On the 19th of March, my husband and I were supposed to be on a flight to Cuba for my nephew Max’s wedding. The plans for this wedding have been a year in the making with Max and Nicole, his fiancé, spending hours and hours planning for this destination event. They were beyond excited.
The event will not take place as planned, thanks to the actions of Sunwing.
By way of background, Max and Nicole had vacationed at the resort last year, thoroughly enjoyed the experience and decided to book their wedding there through Sunwing. A Sunwing Weddings Travel Account Manager, Team Lead (of Sunwing Vacations), was assigned to help them navigate the wedding booking process and handle the group booking.
Over the next year, and particularly the last six months, Max and Nicole meticulously planned their wedding and were excited each and every time another friend or family member decided to join them on this memorable adventure. As many of you know, wedding plans are not just confined to picking a date and venue, there are hundreds of little details that occupy a bride and groom’s attention. Max and Nicole set up group chats, planned events to take place at the resort and fielded loads of questions about the venue and the Sunwing booking process. They were fully engaged in all aspects of this event.
Most of the people were booked on a Sunwing flight departing Toronto on the 17th of March. Dan and I, flying with Sunwing out of Ottawa, were departing on the 19th. We would have preferred to arrive on the same day as the rest of the wedding group but the option was not available to us if we wanted a direct flight from Ottawa. My nephew promised to meet us in the lobby of the resort with a cool beverage since they would have arrived two days before us. We would have the following five days with the group.
Suddenly, and without prior warning, Sunwing changed the date of the Toronto departure to the 16th. A full day ahead of the scheduled departure date. This change took place yesterday, 12 days before the Toronto departure date. At first blush, Max and Nicole, although shocked at the sudden change, thought, “OK, this is workable. It is just one day.” but they quickly realized the adverse impact to their wedding group of such a late stage change to their travel dates.
Not that many people attending the wedding actually live in Toronto. Those who had made arrangements to travel to Toronto for the 17th were now forced to make alternate travel arrangements. For example, one person was flying into Toronto on an Air Canada flight from Calgary. She had booked her flight out of Calgary to arrive in Toronto a day ahead of the scheduled Sunwing departure on the 17th. Now, her scheduled flight to Toronto would be arriving after the revised Sunwing departure time on the 16th. She would have to rebook her Air Canada flight and she would be out the money to make the flight change IF she could even make the change. Anyone from Kingston booked on the afternoon trains on the 16th were also out of luck as all three arrived too late to make that revised flight and the “Escape Fares” are nonrefundable.
Apparently Sunwing held the position that it was not responsible for costs associated with pre-existing travel arrangements people had made to get to Toronto. Those arriving in Toronto from other points, would have to scramble to change their travel plans, some of which would now involve taking Friday off work. For those with limited holiday time, this is a hardship they were not expecting. To compound the issue, not all of the travellers in the wedding group were notified of the change until Max and Nicole notified them.
For the wedding couple, trying to get information out to family and friends and to field the myriad of questions was stressful and handling this sudden wrench in their plans was frustrating. Sunwing seemed to adopt the attitude that it had the right to make flight changes and any ancillary problems associated with the airline’s sudden itinerary change should just be absorbed by their customers.
At this point, while following the group chat conversation and seeing the problems that were popping up and questions being posed to the wedding couple, I thought that at least Dan and I were spared this sudden unexpected change. After all, we were leaving on the 19th so our departure date was unaffected. However, it suddenly meant that we, and the other couple arriving on the 19th, were being deprived of a day in the company of the group. The activities we had planned for certain members of the wedding party, as a surprise for them on the 23rd, would have to be cancelled as they were now leaving on the 23rd. There was no guarantee we could book the activity on the 22nd. A ripple effect of Sunwing’s arbitrary decision to change the departure date on such short notice.
The groom contacted the Sunwing representative. From a customer relations perspective, one would think that Sunwing would really be willing to assist the wedding group navigate the problems the changes caused and even offer the bridal couple some type of compensation. But no, Sunwing’s representative(s) were less than helpful and it was decided that the wedding trip would be cancelled. Not only are the bride and groom shattered as a result of this fiasco, but the guests booked are disappointed for the bridal couple and annoyed with Sunwing.
There was a little bit of a hiccup in that only those originally departing Toronto would be offered a refund, but I was subsequently assured by a representative of Sunwing that we would receive a refund. The thought of continuing our vacation with Sunwing is not an option as the only reason we were going on the trip was for the wedding. I will await further word on when that refund will be forthcoming. In the interim, the bride and groom had to start planning again from scratch but we can all rest assured that Sunwing will not be involved in any future wedding plans.
Being a travel writer, I come across problems with charter or so-called leisure carriers all the time. Stories abound about travel delays and the adverse impacts to customers when sudden schedule changes are necessary. But at the end of the day, it is how a company chooses to address the problem they create, that is the most telling. In my opinion, Sunwing let the bride and groom down and a year of planning, hopes and dreams have gone down the tubes leaving a bitter taste regarding Sunwing as a service provider.
