Passenger says cancelled flight to Ibiza made her miss the eclipse: "I paid thousands of dollars and travelled 24 hours to get here"

A passenger has complained on social media platform X about what happened to her at Barcelona Airport on Wednesday after the cancellation of her flight to Ibiza ruined her plans to watch the solar eclipse.

The user, identified on X as ‘Vera Lyx’, said she had spent a significant amount of money and travelled for 24 hours in order to witness the astronomical event.

“I paid thousands of dollars and travelled for 24 hours to come and see a once-in-a-lifetime total eclipse”, she wrote in a post directed at Vueling and Aena.

According to her account, she was due to take a flight to Ibiza at 1.30pm, but it was cancelled.

She later said staff at the information desk told her that the flight would not depart before 10pm, meaning she would miss the eclipse altogether.

The passenger described the situation at Barcelona Airport as “a complete disaster” and complained that other flights were being rescheduled while hers had been cancelled, she claimed, without sufficient warning or information.

“No compensation can make up for such disappointment”, she said, also strongly criticising the customer service she received from the airline.

The airline responds

Vueling responded publicly to the complaint on X.

“We are sorry for the inconvenience caused. We can confirm that we are doing everything possible to depart as soon as possible”, the airline said.

It also advised passengers to check the latest flight status information on airport departure boards, speak to terminal staff, or consult the Vueling app and website.

The response did not satisfy the passenger, who replied again to the airline to complain about the lack of customer support.

She said she had received an email informing her that the flight would depart after the eclipse, but claimed that the link provided did not work and that she was also unable to obtain assistance by phone.

The incident occurred on a day of intense interest in the solar eclipse, which prompted large numbers of travellers and astronomy enthusiasts to travel in an attempt to observe the phenomenon from different locations.