Sunwing flight delays, cancellations continue to frustrate holiday travellers

Sunwing passengers stay pissed off over continued flight delays and cancellations which have left many stranded down south.

Hundreds of Canadians remained caught in widespread solar locations over the Christmas holidays, left to sleep on airport flooring or shuffle between accommodations, because the airline blamed extreme winter climate again dwelling.

Travellers have accused Sunwing of offering incomplete or inaccurate details about the standing of their flights and say they’ve been compelled to pay out-of-pocket bills.

Kody Thorne has been caught in Cancun since Christmas Eve after spending every week there for a household reunion.

Although the holiday went nice, he informed CTV News Channel on Wednesday that the “nightmare” began when he tried to fly again dwelling.

“It was chaos. People were sleeping on the floor, and to try and cut a long story short, we stood in line for approximately six hours. No movement, no information from the Sunwing representatives,” Thorne mentioned.

“Eventually, we were advised that the flight was cancelled and that they were arranging transport for us back to the hotel.”

Since then, he has gone via “a daily cycle of checking out at noon and then waiting by the lobby for information that’s either not forthcoming or when it does come through it’s inaccurate, and even in some cases it’s false.”

The lodge workers has been “fantastic” at making an attempt to make them as snug as potential, Thorne mentioned.

While he managed to ebook one other flight out on Thursday via WestJet, he is aware of many others haven’t been as fortunate.

“So unfortunately, they’re at the mercy of Sunwing resolving the issue and getting them back home,” he mentioned.

Thorne’s state of affairs mirrors the experiences of different Canadians making an attempt to return dwelling, whether or not it is the back-and-forth journeys to the airport or what they name poor communication on the a part of Sunwing.

Another traveller, Paul Dhami, emailed CTV News to say he was alleged to fly out with Sunwing on Christmas Eve from Los Cabos, Mexico, however the flight was cancelled.

He acquired e-mail notifications from Sunwing over the following couple of days telling him the flight was revised, nevertheless it stored being cancelled, he mentioned.

“Eventually these updates stopped and now we are only getting updates from the hotel who gets flight notifications and put out a sign. But every day this flight gets cancelled,” Dhami wrote. “We’ve been here now four days and counting and no clue when we will get home.”

On high of the journey delays, Toronto Pearson International Airport has skilled a extreme baggage backlog, which officers have blamed on weather-related flight disruptions and frozen loading gear.

CTVNews.ca reached out to Sunwing for a touch upon the continuing journey points however didn’t obtain a direct response.

In an announcement on Tuesday, Sunwing mentioned its groups “continue to proactively work around the clock with several airline partners to subservice aircraft and return customers home.”

Sunwing mentioned it accomplished two restoration flights, has one other eight scheduled via to Dec. 30 and is “finalizing recovery plans” for any remaining passengers.

Travellers who select to ebook an earlier return flight with one other provider “can do so at their own cost” and make a refund request for his or her unused Sunwing flight, the airline mentioned.

“Thank you for your understanding while our teams continue to do everything possible to get passengers home in the coming days,” Sunwing mentioned.

Meanwhile, passengers’ rights advocate Gabor Lukacs, who based the group Air Passenger Rights, says stranded travellers ought to think about authorized motion if their airways will not provide compensation.

Quite a few guidelines exist for when an airline should compensate a traveller for delays or cancellations, with the state of affairs relying on whether or not the difficulty is inside or outdoors of the airline’s management.

With information from CTVNews.ca Writer Megan DeLaire, CTV News Calgary Multimedia Journalist Nicole Di Donato, CTVNewsEdmonton.ca Digital Producer Brittany Ekelund, CP24 Web Content Writer Jordan Fleguel and The Canadian Press