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'HORRENDOUS'
I was forced to carry my nine-month-old on my hip for a week in 32C heat after easyJet lost my £600 pram
A MUM was forced to carry her nine-month-old on her hip for a week in 32C heat after easyJet lost her £600 pram.
Daisy Fuge burst into tears when she discovered the airline had misplaced her daughter's "essential equipment" somewhere between the UK and Portugal.
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The 32-year-old said it meant she had to hold little Eliza for the duration of her getaway, while also pushing her disabled dad's wheelchair and watching her other child, four.
She also spent "hours and hours" she should have been relaxing at the beach on the phone to customer services looking for answers.
To make matters worse, Daisy says she has been "blanked" by the holiday giant in her fight to get the Baby Jogger branded buggy back, or receive any compensation, in the two months since returning home.
The business owner, who was jetting from Bristol to Faro, said: "The treatment I've received is totally and utterly unacceptable."
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Daisy was travelling with husband Dave, 35, two children, dad James and stepmum Linda on June 14 when her pricey pram vanished.
The group had booked "special assistance" for the trip as James was recovering from surgery and in a wheelchair, and Eliza is under the age of one.
Things ran smoothly at Bristol Airport where they were taken to a separate check-in desk, escorted by private bus and boarded via a lift on the tarmac.
But the magical holiday quickly turned into a nightmare when their pram failed to show up in Faro, where temperatures were in the 30s.
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Daisy, who runs a baby changing bag business, said: "The dispatcher on the ground took the pram from us as we walked onto the plane, and that was the last time we saw it.
"I burst into tears when they told me it wasn't on the flight."
After landing and realising the pushchair was nowhere to be seen, Daisy went to lost and found.
Staff searched the plane and then allegedly said "we can categorically tell you it wasn't on board" so the item was logged as missing.
The family-of-five were told to go off on their holiday as planned, and somebody would be in touch soon.
But Daisy, from Devon, claims no one contacted her so she was forced to spend a week "constantly" chasing easyJet while being unable to push her youngster around in the shade.
"We spent the majority of our holiday with no way to transport our baby in extreme heat while on the phone and emailing constantly," she fumed.
"I had to hold her on my hip and try to push a wheelchair at the same time in some scenarios.
"I could feel her sweat on my skin it was so hot but we had no other option.
"It was completely and utterly horrendous. I was so cross and it left my baby vulnerable. It massively ruined our trip away."
The treatment I've received is totally and utterly unacceptable.
Daisy Fuge
When Daisy did finally manage to get through, she was told to wait five days before buying a replacement "in case it was magically located".
It wasn't, and the mum was then forced to traipse two and a half hours to find a shop that sold prams, which then turned out to be the wrong kind.
She said: "We were in rural eastern Algarve and they just don't exist.
"We phoned loads of hire companies to see if we could rent one but it was peak season so they had hired them out already.
"We eventually found a shop that sold prams more than two hours away, but when we got there they didn't have anything suitable for our daughter's age.
"All we could find was a little fold-up umbrella pram with no sun canopy for 80 euros, which of course broke before we got home."
The family battled through more than a week in the sun without the pram, and returned home hoping it might show up.
But exactly two months later and it is still missing - and easyJet has "near enough closed the case".
'UTTERLY HORRENDOUS'
"We've had absolutely zero communication from them, despite me contacting them repeatedly," Daisy said.
"I've been passed from pillar to post and it's been incredibly difficult.
"easyJet refers to prams like my £600 one on its website as 'essential equipment' yet lost it.
"No one is taking responsibility and I think it's downright criminal to be honest."
Daisy, who has vowed never to fly with the airline again, continued: "It was an unbelievable burden on my holiday and it has been horrendous since we got home.
"We've not been able to go long distance on foot anywhere with our baby, and it's created problems for me with work as my relatives struggle to look after her safely in this heat without the pram.
"Also, considering the current climate, I'm not in a position to walk into a shop and drop £600 or £700 on a new pram.
"The one we had has actually been discontinued so I can't even replace it exactly anyway. It's irreplaceable.
"We did everything right and we feel like we've been totally failed."
A spokesperson for easyJet said: "We are very sorry for the loss of Ms Fuge’s pram.
"We know how crucial it is for our customers to feel confident that items like this will be well cared for when travelling with us and fully understand the difficulty this will have caused.
"We are investigating this with our ground handling partners in Bristol and Faro as this is not the level of service we expect for our customers.
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"We are in contact with Ms Fuge to apologise for her experience and arrange for a replacement pram to be provided to her and reimburse any reasonable expenses incurred on her holiday as a result of this.
"Additionally we are offering Ms Fuge a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience caused."
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