Couple told they were 'too old' to sit in emergency seats

A couple were told by airport check-in staff that they could not sit in the emergency exit seats they had paid extra for because they were too old and might not be able to operate the door. Marion Webb, 77, and husband Derek, 79, forked out an extra £100 for seats with extra leg room on top of the £2,360 they paid for a trip to Egypt with Thomson Airways.

But when they arrived at Bristol International Airport check-in staff said they were ''too old'' to have exit seats and would be unable to operate the door in an emergency. The couple, from Stockwood, Bristol, said they felt ''hurt, humiliated and angry'' by the way they were treated.

Photo from here.

Civil Aviation Authority rules say passengers must be fit and able to operate emergency exit doors but do not set an age limit on the seats. But the Webbs say they are perfectly fit enough to operate the doors and that they were discriminated against due to their age and left embarrassed by airport staff. Staff eventually relented and allowed the couple to sit in their previously booked seats on the March 15 flight to Sharm El Sheik.

But on the return flight the airline allocated the couple seats which were not together and not in the emergency exit as they expected, despite a Thomson representative assuring them they would not have the same problem again. Mrs Webb said: ''Thomson must adopt a clear and cohesive policy about selling extra leg room seats. Being elderly does not automatically make one frail. People can be frail at any age. I do not want this to happen to us or to any one else in future.''