begged

‘British Airways staff made me cry as I begged for help – then holiday got even worse’

Sam slammed the airline in a now viral TikTok video that has racked up more than three million views after spending her savings on a dream holiday to Miami with her best friend

A furious holidaymaker has blasted British Airways after a dream trip to Miami left her out of pocket and without her belongings for almost her entire holiday.

Sam, who shared her ordeal in a viral TikTok, claimed she was forced to pay £60 per suitcase on her journey to Miami – only to discover later her missing bag had been sitting in her hotel’s storage room all along. Her nightmare began at the airport check-in desk, where she was told her British Airways booking didn’t include checked-in luggage – despite her insisting she had paid for it.

“We tried to use the bag drop at the airport and it wouldn’t let us check in,” she explained. “We go to the check in desk and this woman literally looks like she hates us. We are the bane of her existence. She’s saying we hadn’t pre-booked our luggage, which we definitely had.”

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Sam and her best friend Immie had attempted to enjoy their flight(Image: britshbroski/TikTok)

Staff allegedly made her pay £60 per suitcase to get them on the flight. But it got worse after she claims the check-in assistant accidentally charged her twice and told her she’d have to reclaim the money online after her holiday.

Sam said: “We ended up crying at the desk. She was not bothered.”

After finally boarding her flight to Miami, she said she noticed her suitcase being pulled aside for a security check. She was later informed it hadn’t been properly labelled for her connecting flight – but staff assured her the issue had been sorted.

However, when she landed in Miami, her suitcase was nowhere to be found. “I explained all the issues we had a check-in to someone at the airport,” she said. “It’s never happened to me. I’m panicking. I’m crying.”

British Airways reportedly told her the bag was “stuck in limbo” and promised to send it on to her hotel as soon as possible. Days later, she received a text saying her luggage was on the way – but it never arrived.

Sam
Sam was shocked to discover her luggage had been sitting in the hotel the whole time(Image: britshbroski/TikTok)

“I go to the hotel receptionist and she tells me there’s no suitcase,” Sam said. “There was one day on the holiday that I made 45 calls to British Airways. I had none of my makeup, shoes, toiletries and medication that I have to take daily.”

But at the end of her holiday, Sam made a shocking discovery – her suitcase had been at the hotel all along, stashed away in the storage room for several days while she went without her belongings.

After returning home, she contacted British Airways to complain and says she was eventually given a refund for all expenses endured.

The Mirror has contacted British Airways for comment.

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Stunning UK islands where locals begged to be evacuated faces new threat

A remote archipelago situated some 110 miles off the UK mainland was once home to a skilful community that lived off the land. However, 94 years ago – all residents asked to be evacuated, except one

St Kilda
The stunning island is under threat once again(Image: Getty Images)

A breath-taking UK archipelago stranded in the North Atlantic Ocean is under threat – almost 100 years after it was abandoned by humans.

Situated some 110 miles off the west coast of mainland Scotland, forming part of the Outer Hebrides, lies the ‘rare beauty and drama’ of St Kilda. Often touted as the ‘islands at the edge of the world’ due to its remote location, the archipelago consists of five unique islands: Hirta, Dùn, Soay, Boreray and Levenish, alongside a number of towering sea stacks and islets.

For around 4,000 years, the cluster was home to a community that lived off the land – isolated from the rest of the world but described as ‘much happier than the generality of mankind’. Due to the treacherous waters, fishing on the island wasn’t very feasible.

Instead, islanders survived on the ‘dense colonies’ of gannets, fulmars, and puffins – catching them for good, oil, feathers, and bones. However, over time, life became much harder on the island – and the population started to decline.

READ MORE: Tiny UK island ‘abandoned by humans’ after ambitious £3m plan axed decades ago

The steep cliffs of St Kilda. The Saint Kilda archipelago contains the largest colony in Europe with more than 60 000 nests, United Kingdom
The human population on St Kilda started to decline, as young islanders went abroad(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

It is believed the islands’ contact with the outside world started to increase in the 19th and 20th centuries, tempting younger locals to immigrate to the likes of Australia and Canada for a better life. This, combined with bouts of disease that wiped out many residents, meant few able-bodied people remained on the island.

Towards the end of the 1920s, the crops failed several times – meaning many islanders faced starving to death during the upcoming barren winter. However, on August 29, 1930, the last 36 residents voluntarily evacuated the island – hopping on board a ship that would sail them away to their new homes.

Three generations of women on the archipelago of St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, circa 1880. The islands are now uninhabited. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The last 36 residents left the island in 1930(Image: Getty Images)

According to the BBC, the only person who opposed the evacuation was Neil Ferguson, who lived at number five. “He was the only one to dig his croft ready for planting for a summer harvest, and was the last to leave his house, delaying for as long as he could the boat that would take them away,” the publication states.

After the island was abandoned, it took on a new breath of life – becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a haven for almost one million seabirds, including the UK’s largest colony of Atlantic puffins. Now run by the National Trust for Scotland, the archipelago is a popular tourist destination, attracting thousands of visitors every year.

St Kilda houses
Tourists can still see remnants of the community that lived here(Image: Getty Images)

“If you do explore the islands directly, you’ll have a rare experience of walking through a landscape abandoned by the entire community in 1930,” hailed Visit Scotland. “You’ll also visit preserved archaeological sites and relics, which reveal the close relationship the islanders had with their unique natural environment, and how they adapted to outside influences. You can see this up close in the remnants of houses, enclosures and cleits – drystone storage structures – remnants of World War I guns and communications.”

While many of the seabirds were hunted for food, they’ve been able to live a more peaceful life since residents were evacuated. However, they now face a much greater threat: climate change.

With rising sea temperatures, warm waters mean food sources the seabirds rely on – like eels and plankton – are shifting north, meaning they’re too far away for many seabirds to fly to. As a result, the colonies are dying out, with the Atlantic puffin ‘creeping dangerously near to the endangered list’.

The steep cliffs and seabird colonies of Hirta being grazed by the unique Soay sheep high on the lush summer grasses above the Atlantic Ocean looking towards the island of Soay in the remote St. Kilda archipelago, the double UNESCO World Heritage Site off the Western Isles, Scotland. ProPhoto RGB profile for maximum color fidelity and gamut.
Seabirds on the island are declining due to climate change(Image: Getty Images)

“Seabirds are part of life on St Kilda” says Susan Bain, Property Manager of St Kilda. “They’re bound up in its archaeology and history, and with them, that’s disappearing. If it were a building, or a monument under threat, we wouldn’t let that happen. The loss of the seabirds will have impacts that we don’t even know until they take place – they are pieces of a unique and fragile ecosystem.”

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