Briohny Gillespie, 21, Katherine Govey, 23, Adrienne Tawagi, 24 and Sophie Lane, 22, were ready to embark on their six-week backpacking venture around South-East Asia on Friday, the Northern Territory News reported .

They were expecting to catch a flight to Bangkok yesterday, and then a connecting flight to Krabi, where they had already booked and paid for a room at a resort.

"We could be there right now sipping cocktails out of coconut shells," Ms Gillespie said at Darwin International Airport last night.

The girls estimate that the delay has cost about $4000 for new connecting flights - via Singapore and Phuket - international phone calls, accommodation they had already paid for at the resort, accommodation in Darwin and Singapore and travel from Phuket.

They had been saving for the trip all year, and had booked their tickets in July, received confirmation emails and had money debited from their credit card accounts.






No money had been refunded to their accounts last night, and no one from the airline had contacted any of them.

On Friday, the group had travelled from Canberra to Sydney, and then flew to Darwin where they had an eight-hour wait before the expected flight.

They spent the evening in the city before heading back to the airport, where they went to the Qantas check-in desk to find out where to check in for their Tiger Airways flight.

"And they were like, 'Um, it doesn't exist'," Ms Govey said.

On calling the airline, they were told they would have to write a letter of complaint to have their concerns heard.

"I'm disgusted that an airline would do this to paying customers," Ms Tawagi said. "They have just left us stranded."

"Thankfully we're not just out of school and a bit ditsy," Ms Govey said.

"If you were travelling on your own it would be scary."

They said they had also seen another couple who had turned up to the airport for the same flight.

Read more on this story at the Northern Territory News.