A Toronto family with a five-month-old baby stranded in Mexico after their Sunwing flights were canceled say a Sunwing representative told them if they didn’t stop challenging their situation, they would stay in Mexico “forever.”
The comments were videotaped by another passenger as travelers were shuttled from hotels to airports and back for days, some sleeping in hotel lobbies or on airport floors.
“I was devastated. I paid Sunwing to take me back to Toronto. I’m not asking for a favor,” Ritesh Bhatia told CTV News on Wednesday. “They should understand we’re in trouble. We have a baby to take care of.”
The previously unreported exchange is an illustration of how helpless hundreds of passengers felt when the airline gave them confusing and conflicting information as operational difficulties were compounded by a storm in North America.
Canada’s Transport Minister Omar Alghabra tweeted on Wednesday that he is concerned about the current situation at Sunwing Airlines.
“This current situation is unacceptable. Canadians must receive the information they need to return safely. We expect all airlines to keep their passengers informed when it comes to providing a service they were paid for,” he wrote.
A video shows Bhatia’s son, Rumi, crying in her arms as she talks to an airline representative on Christmas Eve, days after they were unable to return from a vacation in Cancun that was supposed to end on December 21.
Bhatia told CTV News that she arrived early that day to wait in line, but found herself at the bottom of a list prepared by a Sunwing representative of people who might catch a flight to Toronto.
“I got mad at it. I was with a five-month-old baby waiting since early morning,” Bhatia said.
That’s when he says the representative told him to back off, saying, “I’m going to make sure people stay here forever.”
A video taken by another passenger shows part of the exchange, leaving Bhatia scared that the representative could continue and be stranded for much longer.
CTV News reached out to Sunwing with questions about the video on Tuesday but has yet to hear back.
Passenger Hina Cacheiro Low told CTV News that she also saw the exchange.
“I didn’t take it as a joke,” he said. “I took it as, ‘Wow, we’re not in Canada, I don’t fully understand what laws apply here and what could happen to me if we say the wrong thing or upset the wrong person.’
Cacherio Low said his family was also left in the dark, rarely receiving updates on new Sunwing flights, thanks to an app that didn’t seem to work.
One photo shows his family lying on a blanket on a concrete sidewalk outside the Cancun airport around 2 am waiting to see if they will have a hotel room to sleep in that night.
“It’s definitely not the Christmas we envisioned,” he said. “It’s definitely been a nightmare.”
They were among hundreds stuck at Sunwing destinations, including Cancun and Cuba. Video taken by passengers at the Cancun airport shows them chanting “take us home!” Cacheiro Low said angry passengers at the airport were met by armed security forces.
After giving up hope on Sunwing, Cacheiro Low says he spent $4,000 on new flights that got them back to Toronto on Monday night, money they’re not sure they’ll ever see.
CTV aviation specialist Phil Durdey said the early canceled flights had a ripple effect on the rest of Sunwing’s network.
“It went off because Sunwing doesn’t fly every day to that destination. So people are away for a couple of days. But the other planes are already full. The problem is that there are not enough seats for everyone and they have to start chartering planes,” she said.
Sunwing tweeted on Tuesday: “We have completed 2 recovery flights so far this week, have another 8 recovery flights planned which are scheduled to depart up to and including December 30th, and are currently finalizing recovery plans for our remaining passengers. in the destiny”.
Passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs told CTV News that Sunwing telling Bhatia she may never go home is like breaking a contract.
“This moment will be very important for that passenger to obtain compensation. This must be compensated beyond the normal framework. This is outrageous, this is egregious, what we are seeing,” she said.
Bhatia said that after the representative told him that, he kept quiet and took a Sunwing flight home the next day.
Only now, in Canada, did he feel safe talking about his experience.
“This type of threat should not be given to any passenger. They were not nice to us,” Bhatia said.