A Ryanair passenger whose flight was delayed by more than two days caused an internet storm after live tweeting her ordeal.
Corinne Redfern was among 400 passengers trying to return to the UK from Lanzarote on Friday.
However, she was forced to endure a 51-hour wait to get home after bad weather left holidaymakers stranded, the Daily Mail reported
In a series of more than 40 tweets, Redfern gave an ongoing account of the situation, claiming the budget airline even charged customers for water during the incident.
Passengers had already arrived at Lanzarote airport in preparation for an 11.45am flight on Friday morning when they were told that their aircraft had been cancelled due to bad weather.
When they attempted to contact the Ryanair information desk in the departure lounge, they found it had been shut and staff had left.
They were later told that they would be collected from their hotel at 4am on Saturday morning and taken to the airport for a rescheduled flight at 7am.
However, the bus forgot to arrive to collect the holidaymakers.
Read these tweets from @CorinneRedfern and you’ll never fly @Ryanair again. (Start reading at bottom left) pic.twitter.com/KH8ML629HK
— anya (@anyabike) November 30, 2014
While Ryanair agreed to refund passengers for the cost of staying in a hotel for an extra night, Redfern said that some members of the group were left without money to buy food and drinks because they had been forced to pay the hotel costs upfront.
The group then claim they were initially refused meal vouchers and given no update from the airline about the status of their flight home.
It was only three hours after they had missed the second flight to Stansted that customers were provided with £3.50 vouchers – meaning some passengers were left hungry.
Despite the improvement in the weather, Redfern claimed a third flight was then cancelled without explanation.
Ryanair then announced it had arranged a hotel for half the passengers to spend a further night in Lanzarote.
When guests arrived there after queuing for an hour to board a bus they were turned away because the hotel claimed it had no record of the booking.
The passengers were eventually transferred back to Lanzarote airport at 4.30am the following morning in preparation for a 7am flight back to London.
But the flight was delayed again by two hours and 15 minutes, with passengers being told it was then scheduled to depart at 9.15am.
Redfern, a London-based journalist, said that the information desks in the departure lounge remained closed.
Two hours later they finally boarded the aircfaft and the group finally arrived home at 14.54pm on Sunday afternoon, having been scheduled to take off on Friday morning at 11.45am.
A Ryanair spokesman told the newspaper: “Due to severe weather at Lanzarote, three flights to Birmingham, East Midlands and London Stansted were delayed on Friday and Saturday.
“Affected customers were provided with meal vouchers and hotel accommodation, and were sent regular updates by email and SMS text.
“Weather improvements allowed normal flight operations to resume on Sunday when these flights operated.
“Ryanair sincerely apologised to all customers affected by these weather delays, which were entirely beyond our control, and all customers returned home on Sunday.”