Canadian travellers stranded in other countries for days after Sunwing cancels flights
Hundreds of Canadians flying with Sunwing are complaining about being stranded at airports after the airline cancelled a bunch of flights.
"Due to severe winter weather across Canada, which has limited our ability to move planes and crew to other airports, a number of Sunwing flights continue to experience delays," the carrier said on Twitter on Christmas eve. "Our teams are working hard to re-accommodate customers locally and in destination."
Several parts of the country were blasted by snowstorms over the weekend, leading to flight disruptions. On Friday, WestJet and Sunwing both announced they were cancelling all outbound flights in Vancouver.
But people travelling with Sunwing are not as upset with the weather-based reasoning as they are with the airline's lack of communication about cancellations.
@SunwingVacay please help us. We are delayed in Cancun. Our flight # wg586. Our sunwing rep is not at the hotel today. We tried calling the number she gave us and they had no record of our flight or us. This a nightmare.
— Chris (@omw1973) December 24, 2022
"Stop blaming the weather, it's poor management by @SunwingVacay." wrote Sunwing traveller Hamid Batenipur on Twitter, adding that his flight back home had been delayed since Wednesday.
In a subsequent tweet, Batenipour said that he had to pay out of pocket to get on an Air Transat flight.
Those travelling via flight WG516, which was headed to Toronto from Cancun on Wednesday, say they were moved to a resort as they waited on updates following the flight’s cancellation.
"We have no communication from Sunwing," one flyer said. "We do not know when our flight is and how we will get to airport."
There is a group of around 20 people that were all on flight WG515 and scheduled to go home on flight WG516 on wednesday. We were moved to sensira resort and spa. We have no communication from sunwing. We do not know when our flight is and how we will get to airport. Help please
— Dannye (@breakthebooks87) December 23, 2022
Across its social media-based customer service channels, Sunwing has been responding to travellers asking for assistance.
It now shows this for our original flight that never showed and i stopped getting updates 2 days ago now. pic.twitter.com/6G2FMolt9n
— James (@JamesFos23) December 25, 2022
Flyers say the lack of email updates or any private notifications have left them "beyond frustrated." Some have complained that updates on Sunwing's website don't match those provided by local representatives.
Hi Jewel, we apologize for the inconvenience. Please feel free to reach out to us via direct message with your booking details so we can further take a look. Thank you, -DZ
— Sunwing Vacations (@SunwingVacay) December 24, 2022
Many have missed out on spending Christmas with their family due to Sunwing's confusing communication issues.
@ABDanielleSmith PLEASE HELP US! We have now missed Christmas with our family and have heard from other passengers on our original flight that it was NOT CANCELLED! @SunwingVacay are TRAPPING us due to their incompetence. NO END IN SIGHT! PLEASE HELP! 63HRS & COUNTING#FLIGHT596 https://t.co/lBohdBQfb2
— Tess (@tweedleteeee) December 25, 2022
Though flights returning from Cancun seem to make up the bulk of complaints on social media, those flying from Punta Cana, Montego Bay, and other destinations are also experiencing the same problems.
"We sincerely regret the impact to our customers' travel plans over the busy holiday period," said a representative for Sunwing in an emailed statement.
"Our teams locally and in destination are doing everything possible to return customers home in the coming days. We deeply apologize for delays during the holiday season, and thank our customers for their understanding while we work to overcome operational challenges brought on by severe winter weather across key regions in Canada."
Join the conversation Load comments