A family was selected by TUI to be removed from a flight to Greece as the plane was too small following a 48-hour wait due to airport delays.
Daniel Riley, 43, his wife Diane, 41, and daughter Eva, 11, were booked to fly to Crete on Sunday morning and took up the airline's advice to drop off their luggage the night before to help with congestion.
Having travelled up from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, they waited for three hours in the "chaos" at Manchester Airport before finally checking in their bags at around 8pm on Saturday.