EDMONTON- Passengers on a flight from Cancun to Edmonton had a bit of a rough end to their vacation.
“Whatever stress was gone from my vacation is now back,” said Tyler Gratrix, a passenger on the flight.
“It’s been incredibly long and incredibly disappointing,” said another passenger, Devyn Dyrland.
Sunwing flight 586 was scheduled to leave Cancun at 4:00p.m. Saturday. After sitting on the tarmac for nearly three hours, the plane took off for what was supposed to be a direct flight to Edmonton.
“We landed in Calgary because apparently there was a snow storm in Edmonton,” said Milana Rai who was travelling with three small children.
“We were told that we couldn’t land in Edmonton because of bad weather but, we checked the weather network when we landed in Calgary and it was clear skies,” added Gratrix.
Passengers say they were given numerous reasons as to why the plane had to land in Calgary, from bad weather to the need for a new crew onboard the aircraft.
After landing in Calgary Rai says passengers were told the flight would be leaving for Edmonton at 6:00a.m. Sunday.
“The six o’clock departure that we were promised turned into a nine o’clock departure.”
While they waited in Calgary, passengers say requests for food and water went unanswered.
“When we were sitting in the baggage claim area, not allowed to leave for two and a half hours, I asked for water and something to eat for my children, because they hadn’t eaten in 13 hours, and there was nobody to help us,” Rai explained.
“We’d asked to talk to a manager, there was no management. There were kids that hadn’t eaten. One lady was fainting, and we asked repeatedly for food and water and we were told ‘Well, there’s the fountain, you can go drink there’,” Gratrix added.
The flight that was originally supposed to land in Edmonton at 11:50 Saturday night, finally landed around 9:40 Sunday morning.
“It’s been an incredibly, incredibly long day on very, very little sleep. The most sleep I got was actually just laying on the carousel waiting for our luggage in Calgary. I think I got about an hour of sleep there,” said Dyrland.
Passengers say it wasn’t necessarily the delay that bothered them. They say they’re disappointed with the lack of communication and service from Sunwing.
“Not only was there a lack of communication, but they were misleading,” Gratrix explained. “There was really no customer service.”
Sunwing’s VP of Sales and Marketing says without a full report, he can’t comment on what passengers were told or how the situation was handled.
“I can honestly tell you, after many years in this business there’s going to be passengers that will say ‘We were not told anything’ and other passengers on the same flight are going to say ‘That’s not true. I don’t know where these people were, I don’t know what they were listening to, but that’s just not true.'” said Daryl McWilliams.
Passengers have been offered a $150 voucher, which can be used for future travel with Sunwing.
However, the gesture isn’t being received well by many.
“I refused the $150 voucher that we were offered because, no, it’s not worth a whole 24 hours of my time,” said Rai.
“I’ll probably give it to somebody who wants a flight from hell, I guess,” added Dyrland.
McWilliams says those who are not satisfied with the voucher can write a letter or email to the company.
With files from Jenna Bridges.