Tom's USA trip is cancelled

Tom was about to head off on the trip of a lifetime to the USA for a cruise with his wife, Maeve, up the Panama Canal when he discovered that his flights had been cancelled last Saturday.

He is now waiting to hear back from his travel agents to find out what happens next in terms of compensation.

“I’m disappointed but worse things have happened to other people who have got stuck. We were lucky in a way that we never even got out of Ireland,” he said.

“We were supposed to fly to Bristol first but when we found out that was cancelled we tried to get to Liverpool but then we discovered that all UK airspace had been shut down by that stage. The aim was to get to Heathrow for our flight out to America.

“I could have been sitting in Cartagena today but there we are,” he said.

He added that he would have had reservations about flying given the condition of the air at the time.

“I don’t think my wife would have enjoyed it, it did look a bit scary,” he admitted.

“We had done all our bookings through a travel agents so at the minute we’re waiting to see whether they will give us compensation or another cruise. We are stuck in a backlog with everyone else so we just have to wait our turn to see what happens next.”