Hi Terry
Sorry for the delay in my reply work calls, yes we were the 1st choice flight, after landing we were taken back into the departure loung then through to a seperate area we had 4 reps assigned to us and they quickly sorted out water drinks and a snack for everyone, after about an hour the pilot came and spoke to us and confirmed a major technical fault ie engine fialure, and also confirmed that our plane was kaput he thanked us for our patience and informed us that coaches had been arranged to take us to an hotel for lunch and that arrangements were underway to relocate us to the UK as soon as possible.
We were taken to a 5 star hotel quite near the airport and 12 rooms were made available for people to use for showers etc, you could book a 30 min slot at the reception and new towels etc were placed in the rooms between each slot, the reps stayed with us at all times and were very helpful, they were available for questioning and never left the hotel.
The staff at the hotel were brilliant and seemed to understand some people were quite shocked and at no notice managed to supply us all with a hot buffet meal and sweet/fruit by 3.30, drinks were also provided, during lunch the reps informed us that a new plane had been scheduled to pick us up and they were aiming to get it to us for a 02.30 departure and this would be confirmed later, they also had arranged dinner for everyone at 9pm wich meant you didnt have to hang arround the hotel just waiting for news, some people walked into town or to the beach some stayed round the pool where towels were supplied.
At dinner they confirmed the new plane was expected to arrive at 01.30, at about 11,30 they told us that coaches would be arriving at midnight to take us to the airport, at the airport we were issued with new bording cards and went direct to security and we were allowed to take any unopened duty free drinks back through with us they also confirmed our replacement flight was on route to us and was expected to depart corfu at 02.30, they actually called us to board at 01.15 and after identifying our checked in luggage that had been placed on the apron.
We boarded our replacement plane to be greeted by our captain and his flight crew who were much praised and thanked and flew back to the uk with us and stayed seated with the passengers for the duration of the flight, this i felt was a great help to the many normally nervous passengers who were now more anctuous about flying, the captain took some stick from his crew about not being allowed to fly us home in case he broke another plane, our return flight was uneventful and we arrived saftley back to east mids at about 3am-ish cant remember exactly very tired and relieved.
I cant praise the reps who stayed with us all throughout enough, normally we dont have a lot of contact with the reps, and only met our rep whos name escapes me on departure transfer, as we tend to look after outselves and i know some reps can be pretty poor but on this occasion these four came good and i think handled the situation very professionally.
We had a fantastic time in Arillas and can't wait to return drw.
xx