Family stuck in Winnipeg airport hotel feels Sunwing ‘didn’t care’ about them after cancelled flights

A western Manitoba family spent the last eight months planning a Christmas trip to sunny Puerto Vallarta, but that trip was postponed and then cancelled by the airline, leaving them in limbo in a Winnipeg airport hotel over the holidays.

The family of nine — some from Brandon, some from Onanole, Man., —  checked into a hotel by the Winnipeg airport on Christmas Eve, planning on flying out on a Sunwing flight early the next day, but they didn’t receive any notice of their flights were postponed repeatedly over the next few days.

“It’s like we didn’t even exist,” said Bev Towler, who organized the trip for her family.

“It’s just a big, huge disappointment. We’ve all been sad at different times … We’re not okay because they didn’t care about us.”

Jenn Dudman, Towler’s daughter-in-law, says their flight was rescheduled for 4 a.m. on Boxing Day, so they went to the airport in the middle of the night to check in and board, along with what she estimates were 200 others.

“We all stood there until 1:30 a.m. until a security guard asked what we were doing and we said, ‘Well, we fly out at four with Sunwing’ and he said, ‘You guys don’t have a flight,'” Dudman said.

That flight was delayed until 4 a.m. on Tuesday, when it was finally cancelled entirely. They decided to forego the trip altogether.

Over the last few days, Dudman says there was virtually no communication with the airline.

“I tried calling Sunwing to talk to a representative and the phone would just disconnect. You could not email them, nothing. We went to the airport and tried to talk to somebody, there was no one at the airport,” she said.

While they were waiting, the family felt as though they were in limbo in the hotel, with very few businesses and services open during the holidays, and with very little winter clothing in their possession

Stuck in Cancun

While their family was stuck in the hotel in Winnipeg, hundreds of Canadians have been stranded in Mexico for days after their flights were cancelled as storms batter parts of the country as well as the U.S.

Tony Bueckert from Thornhill, Man., travelled to Cancun with his wife and two children on Dec. 17 and was supposed to return on Dec. 24 in time for a number of family gatherings.

Instead, they returned on Dec. 26, and had to pay for an extra night at the hotel out of pocket because the family’s flights were repeatedly postponed without notice.

“I own a business, I fix cars for a living, and if I was to say it’s going to be done at this time and then I just don’t phone them for three days with no information, they would be pissed and I would be out of business,” he said.

“Just don’t treat your customers that way. It shouldn’t happen ever, in any line of work there should be some sort of information.”

Abby Heathcote was also staying in the Cancun area and hoping to travel home to Teulon, Man., on Christmas Eve, but that flight was delayed until the next day.

The extra night in hotel was covered by the airline, but when their Christmas Day flight was postponed, Heathcote spent much of the next day in the hotel lobby waiting for information.

“We had no idea what was going on and we had to check almost every hour and things were changing almost every hour and just completely no communication whatsoever,” she told CBC News on Tuesday.

“Even though we were safe and we were able to stay at the resort, it was just a really scary and helpless feeling because we were so alone.”

Sunwing said in a statement on Tuesday that it’s working around the clock to bring people home.

So far this week, the airline has completed two recovery flights to Mexico and have another eight planned.

Heathcote says she feels for the Canadians who are still stuck in Mexico waiting for flights home, and doesn’t know how they are supposed to trust Sunwing’s word.

“It’s nice that they’re saying that, but when you can’t communicate that to anybody and you’re not telling anyone where they’re supposed to be or when they’re going somewhere, that’s just words. That doesn’t mean anything.”

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