Britain’s biggest budget airline has apologised after a passenger promised compensation for volunteering to leave an overbooked flight had her claim rejected twice.

Jo Webb was booked to fly from Bristol airport to Faro in Portugal in June. As passengers were waiting to board, easyJet staff revealed that a smaller aircraft than planned was being used.

Ms Webb told The Independent: “They waited till boarding to tell us the aircraft type had changed and asked for 30 volunteers to get bumped.

“I thought about it but had friends waiting in Faro so decided not to volunteer.”

The smaller plane, seating 150 rather than 180 passengers, was deployed because a cabin crew member was unavailable. By using an Airbus A319 with the rear row of seats taken out, easyJet is able to deploy only three cabin crew rather than four.

Ms Webb continued: “We boarded. Settled, all good – until the crew realised there was one extra passenger on board without a seat.

“Cue lengthy discussions. Someone would have to be offloaded – and the longer that process took, the more likely that crew would be up to their legal limits, time-wise and the whole flight would therefore be cancelled.”

By this time, around 10pm, the flight was heavily delayed already, with many families with young children on board.

“Being a solo traveller with no hold luggage, I decided to do the decent thing,” said Ms Webb.

“I got a round of applause from the whole plane as I disembarked.

“The warm glow lasted until I got back to the gate to be told I’d have to fend for myself.

“I had to stay overnight in a Bristol hotel and make my own way to Gatwick the following day, losing a day of my six-day holiday.”

Ms Webb then applied online for her out-of-pocket expenses as well as cash compensation, but was told: “You were not denied boarding due to commercial or operational reasons.

“These are the only two conditions where you can claim for reimbursement. As such, we have rejected your claim you have sent us.”

Ms Webb tried again, and this time was told: “You have opted for free flight-change option and made the amendments for the next day. Unfortunately, we are unable to reimburse you for any expenses incurred due to this reason.”

She told The Independent: “I am livid. Words fail me. So, I am at least £250 out of pocket, lost 24 hours of my holiday and my claim is rejected?

“I personally saved not only my own flight from being cancelled but the return flight from Faro as well.

“That’s a lot of passengers who would have been claiming compensation.

“But instead of thanking me, easyJet rejects my claim.”

After The Independent raised Ms Webb’s case, an easyJet spokesperson said: “Unfortunately some passengers were unable to travel on flight EZY6009 from Bristol to Faro on 1 June as the aircraft due to operate the flight had to be downgraded to a smaller one due to a crew member being unable to operate.

“In these circumstances we always endeavour to seek volunteers in advance who are willing not to travel in exchange for compensation and alternative travel arrangements and would like to thank passengers for volunteering.

“Unfortunately an isolated agent error at the airport meant that Ms Webb’s booking wasn’t updated to verify she had volunteered and so her right to compensation wasn’t visible to our customer team.

“We are therefore in touch with her to advise further on the process to receive her refund, compensation and expenses. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused.”

The “downgauging” of aircraft is not the usual cause of overbooking, which involves selling more tickets than there are seats available on the aircraft. But the same European air passengers’ rights rules on overbooking apply equally to such cases, requiring airlines to seek volunteers before anyone is offloaded against their will.

On Friday the broadcaster Mhairi Stuart tweeted a video of the applause on an easyJet flight as two volunteers walked off an overbooked aircraft.

The BBC Radio Scotland presenter said: “So two people removed from plane, then these two volunteered to go instead. Promised a flight tomorrow.”

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