By Darren McConachie

A newly-wed couple have claimed they are missing out on their £2,700 honeymoon to Mauritius after TUI cancelled a week before they were due to fly out.

Jannie and Javita Conradie, from Sheppey, got married two weeks ago and were due to jet out to Africa to bask in the sun for seven days next Tuesday.

However, two days ago the couple received an email from TUI stating that their dream trip was cancelled.

Javita, 39, was left in tears while Jannie, 42, has felt helpless as he is currently in Toronto for business so is unable to console his wife in person.

Accountant Jannie claims he tried to contact TUI but was put on hold for three hours.

When he finally managed to speak to someone, the member of staff allegedly told him the cancellation was due to a third party, Turkish Airlines, pulling a connecting flight.

The couple then inquired about rebooking the trip for the same dates but claim they were told they would now have to pay an extra £2,000 to do so.

Jannie said: “My wife is in tears and I can’t be at home to comfort her.

“She is in bits about this, we were so looking forward to our dream honeymoon and had planned it for during the school holidays so that our children could stay with their other parents.

“TUI will not give us the money back so we can’t even arrange something else.

“[They] just send you to the website, they don’t have someone who wants to chat to you.

“Everyone just tells you to visit the website which gives no answers.

“If this were a few months ago, it would be annoying but we could rearrange the holiday.

“I want to cry if I am being totally honest with you, our wedding was such a high and truly the perfect day.

“We were both looking forward to Mauritius as neither of us have ever been on an exotic holiday like this.

“I just want to go to sleep. I am so exhausted from trying to deal with TUI.”

Mauritius has the highest population density in all of Africa with the island nation home to over 1.2 million people.

It is a firm favourite for couples and newlyweds and has become increasingly popular with tourists over recent years.

A TUI spokesman said: "We’re sorry to hear of Mr and Mrs Conradie’s experience following their flight cancellation, and understand this will have been disappointing.

"As their flights were with a non-TUI airline and were cancelled by the carrier, they were entitled to a full refund, however our team did their best to source alternative flights.

"Unfortunately there are no other flights available on that day with the same carrier, so we were unable to match the original cost of the flight as we have no control over prices of flights with other airlines."