A senior nurse has been left £1,400 out of pocket after an airline app glitch forced her to buy a new flight after Aer Lingus cancelled her trip home.
Charlotte Oakley, 33, flew to New York for a friend’s wedding on December 18 but her return flight four days later was cancelled just hours before she was due to embark.
She was working Christmas Day and needed to get back in time.
However, although her flight would have got her home in time, a glitch on the Aer Lingus app appeared to suggest a longer layover than it was true which forced her to book an alternative way home.
The senior nurse, from Sheffield, who was travelling with her friend, Eleanor Holding, 33, said they each had to fork out £1,400 because of the app’s ‘confusing wording’.
After getting back home she demanded compensation from the airliner for the extra costs after only getting a £400 refund – which the Irish company has denied as it does not meet the criteria.
The 33-year-old has now vowed to never fly with the company again, saying: ‘I would never ever book with them again. Not after that. It was awful.
![Charlotte Oakley, 33, flew to New York for a friend's wedding on December 18 but her return flight four days later was cancelled just hours before she was due to embark. Pictured: Charlotte and Eleanor Holding](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/02/15/12/95242597-14394339-image-m-2_1739621814664.jpg)
Charlotte Oakley, 33, flew to New York for a friend’s wedding on December 18 but her return flight four days later was cancelled just hours before she was due to embark. Pictured: Charlotte and Eleanor Holding
![The 33-year-old has now vowed to never fly with Aer Lingus again, saying: 'I would never ever book with them again. Not after that. It was awful'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/02/15/13/95244125-14394339-image-m-30_1739626205119.jpg)
The 33-year-old has now vowed to never fly with Aer Lingus again, saying: ‘I would never ever book with them again. Not after that. It was awful’
![Ms Oakley has been left with a £1400 bill to pay an airline app glitch forced her to buy a new flight](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/02/15/12/95242591-14394339-image-m-4_1739622031072.jpg)
Ms Oakley has been left with a £1400 bill to pay an airline app glitch forced her to buy a new flight
‘After you make a mistake, you expect it to be rectified to a reasonable standard. I just don’t feel it’s been rectified at all. They’ve given us the absolute bare minimum back. The trauma that it caused and the financial and emotional stress, just doesn’t cover it.’
Ms Oakley was hoping for an enjoyable trip to the Big Apple to celebrate her friend’s big occasion.
However, the trip took to turn for the worse when she was meant to return home on December 22 as the flight she was meant to board from John F Kennedy Airport in New York was cancelled around two hours before departure – due to technical reasons.
She was quickly informed that an alternative one was provided for the following day at 10pm, with a layover at Dublin before then arriving in Manchester.
However, a flight glitch on the Aer Lingus app seemed to suggest she would be waiting 21 hours in Dublin, which would mean the nurse would miss her shift.
She said: ‘I run a medical admissions unit and a frailty unit so it would have left them without anyone because no one else would have picked it up so I was desperate to get back for that.
‘They sent us a text saying the flight was cancelled. The return flight was then changed to 10pm the next day, and it was really confusingly worded.
![The senior nurse, from Sheffield, who was travelling with her friend, Eleanor Holding, 33, said they each had to fork out £1,400 because of the app's 'confusing wording'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/02/15/12/95242589-14394339-image-m-11_1739624248686.jpg)
The senior nurse, from Sheffield, who was travelling with her friend, Eleanor Holding, 33, said they each had to fork out £1,400 because of the app’s ‘confusing wording’
![The lay over between the flights was 2 hours and 55 minutes](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/02/15/12/95243503-14394339-image-a-8_1739624095688.jpg)
![But in a glitch on the app on the day, the app said 21 hours and five minutes](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/02/15/12/95243505-14394339-image-a-9_1739624095689.jpg)
Although her flight would have got her home in time, a glitch on the Aer Lingus app appeared to suggest a longer layover than it was true which forced her to book an alternative way home
‘So, essentially, it said, we had a layover of twenty-one hours. But it was actually just a two-hour lay which would then get us back on time.’
In a panic, she began looking at ways to get back home and ended up booking a flight from JFK to Amsterdam and then to Manchester.
‘It was an absolute fortune anyway, to be honest with you, going to a wedding at Christmas. But then booking those flights was just the icing on the cake’, the 33-year-old said.
However when she returned home and realised the mistake she her and Ms Holding since been seeking compensation for the cancellation, but the airliner has said she is not entitled to it.
The email said: ‘Upon review of your booking, we’ve determined that your journey does not meet the criteria for compensation under EU Regulation 261/2004.
‘This is because our records show that the disruption was due to a strike By Lightning Impacting A/C On the Previous Sector.
‘This was an extraordinary circumstance beyond the control of Aer Lingus.’
However, she was given a £400 refund for the cancelled flight though.
But fuming Ms Oakley said: ‘What I was just hoping for was the compensation for the cancellation resulting in a massive expense of having to buy a new flight to get home.
‘The fact that they cancelled it two hours before with no warnings, I think it’s so wrong that this ginormous company can just say “No, cancel” and just leave you high and dry and then not reimburse you for the absolute nightmare that it was, it’s just awful.’
Aer Lingus has approached been for comment.