A Sunwing Experience
Reader be warned: this is neither a tax nor tech article.
What was supposed to be a short 4 hour flight with me and my friends turned into a multi-day epic battling endless delays, missing passengers, an extra baby, and one turquoise luggage. This saga begins during the week where Sunwing was hacked, which I suppose no traveler can really be prepared for.
The problem was how Sunwing handled it.
Disclaimer: This article represents my own opinions and experiences to the best of my recollection. Names that refer to real people are either a coincidence or an erŕo̴r in the fabric of sp̵ac̸e̡t̶i͠mè.
Preamble
It seems like a rite of passage to go on a graduation trip after university. Even despite the impacts of COVID-19, a few of the boys managed to pull together what was supposed to be a nice week stay at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun. We were sold on comprehensive vacation packages featuring picturesque waters and inordinate amounts of fish.
Instead of the advertised warm beaches and toasty sand, we found ourselves trapped in rainy Toronto for an additional 2 days.
The Delays
It all started when I got a nice email at 2am letting me know that our flight, WG271, would be delayed a mere 11 hours.
I promptly went back to bed.
In all my (short) time flying, I had never seen a delay quite like this before. When I awoke, I refreshed the page a few times, wishing for the time to revert. Alas, it did not give me the information that I hoped for — instead only displaying the truth I refused to believe.
The rest of the morning passed by relatively uneventfully. The only highlight of the day was the arrival of my new credit card, which proved incredibly helpful in Cancun.
Someone will need to physically restrain me before I sell my soul and become a travel rewards card blogger.
It was around 4pm when I received an updated travel itinerary.
Turns out, if a flight is delayed overnight (say, from a Tuesday to Wednesday), the Sunwing system is unable to display the new date of departure. It instead shows the original date with the new departure time. Our departure time, according to this email, was 7:45am on Tuesday. I received this email at 4pm. On Tuesday.
Looking back, I’m just happy I hadn’t left home yet.
Tuesday night came and went, with no more delays to report. And so, it was that Wednesday morning when one weary-eyed tech-turned-travel-blogger left for the airport at the crack of dawn — a heart filled with dread for the calamity ahead.
Arriving at the airport at 5am, there were only empty counters all along Terminal 3, save for a massive line spanning the entire length of the terminal. There was only one airline it could possibly have been for. The right thing seemed to do was to join the line — if the end could be found at all.
A Sunwing rep later told me they had no idea why there was a line — it wasn’t for anything in particular. Passengers for each flight would be individually called for check in via bullhorn. Some clever social engineering to keep people organized, perhaps.
In some twist of irony, as soon as we arrived at the airport I watched as the 7:45am was pushed to 10:25am on the already-red departures board.
At some point a Sunwing representative announced that they would be moving passengers to other airlines. Specifically, the regularly-scheduled Wednesday WG587 flight to Cancun would be handled by WestJet, resulting in no delays for those passengers. As much as I’m happy that their vacations were not ruined, I couldn’t help but think that I — along with all the other passengers on WG271 — held some misguided claim to that plane.
(not so) conspiracy theory: Canada’s Air Passenger Protections Regulation sets the maximum penalty at $500 for delays of 9 hours or more on a small carrier such as Sunwing. Seeing as how we were already well past 9 hours, any additional delays would not change the amount of compensation we were entitled to. To avoid paying out for delaying those other passengers, it would be in Sunwing’s best interest to ensure that WG587 take off as scheduled.
Then the 10:25am became 3pm.
Grumbles could be heard as passengers berated the poor frontline worker that was forced to make the unfortunate announcement. Anger from the approximate 200 or so people on our flight quickly changed to applause as the same person announced that they would be (manually) checking in passengers. It took over one hour to complete check-in for all of us. Passing through security, the CBSA agent took one look at our distinctive orange tickets and waved us through with a sigh.
Predictably, the 3pm was soon delayed to 7pm.
We settled into the lounge and intended to make a very full use of our 2 hour access passes. The delays had long since passed the point of inconvenience— this was a battle, and we were prepared to hunker down for the long haul.
Some slept. Some drank. Some played video games. I watched Forrest Gump.
Minutes blended into hours as every food option was explored. Nachos, pasta, samosas — no dish was left uneaten, no drink left un… drunken. The snacks didn’t stand a chance. And still time ticked on, a never-ending yet impossibly slow march into eternity.
Better than wasting away at the gate for hours on end.
As the clock finally approached boarding time, we crossed our fingers in anticipation of a delay that thankfully never came. After using six hours of our two hour pass, it was finally time to say our goodbyes and begin the long trek to the gate. With what hoped remained, we optimistically assumed this would be the end of our trials and tribulations.
Narrator: It was not.
With breaths anxiously held, we boarded our plane at 7pm. Little did we know that this would trigger another cascading series of events.
The Missing Passengers
About 30 minutes after we boarded, the cabin crew made an announcement apologizing for the delays that we had experienced in the past two days. Soon after, they delivered another announcement with some concerning undertones.
I’ve picked random names.
Could passengers Joshua Morris and Jesse Lyons please identify themselves to the cabin crew… that’s Joshua Morris and Jesse Lyons, if you are on board this flight please identify yourselves to the cabin crew.
The plane was quiet for a few minutes before the announcement was repeated. While not explicitly telling us that they were missing passengers, it slowly became obvious that… they were missing passengers. More groans echoed from the plane as one particularly annoyed customer shouted to just leave without them, a comment that garnered the approval of many onboard.
Perhaps they had (smartly) decided to cut their losses with Sunwing.
Amid this minor confusion, another situation was beginning to develop.
The Extra Baby
While the cabin crew was busy playing hide-and-seek with Morris and Lyons, a few flight attendants had started walking up and down the aisle, asking for boarding passes.
This commotion was followed by a rather peculiar announcement from the cabin crew.
I know this is a silly question but… is everyone on this flight absolutely sure that they are going to Cancun? If you are not headed to Cancun, please let the cabin crew know immediately.
It seemed as though despite the missing passengers, there were still somehow more of us onboard than expected. A few passengers sighed. A few groaned. A few yelled out that even if there were extra people onboard, that we should just take them to Cancun with us.
A few more moments passed before I overheard what was really going on from a passing flight attendant.
There was an extra baby on board.
During check-in an agent must have forgotten to record the presence of one. The only other alternative was that some unlucky mother had managed to pop out a baby while we were waiting to take off.
Given the extent of the delay, I suppose such a scenario wouldn’t entirely be improbable.
By now at least an hour had already passed, and passengers were becoming restless. The situation deteriorated further when the babies decided that they had just about had enough of these shenanigans and staged a protest of their own. Starting with a small cry and culminating in a cacophony of tears and shattered spirits, our future leaders managed to express their feelings more eloquently and passionately than the any of us onboard could ever have.
It was truly unfortunate that one of my travelling companions was stuck between two of them.
Better him than me.
The Turquoise Luggage
By this point in the d̶a̶y night, tensions were running as high as they had ever been. Angry outbursts from passengers became increasingly common as the lack of updates on our situation continued to frustrate, the plane feeling more like a prison rather than our salvation. As the cabin crew continued to i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶r̶o̶g̶a̶t̶e question the young ones for their documentation, I turned my attention to other more pressing matters.
In any other situation, my struggles of owning two bizarrely long legs would have forced me to an aisle seat where I would’ve kicked them out for some moderate form of relief. Today, I was not so lucky. Assigned and resigned to a window seat, I was at least able to watch the ground crews load various pieces of luggage onto the plane. One large instrument. A turquoise suitcase. A baby stroller, shortly accompanied by three more.
Perhaps twenty minutes after they had completed loading, the same man came back with an empty luggage car and began unloading pieces of luggage, presumably having been incorrectly loaded in the first place. I watched as a suspiciously familiar turquoise suitcase came off our plane and thrown back into the luggage car. A few other suitcases followed before the man drove away.
Ten minutes later he reappeared. While the babies continued their haunting ballad, I watched as the man loaded a single turquoise suitcase back into the plane. It was around this time that the pilot decided to address the passengers.
Hi folks… since those passengers are not onboard, we’re going to remove their bags from the hold… our ground crews are working hard to identify what needs to be removed.
This struck me as strange: I was watching the ground crew (one man, as it were) load luggage into the hold, not taking anything out. I was further confused when the man completed his loading and drove away during the announcement.
I could do nothing but laugh to myself at my own misfortune when he returned for the fourth time, presumably to unload the missing passengers’ luggage. Astute readers would have correctly predicted that of the bags coming out of the hold for the very last time, one certain turquoise suitcase was among them.
With luggage finally unloaded, our nameless hero drove away into the night, never to be seen again.
I was stressed for the rest of the flight, wondering if my bags made it through this nonsense.
A New Hope
A few minutes after our baggage hero left us for good, I saw something in the darkness that I never thought I’d see again.
Hope.
An aircraft marshal had arrived to direct our plane towards the runway.
As the wheel chocks were removed, I felt a small bump as the plane started moving for the first time, wings bouncing in a way that reflected an inner childhood happiness I had all but lost.
I could’ve cried.
And so it came to pass that on that very Wednesday evening, flight WG271 — originally scheduled for Tuesday at 10:45am — finally took for the skies at 9:12pm. Carrying 200 passengers or so, the plane was more than just a flight: It symbolized a hard-fought battle won only through the sheer willpower and determination of each of its weary passengers. As the cabin lights dimmed for the journey, I looked out the window at the ground slowly disappearing beneath us and hoped that it would all have been worth it.
As for the extra baby, I did not hear how that particular situation was resolved. I can only hope they’re having a good vacation.
Thanks for reading part one of what might eventually be a two part series. I’ll consider writing the second part.
