Mother and daughter left stranded after airline rules luggage was in too big

A MOTHER and daughter had to sleep on the floor of a Spanish airport after Ryanair rejected their hand luggage – for being ¾ in too big.

The flight home to Manchester from Alicante turned into trauma for teacher Tania Alston, 51, and Malaika Alston-Ekpei, 12, when they fell foul of cabin baggage rules.

Ms Alston, whose case was bigger, was at first waved through on boarding. But Malaika was stopped by staff who measured her bag, ruled it to be “too deep” and said she would have to pay £50 to put it in the hold.

Ms Alston, who could not pay the extra until her salary was banked the next day, attempted to empty Malaika’s belongings into her own case.

She says another member of staff then pointed out her bag was also too big – and raised the fee to £100.

The pair missed their 9.10pm flight and had to wait for 14 hours and sleep on the floor with holiday clothes for blankets.

The next morning, and with money in her account, Ms Alston spent £385 on a flight with Jet2.com, which had no problem with their baggage.

Ms Alston, from Levenshulme, Manchester, said: “We tried to be positive, but there were no spare seats in the airport and the floor we slept on was rock hard and freezing cold.

“It made no sense. We’ve used these bags as carry-on for the past four years. It was terrible and really traumatic for my daughter.

“It all seems arbitrary. I don’t want others to have to go through this for the sake of a few centimetres.”

A Ryanair spokeswoman said: “All customers agree to our terms and conditions. Our bag rules are continuously flouted, resulting in delays.”