As hundreds of Canadians rush home after their flights to Mexico were canceled last week, a passenger advocate said stranded travelers should consider legal action if they are not reimbursed by the air carrier.
Air Passenger Rights Group president and founder Gabor Lukacs recommends that passengers struggling with flight cancellations and insufficient information about when they will be put on another plane buy their return tickets from another airline and keep their expense receipts carefully.
If Sunwing refuses to compensate them under federal Air Passenger Protection Regulations, they must take the case to small claims court, he argued in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“We’re getting 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 get them to change,” he said. And this is where government fails in its duty to the public. »
Lukacs said passengers should also contact their local attorney’s office and plead 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 allocated for them, while Sunwing officials gave inaccurate and incomplete information about when they would return home.
Stuck in Puerto Vallarta
Sheldon de Souza witnessed a similar situation in Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s west coast. He flew there with his wife, three children, and three friends on December 14, and the return trip with Sunwing was scheduled for December 21.
He indicated that this flight was canceled, although only some passengers were informed.
He and a group of other passengers were taken to different hotels and told to come to reception every hour, in case there was news of an available flight. However, the information that was given to them was inaccurate, otherwise it would have had to be changed at the last minute.
Mr. de Souza finally booked himself a seat on the Air Canada flight to Calgary on December 23, which cost him about $1,000. His wife, children and their friends were able to get a Sunwing flight home on Monday, but only because they started showing up at the airport asking for a seat.
The young family even managed to get seats on the Sunwing flight to Edmonton late Sunday, Christmas Day, but when they got to the gate, officials announced that the crew had exceeded their hours.
“It was like Sunwing had just given up on us, and they didn’t care,” Mr. de Souza denounced. It’s not like they made an effort, they just forgot about us. »
Compensation of up to $1,000
Federal Air Passenger Protection Regulations require airlines to pay up to $1,000 in compensation for cancellations or extended delays that arise from causes within the carrier’s control, when notice arrives 14 days or less before departure.
Lukacs, of the Air Passenger Rights group, believes Sunwing is unlikely to pay voluntarily. The Canadian Transportation Agency, which acts as a regulator for airlines, isn’t doing enough to hold airlines accountable, he says, so they don’t feel much pressure to obey the rules.
Neither Sunwing nor Transportation Canada immediately responded to a request for comment.
Sunwing said in an email on Sunday that flights had been canceled due to bad weather and that everything was being done to bring the passengers home “in the coming days”.
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