Metro Vancouver Swifties left devastated after flight to concert was cancelled

Some Taylor Swift fans from Metro Vancouver were left devastated after a cancelled flight forced them to miss her Los Angeles concert.

Annice Li tells CityNews she, her niece, and a friend spent $6,000 to see the pop superstar perform in L.A. on Aug. 8.

“My friends and I were so excited. We were already crying just from having tickets,” Li said.

Annice Li (pictured) was left devastated after her flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles to see Taylor Swift was cancelled, forcing her to miss the concert. (Sarah Chew, CityNews)

They planned to travel on Flair Airlines from Vancouver and were scheduled to land in California on Tuesday morning.

Halfway through their flight, however, their plane turned around. Li says the pilot told them there were mechanical issues with the toilets that would have to be repaired in Vancouver.

“At that point, it was too crazy to even think about the fact that we wouldn’t make it because we were like okay there’s no way we can miss this. It’s just a toilet fix, how hard is it to unclog a toilet?” she recalled.

Li says they waited on the plane for about three hours while someone tried to repair the toilet, eventually having to deplane and wait by the gate.

Annice Li playing Taylor Swift on her phone. The Vancouver woman was forced to miss the pop star’s concert in LA after her flight from Vancouver was cancelled. (Sarah Chew, CityNews)

However, because Li and her party were already past customs, they couldn’t access any other airline counters to buy new tickets. Further, any flights they found online were either full or too expensive.

“We were stuck looking online. We had no help. Flair agents, when we asked them, they said they didn’t know what was happening,” she said.

Six hours after they were supposed to already be in L.A., Flair cancelled the flight. Li says they were devastated.

“We were just holding back tears. My friend started to cry and I felt really bad for her and I was like, I have to be brave and give her a hug and comfort her,” she explained.

Flair rebooked Li’s flight to the next day, but that was too late to catch the concert and Li says the airline wouldn’t compensate her either.

CityNews reached out to Flair for a comment but they didn’t reply in time for our broadcast deadline.

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Meantime, Li says she can’t listen to Taylor Swift at the moment as the wound is too fresh.

“Maybe I’ll hope that we can get tickets to see her show in Toronto –- that’s really all we can hope for at this point,” she said.