Saskatoon family leaving on winter vacation loses $5k rebooking after Sunwing kerfuffle
CBC
Saskatoon resident Adrienne Stone has had just about enough of Sunwing Airlines, after months of confusion around her family's winter vacation booking.
The Stone family first made plans in August 2022 for a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with Sunwing. They booked a direct flight out of Saskatoon for Feb. 10, 2023.
Stone said the price for the trip was good, and that her family has travelled with Sunwing at least six times and has previously had no major hiccups.
"The odd delay due to weather, things like that, but nothing major there. They've always been a great airline — cheap, get you there, get you to a good resort and transportation included from the airport to the hotel. No issues," Stone said.
Then on Dec. 30, Sunwing cancelled all its flights out of Saskatchewan until Feb. 3. At the time, Stone did not think her trip would be affected, since they would not fly out until Feb. 10.
"Then I was talking to my aunt in Regina, and her flight to the Dominican was cancelled and she had said she noticed that something was up a couple days beforehand, because [her] trip was missing on the Sunwing app, and that kind of sent a red flag to her."
Stone decided to check on the status of her own trip. Like her aunt's, it was missing from the Sunwing app.
Stone called Sunwing and got confirmation that her trip had indeed been cancelled. She couldn't rebook the trip out of a non-Saskatchewan airport because the transportation would have been too expensive.
Stone decided to go with a refund, which Sunwing said would take 30 days. She received an invoice. But for weeks after, Stone noticed Sunwing was still selling the same Puerto Vallarta package her family had booked in August.
"I called them and I said, 'You're still selling this … is it a go? Like, are you fraudulently taking people's money for a trip that's been cancelled?'"
She said her family was reassured that the trip was still cancelled and all those who booked it would be refunded.
Stone rebooked the trip with WestJet, but it cost the family $5,000 more than it had with Sunwing.
Then on Monday, Stone got a direct message on Twitter from a Sunwing employee who said the flight is going forward after all. She said she didn't know why the Stones' trip was cancelled. Sunwing offered to rebook them for the same price they had agreed to back in August.
"They asked me what the cancellation policy was to cancel my other trip with WestJet. I'm like, 'I'm not gonna wait another 30 days or deal with all that cancellation to get on this original trip. And you're not really making me feel safe to even book anything with Sunwing right now.'"