Jorge Hinojosa
A British family originally from Manchester had the “worst holiday of their life” after they were left without their luggage for more than eight days.
Kathryn Tiller, 34, told the Olive Press specialised nappies which prevented her baby from suffering allergic reactions were inside the luggage which was lost on September 11.
She said her baby was now “full of rashes” and she had been forced to spend more than €1,300 on new clothes for her son and her family.
“When they told me that the luggage was lost, I started to cry and my baby too, I had a panic attack at Madrid’s airport,” Tiller said.
“Everything now is horrendous, I need my luggage as my little baby needs his nappies and he is full of rashes.”
The family has been waiting for their luggage for more than eight days.
They had planned to make a tour around Spain, but were instead forced to stay in Toledo to wait for their luggage.
“We have had to cancel four-star hotels that we had booked, and now we have ended up in hostels and shared accommodation as we have spent all the money on clothes,” Tiller said.
She said her son needed to see a doctor, but insurance would not cover the visit.
“We hired travel insurance that covers us for a week in Toledo and another week in Malaga, but as we cannot move from Toledo, my baby cannot get treatment,” Tiller said.
“It is a nightmare because we cannot get to Malaga as IBERIA told us that they will deliver our luggage only to Toledo.”
Their nightmare started when they went to Manchester airport to travel to Spain, but discovered their plane was delayed by more than two hours.
“When we landed in Madrid, we saw a lot of passengers from our flight crying, we were confused,” Tiller said.
After asking a member of the staff from IBERIA, they discovered the pilot departed Manchester without the luggage of about 200 passengers on the flight.
“It was utter chaos, there were more than 100 very upset people there, crying, shouting, screaming. Babies, elderly and business people amongst them all,” Tiller said.
She had to then spend more than two hours filling out a form to reclaim her luggage.
“As we missed our transfer to Toledo, we had to pay €60 for a hotel. We got to our hotel at 6am and we had to be out at 8am. It was terrible. We only had two hours of sleep,” she said.
The English family hired a car on September 12 and traveled to Toledo hoping that their luggage would have arrived that day.
“We rang IBERIA about 10 times to ask for our luggage, but we did not have a clear answer from them,” Tiller said.
The British family remains stuck in Toledo, with just one piece of luggage arriving at their hostel so far.
Tiller said IBERIA Express has not informed them when the other three suitcases will be delivered.
An IBERIA Express spokesperson told The Olive Press: “There was not enough staff at Manchester airport to load the suitcases in the plane, for that reason the flight flew without any luggage. However, on the next flight from Manchester to Madrid we made sure that all the luggage was loaded to arrive in Madrid as soon as possible.
“I am going to contact the department to locate her suitcases and send them to her as soon as possible.”
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