Family misses £5,500 Florida holiday after airline loses passport
A family of six missed out on their dream holiday to Florida after airline staff lost a passport just moments after they checked in.
Alan Raine and his family lost out on their holiday of a lifetime after United Airlines employees mislaid his son Ashley's passport at Manchester Airport.
The mistake meant the family had to cancel their holiday to Florida, which they had spent 13 months saving up for.
The travel document then turned up on the arrivals baggage carousel 24 hours later.
A spokesperson for United Airlines told the Mirror: "We are sorry to hear about the disruption to the Raine's family travel plans following the loss of a passport at Manchester Airport.
"United will contact the customer to offer a gesture of goodwill."
But Alan is so far unhappy as he is yet to hear from the airline to discuss what compensation they will receive.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: "They have told us they are investigating but we haven't heard anything. They don't seem interested.
"I was just flabbergasted at the attitude of the staff. I actually said to them: 'Do you realise what we are losing here?'"
Mr Raine had been due to go on the trip with his wife, Yvette, 49, their son, Ashley, 28, grandson, Ryan, eight, and his mother and father-in-law, Malcolm and Yvonne Bowes, who are 74 and 73 respectively.
The family were offered a later flight after the incident happened, but Mr Raine said it was impossible to get another passport in time, and they were forced to cancel their trip as they did not want to leave one member behind, and take their grandson, Ryan, without his father.
Speaking to the Northern Echo, Mr Raine added: "We were devastated. We had paid more than £5,500 for the flights only to be told we couldn't go and it wasn't our fault.
"We think if the labels hadn't been removed from the bag that was checked in it would have proved the passport had been handed in as Ashley's name would have been on the bag as his was the first one they looked at.
"We are just gutted. I don't know when we will get to go back now as it is not just the money from the flights we have lost it is rest of the trip too. We had all been really looking forward to it."
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