According to multiple British sources, Freda Jackson, an 81-year-old pensioner from Blackburn, Lancashire, was supposed to have a dream holiday in Benidorm, the province of Alicante.
Sunny escape, nice beaches, healthy food, cheap beer, and so on.
But in the end, the holiday was a “disaster from start to finish” for Freda.
“Why can’t the Spaniards go somewhere else for their holidays?”
A grandmother of six, she had booked a two-week stay at the Poseidon Playa Hotel with a friend, using savings from their pensions. According to the English press, this happened in 2017, but the story is still wonderful these days.
Once there, Freda says the hotel was full of local holidaymakers who she claims were “rude”. “Why can’t the Spaniards go somewhere else for their holidays?,” she said. This tricky situation also happened to me when I travelled to India, and I was like “Man, there are so many Indians here.” But I was 13 at that time.
“One evening a Spanish guy nearly knocked me flying and he just walked off without even apologising,” Freda added.
A retired care assistant, Freda, had complained that the Spanish guests in the hotel were loud and pushy. In addition, everything in the hotel — from the food to the entertainment — “was all focused and catered for the Spanish.”
Who is to blame for the disaster?
That wasn’t all. Freda was also frustrated with the room placement. Despite requesting accessible accommodation due to mobility issues, Jackson was initially placed on the 14th floor, with steep steps leading to the pool area. The situation, she says, became so upsetting that she ended up crying.
“I have never complained about a holiday before, but this one was a disaster from start to finish. My friend and I paid for it from our pensions and it was a struggle trying to fund it over 12 months and the holiday was totally ruined,” Freda said.
She paid £1,133 for the holiday, about €1350, and has blamed ‘the disaster’ Thomas Cook, the travel company that arranged the whole trip.
The “system error”
Freda and her friend flew from Manchester to Alicante on May 10 that year, having accordingly not been notified that their flight dates had changed.
The travel company later acknowledged a “system error” which resulted in Jackson being informed of flight schedule changes just six days before departure. A spokesperson issued an apology and confirmed that a goodwill gesture had been offered.
The story has since gone viral, creating heated and ongoing debates online.
Some people sympathize with the poor travel experience, which is understandable, as each of us would be angry if our holiday plans went wrong. At the same time, others pointed out the irony of a foreign tourist complaining about encountering locals in their own country. And they are right too.
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