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Family receives holiday refund after comedian Jason Manford steps in
Thomas Cook and easyJet have refunded a family almost twice the cost of their half-term holiday, which they were forced to abandon because other passengers on the outbound flight refused to move so that they could sit together.
The flight from Bristol was fully booked so the Mortimore family of four were unable to get seats together when they checked in online.
As their children were only seven and 12, and easyJet rules state that children must be seated next to an adult, the cabin crew asked other passengers to move to allow the family to sit together.
However, none agreed to switch seats, so the family was asked to disembark and the flight left without the Mortimores.
Initially they were offered just £554 compensation for the lost £2,300 holiday to Tenerife, but after a media storm, Thomas Cook and easyJet are to pay the family £3,640 plus holiday vouchers worth £600.
Funnyman Jason Manford joined the criticism of the holiday firms, posting a comment on Twitter accusing them of greed for over-booking the Mortimores’ flight.
An easyJet spokesman told the Daily Mail: "We protect families from any overbooking, so this situation should simply not have occurred.
"We should have been able to seat the Mortimore family together to enable them to travel and they will be fully compensated for their experience.
"EasyJet does everything it can to seat families together and has a sophisticated algorithm which seats families together more than 99 per cent of the time.
"On the rare occasion where this hasn’t been possible we’ll ask passengers onboard to move to accommodate families with young children. It is very rare that passengers aren’t prepared to do so although this was the case on this flight."
Thomas Cook said in a statement: "We’re pleased the family has accepted a full refund as well as the payment they are entitled to from easyJet for denied boarding.
"As a further gesture of goodwill we have given them a voucher towards their next holiday, for which they are very grateful."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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