Just returned from a week vacation with Sunwing. That company would make an absolutely perfect Gong Show contestant.
We settled on a resort in the DR, which was accessible from Ottawa. (We could have saved $400/pax if we had driven to Montreal, but we felt that it is important to support YOW.) There were 12 of us so we decided to go through the Group Booking. There are lots of perks listed on the Web for groups.
The ‘Instant’ quote that they sent back (the next day) worked out to about $500 more for the 12 of us than if we had just booked individually. But we felt that getting the private transfers, upgraded rooms, etc. were worth the extra. I responded within the hour to say that we were interested. I got an ‘auto-reply’ e-mail that said that it might take up to 3 days to get a real reply.
On day 5, I e-mailed again, to get an ‘auto-reply’ that the agent was away for the next week but to phone and another agent could help. I phoned to see if there was any way to expedite things, since we were within the 40-days of the trip. (Yes, it was late, but getting a location consensus from 12 people . . .) Nope, the agent on the phone couldn’t help, since I had already been assigned to another – but she checked and there was a lot of availability on the rooms we were looking for at the resort, and lots of seats on the plane. Please be patient, I was told, my agent would get everything worked out for me.
A few more days passed, and I noticed that the cost kept rising on the Web. I called to ask about the group price. Don’t worry, I was told, the quoted price would be the one I would pay – even though it was well after the 48 hours that the quote was good for.
Two days after my agent’s return date, I phoned again, but still could not get ‘my’ agent, but the new agent checked availability for me, and there were still the rooms that we were looking for. I needed to be patient and everything would be fine.
Finally, at three weeks, I sent yet another e-mail asking for the e-mail address of their supervisor. I didn’t get that, but I did get a reply to my original e-mail. It included a spreadsheet that I needed to fill out with all of the data for the 12 people, including flight numbers, dates, resort name, room type, base price, fees & tax, full name, address, date of birth, contact information, etc. I had a time looking up all the info, but I managed to return the filled-in spreadsheet within a couple of hours. Then I heard nothing back for days.
Finally, I called again and talked to yet another agent. She was surprised that I hadn’t heard anything, since there was a confirmed booking number. But this was now four weeks after the quote and the only rooms left were the four small, older, double rooms – which were NOT the room-type that we were originally asking for.
How does it take over four weeks to get a group booking?
And, of course, the perks, it turns out, were not applicable to the DR – although I didn’t find that out until after the booking was paid for.
Weird thing about Sunwing: They do not charge for one checked bag, but there is a $25 charge for a carry-on. Since we were only going for a week, everyone in our group had a mostly empty checked bag.
The plane going down was an hour late taking off from YOW – although boarding was almost on time. The luggage wasn’t even loaded until after we were onboard.
The day before leaving, we did as we were told and asked the local Sunwing rep. when we needed to be in the lobby for our shared ride (not private transfer, as the group perks say) to the airport. We got the answer 09:50, which seemed reasonable, to us, as it was almost four hours before the 13:45 flight. For clarity, we repeated back “So we meet in the lobby at ‘9’ ‘5’ 0’, 9:50, tomorrow?” “Yes, 9:50.” He replied.
When we got to the lobby, we found that the bus had come and left at 09:00. The rep. had given us the wrong time. Surely, the pick-up time has been the same for weeks. How does he give out the wrong time. The resort was nice enough to get us a couple of large taxis – which were extra cost for us. We were lucky that we still had enough cash on hand to pay for the taxis and the departure tax.
On the flight back we also sat for an hour on the plane before we could take off – because of a “security issue with the luggage”. It seems that there was someone rifling through our luggage in the PUJ, so loading our bags was, again, delayed. When we got home, my sister-in-law found her jewelry bag (which had been in her luggage, since we didn’t have carry-on) ripped open and pieces missing. Maybe that is why Sunwing wants everyone to take checked luggage – because it helps feed local crime.
I, for one, am glad that the OIAA has yanked the licence from Sunwing’s baggage-handlers. It seems to me that Sunwing has zero control of its people. It seems that we just don’t have reputable passenger airlines in Canada. It is nice to see that the OIAA is trying to do the right thing for its customers.
Oh, and all 12 of us, and everyone we talked to there, suffered gastro-intestinal trouble at that resort. But they do sell lots of Imodium and Pepto Bismol, at more-or-less reasonable prices, in the on-resort pharmacy.
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