[susie legge]

I booked tickets from London to Salvador, Brazil via Madrid for myself, my partner and our newborn baby. I didn't know that UK passport holders were not allowed to fly on a one-way ticket and was not informed this when booking.

Moments before boarding the plane in Madrid, we were told I was not allowed to board with my baby as we have UK passports. We were not told this when leaving the UK however, only once we were stranded in Spain. We were given no further assistance, simply told we could board the next flight in 3 days!

We had to wait several hours for them to retrieve our baggage, two pieces of which were lost containing all of our clothes, including necessary items for our baby.

When asking the airline customer service if they could provide us with a hotel, they said no and were very rude and unhelpful. They told us haughtily.....'we are not the airline, we are simply the customer service and we have no right to give you compensation....we just hear the complaint' ie....we can not help you and we don't care anyway.

So, we were stranded in Madrid with a baby, no clothes and nowhere to stay for 3 days.

When making a complaint to the airline I was told it was not their fault as Brazil makes it's own laws about entry. I wrote again to explain that my complaint was not that I was denied passage from spain, but that I was allowed to board in the UK, knowing that I would be denied boarding in Spain. They did not even bother to reply to that message, or my subsequent messages. If I had been told in the UK, I could have booked a return flight as I arrived 3 hours before departure. In Spain, they told me 2 minutes before boarding and told me there was not enough time for me to book another ticket.

Once finally boarding the plane 3 days later, I found the whole experience terrible....no vegetarian meals as ordered, uncomfortable seats with no place for the baby, rude and grumpy staff; they even make you pay for headphones (which don't work!!!)

Do not fly Air Europa.....trust me, they are criminal!