the Barcelona-Amman flight on April 16. “Since Vueling had already delayed our flight for the first time in early April and we had heard nothing, I decided to call the company the day before we left to make sure the flight would go ahead. Then the operator told me that it would be cancelled,” says Marie (not her real name), who was going on vacation with her partner.

She then made the decision to cancel all her bookings on the spot… before realizing on the day of departure, like Tatiana, that the flight had indeed departed for Amman. “Because the company believes that I am responsible for not boarding the plane, I cannot be reimbursed for the tickets,” which amount to 700 euros round trip, she complains.

Vueling, which contacted Le Parisien, said it followed normal procedure. “To limit inconvenience to our passengers, full refund options have been activated, as well as the ability to change flights with approximately 60 days of flexibility,” the company says, opening the door to discussion. In a message to our newspaper, she “recommends” that these passengers “contact the company to review their case on an individual basis.”

“We have been preparing to leave for a whole year”

As if all this wasn’t enough, Marie and Tatiana also can’t get their “pass to Jordan” back. This ticket, costing around €100 per person, includes a visa to Jordan as well as access to major non-religious tourist sites. “It is valid for a year, but we don’t know whether we will have the opportunity to reschedule this trip,” Tatyana worries.

“We have been preparing to leave for more than a year. It was our first family trip, the first time our daughters were going to fly on an airplane,” says the mother. “One of my daughters even learned a little Arabic in preparation for this trip,” she continues dejectedly.

“We understand that there are international tensions, but we would like Vueling to be more humane in its support,” concludes Tatiana.