Vueling flight cancellation caused us a world of pain

You may know the feeling: in these QR-coded days, it is frustrating to find that the hieroglyphics on your boarding pass do not have the power to open the gate to the airport security checkpoint.

- SIMON CALDER

I had a boarding pass for the mid-morning Vueling flight from London Gatwick to Barcelona. While repeatedly trying to get the pass to activate the gate, I discovered that another passenger, Gill, was having the same problem with the same flight. There is always an officer standing to one side to help “problem” cases. It was left to him to explain politely that the flight had been cancelled and we had better return to the Vueling check-in area.

The Spanish airline insists it sent out an email about the cancellation 80 minutes before Gill and I tried to go “airside”; it’s a shame that, for whatever reason, we never got to see it. By the time Gill and I reached the Vueling area, quite a throng was building. (Someone who did get an email was a travel agent named Bob Peters, who had arranged the flight for two clients. He immediately rebooked them on a Vueling departure to Barcelona from London Heathrow later that day.)