'Ridiculous': Sun Country Cancels Flights Without Warning
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It all started as a fun girls trip to New York City for Alycia Koziara and her mom, Teri.
But it became a frustrating and expensive headache when the two were making their way home to Minnesota.
Koziara tells WCCO-TV their Sun Country flight from New Jersey to Minneapolis on Saturday was canceled, but passengers were never notified.
"The lack of communication, the fact that they just left everybody sitting there and nobody knew what was going on was ridiculous," Koziara said.
No email, no phone call, no announcement, and an entire plane full of people left stranded.
READ MORE: Sun Country Says 'Human Error' Resulted In Family's Info Being Released To Wrong Person
"They disappeared and left you to figure it out for yourselves. There was nobody there, the little fence lines were taken down and their name on the video screen was gone," Koziara said.
She tried contacting the airline to figure out what they should do.
"We called Sun Country a lot and we weren't getting through. They actually hung up on us quite a few times," Koziara said.
The mother-daughter duo finally decided to spend hundreds of dollars finding their own way home, taking an Uber to Philadelphia and hopping on a Delta flight home from there.
Sun Country Airlines issued WCCO-TV the following statement:
We sincerely apologize to all the passengers on the six flights canceled on Saturday, June 29. We had multiple unrelated and unplanned operational challenges that forced cancellations. However, what is understandably even more frustrating to customers is the lack of communication. We recently completed an overhaul and upgrade of our reservations and customer communication technology. This was the first flight cancellation we have executed since the overhaul, and unfortunately, a step that triggers customer communication was missed in the cancellation process.
This is not the customer experience we strive to offer or that our guests should expect. Each passenger has been issued a $200 voucher towards future travel, and we are hopeful they will give us another chance to provide an exceptional flight experience in the future. We will also reimburse hotel costs incurred by passengers who were away from home and not able to get out on a flight the same day, and a refund of all Sun Country flights booked on their itinerary. At the time, passengers had the option to either rebook on the next available flight or receive a refund.
Last year, hundreds of travelers were stranded in Mexico after Sun Country canceled flights on the last day of their seasonal service. Two of those passengers sued the airline.
Customers are able to file a complaint against an airline with the United States Department of Transportation.
