Coventry Telegraph

Holidays from £10

- By ELIS SANDFORD News Reporter elis.sandford@reachplc.com

A FAMILY from Warwickshi­re suffered an uncomforta­ble journey home from holiday when they found they had no seats on the plane.

Travelling back to Birmingham Airport from Menorca, they had to sit on the floor for part of their flight, despite having boarding passes.

The Taylor family from Alcester paid £1,300 for their flight, which is now being looked into by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Paula Taylor told BBC One programme Rip Off Britain: Holiday that she, her husband and 10-year-old daughter had even arrived at the airport early last June, to ensure that they could be seated together.

They were given seats 41D, E and F.

Unfortunat­ely, when they got on the plane, there was an empty space underneath those numbers.

Speaking to the BBC, Mrs Taylor said: “We all just looked at each other as if to say ‘where’s our seats gone?’”

Once the plane had fully boarded, there was just one seat spare, which was given to Mrs Taylor’s daughter Brooke.

During take off and landing, Mr and Mrs Taylor were given flip-up seats in the crew section.

However, during the flight itself, the crew were busy serving food and drinks stored beside the flip-up seats, meaning that the family had to sit on the floor where their seats should have been.

The family say they were thanked by the plane crew for their understand­ing.

TUI said that “a last-minute aircraft change” meant that the family’s assigned seats were unavailabl­e, as the alternativ­e aircraft had a different seating configurat­ion.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority, passengers are allowed to sit in crew seats in some circumstan­ces.

However, passengers must not be left unseated at any stage of a flight.

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