Sunwing stranded couple for 5 days after vacation, charged them $50 flight change fee to fly home

Several Sunwing passengers say the airline needs to be held accountable after many flight cancellations and delays last month, including cases where it abruptly cancelled vacations with no rebooking offers or delayed return flights for days.

"This wasn't just a matter of inconvenience, it was a traumatic event," said Hans Roach. Sunwing stranded the Waterloo, Ont., city councillor, and his wife, Tanya McConnell, in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, for five days after cancelling their Feb. 17 flight home. 

Sunwing, which offers flights and vacation packages, cancelled dozens of flights in February, amid winter storms and the Delta plane crash that caused slowdowns at Toronto's Pearson airport.

According to Canada's air passenger regulations, when airlines cancel flights, they must offer to rebook passengers free of charge on the next available flight. For situations outside the airlines' control (like bad weather), large carriers (like Sunwing) must transport passengers within 48 hours of their original departure time, or else book them on another carrier. 

Six groups of Sunwing passengers who experienced cancelled flights last month told CBC News that Sunwing didn't follow those rules. In Roach and McConnell's case, the airline flew the couple home five days after their scheduled departure date — not within the mandated 48 hours.

"It's very disheartening to think that a large airline like this would break that rule," said Roach. "There was a real lack of communication from Sunwing."

He says the airline paid for the couple's prolonged hotel stay, but didn't cover taxi fares when moving them twice to different resorts. Rather than enjoying an extended vacation, Roach says the couple spent much of their added time in the hotel lobby waiting for news.

"It was a very anxious five days," he said. "Every day, we would pack up all our luggage, get down to the lobby at noon, and hope and pray that we had a flight."

He says friends they travelled with paid out-of-pocket for flights home earlier on other airlines. But Roach says he and McConnell stuck it out, due to stubbornness and fear Sunwing wouldn't reimburse them if they bought seats on another carrier. 

Before finally boarding their return flight on Feb. 22, Roach says they faced a "final indignity" when Sunwing charged them each a $50 change fee, because they weren't flying home on their originally booked flight.

"They could not give us a boarding pass unless we paid," he said. "I argued for a little bit, but it was at 2:30 in the morning. I was just too tired."

Five other passengers interviewed told CBC News Sunwing cancelled their outgoing flight with no rebooking offer — despite regulations requiring the airline to do so. 

Chrissy Downs of Moncton, N.B., made the 260-kilometre trek to the airport in Halifax, only to find out her Feb. 20 flight to Santa Clara, Cuba, had been delayed, and then cancelled, along with her entire vacation package. 

"There was nothing, no explanation, no, 'I'm sorry,' no, 'We'll try to work something out for you,'" said Downs, adding that she would have embraced a rebooked flight.