As hundreds of Canadians rush home after their Sunwing flights to Mexico were canceled last week, a passenger rights advocate says stranded travelers should consider legal action if they are not compensated by the air carrier.
Air Passenger Rights Group chairman and founder Gabor Lukacs recommends that passengers struggling with canceled flights and insufficient information about when they might be placed on another plane should buy their own return tickets from a other carrier and carefully keep receipts of their expenses.
If Sunwing refuses to compensate them under the federal Air Passenger Protection Regulations, they should take the case to small claims court, he argued in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“We’ve gotten to a point in Canada where suing an airline isn’t just about money, it’s about changing the way they operate. You have to push them to change, he said. And this is where the government fails in its duty to the public. »
Lukacs said passengers should also call their local MP’s office and ask for better enforcement of passenger rights in Canada.
Last Sunday, hundreds of Canadian travelers were stranded in Cancun, Mexico, after Sunwing canceled their return flights. Some described being dragged from hotel to hotel, sometimes arriving to find there was no room reserved for them, while Sunwing officials provided inaccurate and incomplete information about when they could go home.
Stuck in Puerto Vallarta
Sheldon de Souza experienced a similar situation in Puerto Vallarta, on the west coast of Mexico. He traveled there with his wife, three children and three family friends on December 14, and his return flight was scheduled with Sunwing on December 21.
This flight was canceled, although only some passengers were informed, he pointed out.
He and a group of other passengers were transferred to different hotels and told to report to reception every hour, in case there was news of an available flight. However, the information they were given was imprecise, or else it had to be changed at the last minute.
Mr. De Souza finally booked himself a seat on an Air Canada flight to Calgary on December 23, which cost him about $1,000. His wife, children and their friends managed to get a Sunwing flight home on Monday, but only because they started showing up at the airport asking for a seat.
The little family had even managed to get seats on a Sunwing flight to Edmonton late Sunday, Christmas Day, but when they arrived at the gate, officials announced that the crew had exceeded their hours. maximum work allowed and the flight was cancelled.
“It was as if Sunwing had just abandoned us, they didn’t care,” denounced Mr. De Souza. It’s not even as if they had made an effort, they forgot about us. »
Compensations of up to $1000
Federal Air Passenger Protection Regulations require airlines to pay up to $1,000 in compensation for cancellations or long delays that arise from reasons within the carrier’s control, when notice arrives 14 days or less before departure.
Mr Lukacs, of the Air Passenger Rights group, believes Sunwing is unlikely to pay voluntarily. The Canadian Transportation Agency, which acts as an airline regulator, is not doing enough to hold airlines accountable, he says, so they don’t feel much pressure to obey. to the rules.
Neither Sunwing nor the Canadian Transportation Agency immediately responded to a request for comment.
Sunwing said in an email on Sunday that the flights had been canceled due to bad weather and that everything was being done to get passengers home “in the coming days”.