We planned a dream honeymoon, but Thomson turned it into a nightmare

Last March we flew from Gatwick to Cancún in Mexico for a 10-day honeymoon (booked with Thomson at a cost of £5,200) for which we had saved hard. Close to our destination we were told the plane was running out of fuel and could not wait around for the airport’s broken radar to be fixed. We were diverted 100 miles to Mérida airport.

For five hours we sat on the runway while the pilot gave unhelpful updates. My husband, who is diabetic and which was made clear on the booking, had no water or food as there was none left. Despite ringing the call button nobody came, and all we were told was that the airport would not refuel us because Thomson had no contract with it.

We finally took off for Cancún, where our honeymoon went further downhill. The five-star Moon Palace resort was wonderful for three days until the masses arrived, when we had to queue for almost everything. No sunbeds unless we got up at 4am, no breakfast unless we ate at 10.30am when there was little left. There were long queues for dinner every night. We complained upon our return and have tried unsuccessfully to get a response from Thomson. Any help would be appreciated. KA, Horley, Surrey

A disappointing occurrence since you explicitly said you were booking your honeymoon. You also did the right thing in lodging a complaint as soon as you got home, as many package holiday companies have a deadline. By law you have the right to expect that the holiday matches the brochure or website description – and if not, under the terms of the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992, you would probably have a claim against Thomson.

Your complaint was made slightly more complicated by the fact it involved a flight delay (due to local radar problems and therefore not triggering automatic compensation under EU rules); while the second part related to the resort and what you considered to be services that were vastly inferior to a five-star hotel, boasting 14 restaurants and seven swimming pools.

After our intervention Thomson agreed to investigate (although it did not say why it failed to respond to your complaint), and you were contacted by a customer service representative who initially offered you £200, subsequently raised to £1,200 after further investigation. This was its final offer, which you accepted. Thomson said: “We are sorry to hear of KA’s experience. We have been in direct contact and the situation has been successfully resolved.” Hardly a dream honeymoon, however.

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