Letter: Extended stay was no adventure

Letter: In reply to MD Watkins's letter (Shropshire Star, April 29), he/she thinks there should have been a sense of adventure.

Many of the stranded would strongly disagree. Having personally been stranded ill in China for five days and constantly trying to get any flight home possible, most of our time was spent at the airport and then going to a hotel to sleep. Some did not even have the luxury of a hotel as they had no money left.

Yes I agree that everyone wanted to be safe, but once flights were leaving there were many, including ourselves, who were told by our airline we would not be able to fly home until May 7.

Our original flight was April 19.

This is not an extended holiday, is it?

No employer would expect to give extended leave. This leave is taken as a person's annual leave or unpaid leave.

I can assure you it is most stressful wondering when you are going to get home and at what cost.

Our flights alone cost £3,200 to get home.

This was without other expenses of hotels, meals, taxis, etc which we also had to fund.

As for compensation for stress, please can you give me the name of an insurer that pays out for this and I will use them next time.

Many insurers are not paying out for any costs incurred in flight delays or extra expense incurred, let alone stress.

J Pingree