Birmingham woman loses £2k after coach delays causes missed flight

Yolanda and her father with another passenger who missed their flight

Travellers said they lost thousands of pounds after a series of delays on a National Express coach caused them to miss flights.

Passengers travelling from Birmingham to Gatwick said hold-ups included a faulty toilet and long driver changeovers before getting stuck at Heathrow while a driver took a break.

They got to Gatwick three hours late.

National Express "wholeheartedly apologised" and said it would contact customers to reimburse them.

Yolanda Reeves, who was travelling to Jamaica with her elderly father to help plan a funeral, said she had lost £2,500 due to rebooking flights and hotels.

The coach, due to leave Birmingham at 04:20 GMT on 6 November, arrived at Digbeth in Birmingham 25 minutes late, but then had to let all passengers off due to the broken toilet.

It left at 05:30 but a driver changeover at the city's airport led to another 30-minute delay, Ms Reeves said.

The service was then hit by roadworks and the coach arrived in Oxford at 09:20, the time it should have arrived at Gatwick.

Another stop was made due to problems with the drivers' radio, Ms Reeves said, before they became "stranded" at Heathrow at 11:20.

Eventually another driver agreed to take them to Gatwick but by the time the coach arrived it was 12:40, she said, 40 minutes after her departure gate had closed.

"This was overall the worst journey I have experienced and I am so glad my elderly father was not on this service alone," said Ms Reeves.

The coach was meant to leave the city's coach station in Digbeth at 04:20 BST

Ms Reeves said the service they received from drivers were "nonchalant" while the coach was old and dirty.

"Missing our flight not only cost us financially but also emotionally," she said.

"We had appointments in Jamaica that had to be rescheduled and had a funeral to help to organise," Ms Reeves said.

Meanwhile, passenger Chelsea, had bought a ticket to Thailand from Gatwick to begin her first solo adventure, but said the "overwhelming stress" of the coach journey made her consider cancelling it altogether.

"I think once we hit two-hours delay was when I felt awful. I begun crying because I was solo, knew I'd miss my flight and had no idea how to handle it," she said.

National Express has offered Ms Reeves £1000 in compensation

She said the firm should have chosen a different route to avoid "known" road works and had not responded to her two emails.

Chelsea, who spent £850 on a new flight the next day and hotel room, added "most of the coach were saying they had missed their flights".

National Express said it "prides itself in operating reliable coach travel across the UK, including frequent services to major airports".

"We maintain our vehicles to the highest standards however on rare occasions some may encounter issues so the decision was taken to pull the vehicle from service and send a replacement coach.

"In this instance the significant delay experienced by our customers was unfortunate and we wholeheartedly apologise for the disruption to their journeys.

"This is not the level of customer experience we aim to provide and we are in direct contact with the customers affected to reimburse them for the inconvenience caused."