The Swoop curse

[White Cat]

We use Flair from Breslau frequently including a few days ago and Allegiant from Niagara Falls several times a month for years and have had good luck.

 

[iZon]

Another flight from London to Orlando and back to Toronto cancelled by Swoop today. The flight up from Orlando was one hour late but can’t see a reason for cancellation. It was rescheduled for 2pm which would get it there well before the 7pm customs deadline. This is 5 of the last 11.

If makes you wonder what’s going on. It always makes the morning Toronto to Sanford leg and then back to London and then it’s cancelled.

 

[iZon]

There was an article in the London Free Press today about the issue. The London airport officials are very upset with Swoop. Swoop says that Sanford airport changed their customs hours and this is causing the disruption. They said they have made an agreement with the airport to accommodate their flights, even the late flights, until the end of the season. The odd thing is that Swoop never bothered to change their schedule even when Sanford decided to close early thus knowing flights would have to be cancelled. But this seems like good news.

 

[podgirl]

There was an article in the London Free Press today about the issue. The London airport officials are very upset with Swoop. Swoop says that Sanford airport changed their customs hours and this is causing the disruption. They said they have made an agreement with the airport to accommodate their flights, even the late flights, until the end of the season. The odd thing is that Swoop never bothered to change their schedule even when Sanford decided to close early thus knowing flights would have to be cancelled. But this seems like good news.

That is indeed great news. We want there to be more choices about where to fly from. It makes one wonder why they didn’t have their act together earlier though! I’m also in London and we are trying out Flair out of Kitchener for March Break.

 

[iZon]

It’s interesting what they did today. The flight up from Orlando to London was late. So they flew an empty plane from Toronto to London so the flight back to Sanford could leave on time. Then the incoming flight dropped off passengers and zipped back to Toronto, to then fly off to somewhere else. So this is how they solved the problem of missing customs.

 

[migel]

I'd read of another cancellation by Swoop posted yesterday by someone in a Facebook group I follow. They received an email the night before the flight (earlier this week) advising of the cancellation, and offered a flight 3 days later. I can't recall which city they were flying from, but it was to Sanford. Someone then added that recently their return flight to Hamilton was also cancelled, apparently due to weather, but there was no 'weather' issue to speak of. Not a lot of good news as of late. I fly out of Hamilton at the end of the month.

 

[iZon]

It’s been an adventurous week for them. A couple of days ago a flight from Toronto to Kingston Jamaica had to divert to Cuba because of a fuel leak. Two days later the people were still there. And then the next day a flight from Toronto to Las Vegas had to turn around 45 minutes into the flight because of an engine problem, but they had to circle for four hours to dump fuel before they could land. On tomorrow’s schedule alone I count 23 cancellations. Today they actually used another airline’s plane to fly people from London to Sanford. We have a flight with them April 27th but am looking at eating flight and booking another airline.

 

[iZon]

Problem solved. Swoop just sent an email saying they’re cancelling the rest of the winter flights out of the London to Sanford on March 28. Originally they were to go to April 27, which was our flight. Low bookings? Bad publicity? So I will book something else, which I was planning on doing anyway as a back up. Now I get a refund. Hopefully.

 

[CanadaRunningMom]

It looks like Swoop has cancelled all their Sanford routes as of end of April. They have added Hamilton to MCO for the summer.

 

[iZon]

It does appear that they were having trouble with Sanford, maybe the immigration. I suppose MCO is more convenient, but Sanford was very nice and very fast to get through.

 

[migel]

I've been checking my flight status almost daily (I fly out March 29th). It's not just the cancellations, from what I'm reading it can be next to impossible to contact them for refunds, compensation, etc. Regretting I didn't book out of Pearson, or Allegiant in Niagara Falls this time around, but I wanted to give Hamilton Airport a try. Fingers crossed.

 

[wdwmom3]

We use Flair from Breslau frequently including a few days ago and Allegiant from Niagara Falls several times a month for years and have had good luck.

Flair just had a number of planes seized due to not paying the leases on them.

 

[podgirl]

Flair just had a number of planes seized due to not paying the leases on them.

Yep, one of them was the plane we were supposed to fly on this morning! What an ordeal this has been. Several of us ended up driving to Detroit to catch a flight. I feel so badly for all the families with young kids who were supposed to be flying down to Disney today. The Waterloo airport was packed with them.

 

[iZon]

Guess which airline I booked for April after having my Swoop flight canceled? Yep. Flair out of Waterloo.

 

[podgirl]

Guess which airline I booked for April after having my Swoop flight canceled? Yep. Flair out of Waterloo.

Oh my word, no! That’s too bad. Would you be able to cancel and then go with Delta or Spirit out of Detroit? They have multiple flights each day. Flair seems to be making a PR move trying to rectify the situation from Saturday. I’ve had multiple emails from them telling me how to submit receipts for the flight I had to re-book in order to get a reimbursement. Will let you know if they actually pay the money, though!

 

[2Lunds]

I have a friend in aviation who told me that Swoop is only good for super flexible trips where you're staying with friends/family (ie - not booking hotels), or trips you don't really want to go on (ie - that meeting your boss is making you attend but you're not getting anything out of it).

Either way - you won't be brokenhearted to be a day late, or have to cancel.

 

[migel]

Update on my Swoop experience, just back yesterday, Wed to Wed flight, Hamilton to Sanford. No cancellations or major issues which was a big plus! The outgoing 7 am flight was delayed by 35 minutes, no big deal. They'd had a minor technical issue on the way down and had to wait on their flight log, and we also had to wait to have the wings de-iced due to some minor frost. Other than that, all smooth.
For the return, weather in Hamilton showed t-storms all day, which had me worried. I arrived at the airport extra early and saw that both the Swoop departure from Hamilton and my return flight were delayed by 15 minutes. I knew that any additional delay could spell disaster. Weather still showed thunderstorms, but I checked the Swoop site, and saw that our plane had departed, albeit 30 minutes late. Breathed a big sigh of relief. Long story short, due to the later delay in boarding, and then a further onboard delay because there was an issue with the passenger manifest, we were up about 90 minutes late. But considering recent cancellations, I'll take that anytime.
Having said that, although I enjoyed being back at Sanford airport, I doubt I'll do Swoop again, at least to Florida. I'm back to Southwest next month, and will probably consider Allegiant out of Niagara Falls later in the year. The $180 price tag to park for 7 days at Hamilton was pretty much equal to my return ticket to Florida. Not sure when Hamilton jacked their rates up that high, but that's more than Toronto, Buffalo, etc., and by far. Still, I'm glad I gave it a try.

 

[iZon]

London airport parking was around $75 for a week.

 

[migel]

London airport parking was around $75 for a week.

That's the range I was expecting. I flew Hamilton to Halifax about 5 years back and the parking rates were nowhere near what they are now.

 

[Carolynleanne]

So sorry to hear this. I am always tempted by the lower cost airlines but in the end stick with Air Canada. They aren't perfect by any means, but at least they have an extensive network with many options to reroute should the need arise. I hope you have a wonderful vacation despite the delay!

THIS.