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The Miller family arrived at Birmingham Airport on May 30 for their scheduled flight, only for KLM to block them from boarding the plane. The airline told them they were booked onto a return flight to Orlando, Florida, but not the outward journey.

It appeared a change to the booking had not been properly recorded on KLM’s systems despite Sheldon Miller getting an email confirmation of the alteration, reports Birmingham Live.

With their dream trip in ruins and heartbroken children aged seven and 13 “in tears”, 47-year-old Mr Miller booked an overnight stay at Birmingham Airport before forking out £2,600 for alternative flights with Aer Lingus.

The experience cast a shadow over an otherwise enjoyable holiday to Disney World.

On the return leg, the family again faced a nightmare journey, with KLM telling them they were unable to board their original flight on June 9.

Instead Mr Miller’s family were flown by Virgin Atlantic from Florida to Heathrow, to Amsterdam and then to Birmingham.

The angry dad, who is calling on KLM to refund the extra £2,600, said the whole thing had been an “utterly ridiculous saga”.

Mr Miller said: “After queueing for an hour we got to the check in desk and they told us we weren’t booked in to fly out but we were booked in to fly back and there was no way we would be able to board.

“At that point, our seven-year-old daughter burst into tears and our 13-year-old son wasn’t best pleased either, neither were we.

“We then spent three hours trying to speak to someone at KLM only to be told finally by a call centre rep we had to sort it out through social media as they couldn’t do it.

“I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life when it comes to business.”

Mr Miller tweeted KLM on May 30 saying: “KLM we have turned up to Birmingham Airport only to be told we can’t board our flights to Orlando, because your booking system has failed to allocate our flight date change request, after dozens of requests from us on the phone & in writing. No one is helping”.

After eventually making it to Disney via the Aer Lingus flight, his family then faced the bonkers return journey via Heathrow and Amsterdam before returning back to Birmingham on June 10.

Speaking to BirminghamLive after landing, an exhausted Mr Miller said: “No one has stepped up in any way. The whole experience felt like one massive pass the parcel, with no one at KLM remotely interested in our customer issue, let alone willing to take responsibility for it.

“We still not have had any communication from KLM about the refund of our Aer Lingus flight and airport hotel stay.”

He added: “You cannot charge people return full fare and only deliver one half of a journey and continually keep customers in the dark, passing them from pillar to post and expect them to put up and shut up.”

KLM has been approached for a comment.

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