Kelowna bachelorette party ends in 'nightmare' as Swoop cancels flight

A group of friends from Winnipeg who spent the weekend at a bachelorette celebration in Kelowna, B.C., say a cancelled flight left them stranded with the airline offering return flights more than a week later.

Sixwomen, including Anika Scheurer,booked their flights from Winnipeg with Swoop, an ultra-low-fare airline owned by WestJet.

"It was mainly price and the dates," Scheurer, 24, said in explaining why she chose Swoop. She saidthe round-trip ticket was about half the price offered by other airlines.

But as the group prepared to board aplane home Monday, a mechanical problem caused a delay. Hours later, the delay turned into a cancellation.

That's whenthe airline "turned a celebratory weekend into a nightmare," saidScheurer.

According to Gabor Lukacs, founder of the non-profit organizationAir Passenger Rights, that's whentravellers need to know what they're entitled to when trip plans go sideways.

"This is an egregious case. Offering someone transportation the next week is unreasonable and unjustifiable," said Lukacs.

Scheurer said the airline gave her and the other passengers a hotel voucher for the night and said $30 would be reimbursed for meals. They were told Swoop would find them flights or charter a plane within 48 hours.

But when she receivedan email from the airline late Monday night, she learned the flight home was scheduled a week later,Sept. 2. She said the group of six women was split up on various flights, with some scheduled to leaveeven later.

Distress and confusion ensued,as the women considered the costs of an unexpected few days away from home.

"We had someone who was doing pet boarding, there was child-care cost, wages lost," said Scheurer, adding that some of the womenwould be drawing from next year's vacation time.

Scheurer called the number providedand discoveredSwoop's call centre is only open from 8 a.m. to6 p.m. MT on weekdays.

The group got in touch with WestJetand paidfor flights home with that airline on Tuesday.

'It's Swoop's problem'

According to Lukacs, the airline has a duty to find reasonable alternatives for its passengers if a flight is cancelled and it can't be blamed on an act of God and that includesarranging flights on other airlines if necessary.

"It's not the passenger'sproblem or concern how Swoop deals with it, it's Swoop's problem," he said.

Lukacs said any costs incurred due to the delaysincluding meals, accommodation, lost wagesand even child care should be demanded from the company in writing. If it's not reimbursed within about a week, he said, passengers should take the airline to small claims court, even demanding $1,000 in punitive damages.

Shortly after getting back to Winnipeg on Tuesday, Scheurer got a call from Swoop staffinforming her the WestJet flight home would be reimbursed.

But for the bachelorette party, thesupport from Swoop throughout the ordeal was meagre at best, she said.

"The process was just really scattered there was no clear information," said Scheurer, who said staff tended to be kind once she got through to them.

'We apologize for the inconvenience'

She said the person who followed up on Tuesday was very apologetic.

A Swoop spokesperson declined an interview request from CBC News, but sent an emailed statement.

"We apologize for the inconvenience to our impacted travellers. Swoop has all our available resources working to get our travellers to their destinations as quickly and safely as possible," it read.

Four hours later, the spokesperson sent another statement addingthe company would reimburse passengers for costs associated with the cancelled flight.

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