Swoop is Poop
Swoop airlines is an super low-cost carrier that is owned by Westjet.
It seemed like a no-brainer to book a return flight from Edmonton to Vegas for Big Dragon and I for less than $400.
I knew that this was going to be a bit of an experiment going in, but after the MANY struggles and moments where the customer service could shine but left customers extremely frustrated, we know we will NEVER book with them again.
The reviews online were very mixed. Some people say, I love this company, you only pay for what you want and other people were upset by not being able to get a hold of Swoop to solve various problems they encountered.
Swoop can offer ultra low prices because, if you don't need anything extra then you don't pay. But if you want to pick your seats, eat on the plane, bring carry-on luggage, then they nickle and dime you like crazy.
I like to think I am an optimist at heart and felt like we would be alright. Boy, was I wrong.
On our drive to the airport we stopped for lunch and I checked my phone and discovered that our flight would be delayed by 2 hours. This was about at 1pm for a 5pm flight. No big deal, so we would leave around 7pm. That's fine.
We get to the airport, check in and go through security without any hitches. Happy to be settling into "vacation mode".
We board the plane and in the middle of the flight attendant's safety speech, there is a very.... long... pause.... and then silence.
I look at Big Dragon. He looks at me.
"Ha ha ha, what did the flight attendant have a stroke?" I joke.
No joke.
The flight attendant fainted and hit her head while going down. They call the ambulance. We see it approach the plane from the side windows and then the pilot comes on the PA.
"Unfortunately we will have to de-board the plane, we cannot continue the flight without a full staff" he announces to a groaning, full plane of anxious travelers.
We get off the plane, have to go through customs and then are in a long line for over 60 minutes to receive vouchers for hotels for the night and dinner. Meanwhile, I am frantically calling our hotel in Vegas and Car Rental places to see about refunding our purchases for the day.
Turns out the first flight attendant got in a car accident, that is why it was delayed for 2 hours. The second flight attendant, on-call, wasn't feeling well, but thought she could push through it for this flight.
Not good.
We have to get up at 5am to make it back for the 8am flight, worried that because everyone from the hotels would be taking the shuttles for this flight that we might miss it.
We get back to the airport, go through customs, again and board the plane.
"Unfortunately, we don't have clearance to land in Las Vegas so we have to de-board the plane until 9am when they open," says the Pilot with a shaky voice, knowing that he, once again would be disappointing the already frustrated crowd.
We get off the plane. We are told that a manager would be coming to approach our questions. The manager does not come, they send a Swoop worker instead who got mad at people who had questions and threatened that she would walk away and we would all not be able to fly if things continued.
The gentleman, whom she was addressing, was not yelling, but was extremely frustrated because this wasn't the first time he had problems with this airline.
She said, she doesn't speak English well and got mad when I video-taped part of this nightmare experience. (YouTube video to come).
Long story short- for our flight there at least- we finally got to our destination 17 hours after the original time.
-Our Return Flight Story-
The last day of our vacation we decide to hike Goldstrike Canyon, a 9.5km, round-trip of hiking down a canyon to the Colorado River.
Along the way are pools of hot springs that the local Scout Troop tends to and places sandbags so that hikers can have a little dip along the way. Gorgeous views, but some technical parts as there are boulders with drops ranging from 5 to 9 feet. A little challenging to say the least.
On our way back up the canyon, Big Dragon looses his footing and his arm/shoulder gets raised up in a sudden and unnatural way. He dislocates his shoulder. We are screwed. We are half way. There are 3 ropes down to the river and a 1.5km hike or 3 ropes up the canyon and a 3.5km hike uphill.
We start going up, slowly, get a bunch of guys to help hoist up Big Dragon (he's 190 pounds). The next couple we meet on the trail I say, "You wouldn't happen to be a doctor or a nurse would you?"
The tanned, athletic, senior gentleman says, "Actually I am a doctor." Bless my soul.
I explain our dire situation and he leads us to a flat rock surface and attempts (with help from the bunch of guys) to relocate the shoulder, twice, without any luck. Apparently, if he tried right after the incident it might have worked but because it was 15 minutes or so after the fact there was too much swelling and Big Dragon wasn't relaxed enough to make it work.
His wife calls 911 and they connect her to the Park Rangers, they say they cannot get a helicopter to that part because the canyon is too narrow, we need to meet them at the river for them to boat us out.
We didn't get traveler's insurance- rookie mistake- we aren't spring chickens any more. I figure Big Dragon can suck it up and we will get to our 7pm flight and get to Grey Nuns for treatment. After the boat ride, the make-shift sling the Rangers (who are trained as EMTs) and a short 5 minute car ride where Big Dragon is scream/crying we hit up the Boulder City hospital.
From the hospital I attempt to call Swoop to let them know of our situation. It goes to a busy signal. Awesome.
Big Dragon is given Morphine and a sedative with a needle with a Respiratory person who is there to make sure he keeps breathing. So fun. Uggggghhhh....
I step out for the procedure and it clicks back in.
After many vomiting moments later....
We eventually go to the airport around 10pm, the representative at the Swoop desk says he cannot arrange for us to go on the 7pm flight scheduled for tomorrow. We have to call Swoop.
We tell him we tried. He says he will call someone, we wait a moment, then he says, nope we can't get you on the next flight. Maybe we should try calling again the next morning.
Industry standard is a "flat tire" scenario. ANY other airline company would get you on the next flight, free of charge, if extenuating circumstances arise that prevent you from making your flight. Not Swoop; they make a point of not following this industry standard.
We call and wait over 90 minutes the next morning to get to a representative. She says she cannot help us. We escalate to a manager. He says he cannot help us. He even states, "If I give you a free flight home our company would go bankrupt." Really... ?
We even explain our situation to get here. Your company can screw over an entire planeload of people because of something out of their circumstances but if we have an emergency AND even a doctor's note saying Big Dragon was in the Emergency room when the flight was being boarded, nothing?!
We ended up flying with Flair- which I waited until we were at the airport to purchase because I have heard of horror stories with that airline too. They are also known to cancel flights. We still ended up paying $350 more than we should have, but are glad to have gotten on that airline than the other options of a Friday flight which were $600 each. Yikes.
Big Dragon asked the representative too, earlier that morning, "So you are saying that if I don't have money to pay for a flight back to Edmonton your company is just leaving us here in Vegas?" And the representative said without a beat, "Yes."
So happy to be back home.
We will NEVER fly with Swoop again and will tell EVERYONE I know NOT to fly with them.
To end this rant, a special and accurate quote:
"I am embarrassed to be associated with that airline"- Westjet employee referring to Swoop, at the Las Vegas airport.
It seemed like a no-brainer to book a return flight from Edmonton to Vegas for Big Dragon and I for less than $400.
I knew that this was going to be a bit of an experiment going in, but after the MANY struggles and moments where the customer service could shine but left customers extremely frustrated, we know we will NEVER book with them again.
The reviews online were very mixed. Some people say, I love this company, you only pay for what you want and other people were upset by not being able to get a hold of Swoop to solve various problems they encountered.
Swoop can offer ultra low prices because, if you don't need anything extra then you don't pay. But if you want to pick your seats, eat on the plane, bring carry-on luggage, then they nickle and dime you like crazy.
I like to think I am an optimist at heart and felt like we would be alright. Boy, was I wrong.
On our drive to the airport we stopped for lunch and I checked my phone and discovered that our flight would be delayed by 2 hours. This was about at 1pm for a 5pm flight. No big deal, so we would leave around 7pm. That's fine.
We get to the airport, check in and go through security without any hitches. Happy to be settling into "vacation mode".
We board the plane and in the middle of the flight attendant's safety speech, there is a very.... long... pause.... and then silence.
I look at Big Dragon. He looks at me.
"Ha ha ha, what did the flight attendant have a stroke?" I joke.
No joke.
The flight attendant fainted and hit her head while going down. They call the ambulance. We see it approach the plane from the side windows and then the pilot comes on the PA.
"Unfortunately we will have to de-board the plane, we cannot continue the flight without a full staff" he announces to a groaning, full plane of anxious travelers.
We get off the plane, have to go through customs and then are in a long line for over 60 minutes to receive vouchers for hotels for the night and dinner. Meanwhile, I am frantically calling our hotel in Vegas and Car Rental places to see about refunding our purchases for the day.
Turns out the first flight attendant got in a car accident, that is why it was delayed for 2 hours. The second flight attendant, on-call, wasn't feeling well, but thought she could push through it for this flight.
Not good.
We have to get up at 5am to make it back for the 8am flight, worried that because everyone from the hotels would be taking the shuttles for this flight that we might miss it.
We get back to the airport, go through customs, again and board the plane.
"Unfortunately, we don't have clearance to land in Las Vegas so we have to de-board the plane until 9am when they open," says the Pilot with a shaky voice, knowing that he, once again would be disappointing the already frustrated crowd.
We get off the plane. We are told that a manager would be coming to approach our questions. The manager does not come, they send a Swoop worker instead who got mad at people who had questions and threatened that she would walk away and we would all not be able to fly if things continued.
The gentleman, whom she was addressing, was not yelling, but was extremely frustrated because this wasn't the first time he had problems with this airline.
She said, she doesn't speak English well and got mad when I video-taped part of this nightmare experience. (YouTube video to come).
Long story short- for our flight there at least- we finally got to our destination 17 hours after the original time.
-Our Return Flight Story-
The last day of our vacation we decide to hike Goldstrike Canyon, a 9.5km, round-trip of hiking down a canyon to the Colorado River.
Along the way are pools of hot springs that the local Scout Troop tends to and places sandbags so that hikers can have a little dip along the way. Gorgeous views, but some technical parts as there are boulders with drops ranging from 5 to 9 feet. A little challenging to say the least.
On our way back up the canyon, Big Dragon looses his footing and his arm/shoulder gets raised up in a sudden and unnatural way. He dislocates his shoulder. We are screwed. We are half way. There are 3 ropes down to the river and a 1.5km hike or 3 ropes up the canyon and a 3.5km hike uphill.
We start going up, slowly, get a bunch of guys to help hoist up Big Dragon (he's 190 pounds). The next couple we meet on the trail I say, "You wouldn't happen to be a doctor or a nurse would you?"
The tanned, athletic, senior gentleman says, "Actually I am a doctor." Bless my soul.
I explain our dire situation and he leads us to a flat rock surface and attempts (with help from the bunch of guys) to relocate the shoulder, twice, without any luck. Apparently, if he tried right after the incident it might have worked but because it was 15 minutes or so after the fact there was too much swelling and Big Dragon wasn't relaxed enough to make it work.
His wife calls 911 and they connect her to the Park Rangers, they say they cannot get a helicopter to that part because the canyon is too narrow, we need to meet them at the river for them to boat us out.
We didn't get traveler's insurance- rookie mistake- we aren't spring chickens any more. I figure Big Dragon can suck it up and we will get to our 7pm flight and get to Grey Nuns for treatment. After the boat ride, the make-shift sling the Rangers (who are trained as EMTs) and a short 5 minute car ride where Big Dragon is scream/crying we hit up the Boulder City hospital.
From the hospital I attempt to call Swoop to let them know of our situation. It goes to a busy signal. Awesome.
Big Dragon is given Morphine and a sedative with a needle with a Respiratory person who is there to make sure he keeps breathing. So fun. Uggggghhhh....
I step out for the procedure and it clicks back in.
After many vomiting moments later....
We eventually go to the airport around 10pm, the representative at the Swoop desk says he cannot arrange for us to go on the 7pm flight scheduled for tomorrow. We have to call Swoop.
We tell him we tried. He says he will call someone, we wait a moment, then he says, nope we can't get you on the next flight. Maybe we should try calling again the next morning.
Industry standard is a "flat tire" scenario. ANY other airline company would get you on the next flight, free of charge, if extenuating circumstances arise that prevent you from making your flight. Not Swoop; they make a point of not following this industry standard.
We call and wait over 90 minutes the next morning to get to a representative. She says she cannot help us. We escalate to a manager. He says he cannot help us. He even states, "If I give you a free flight home our company would go bankrupt." Really... ?
We even explain our situation to get here. Your company can screw over an entire planeload of people because of something out of their circumstances but if we have an emergency AND even a doctor's note saying Big Dragon was in the Emergency room when the flight was being boarded, nothing?!
We ended up flying with Flair- which I waited until we were at the airport to purchase because I have heard of horror stories with that airline too. They are also known to cancel flights. We still ended up paying $350 more than we should have, but are glad to have gotten on that airline than the other options of a Friday flight which were $600 each. Yikes.
Big Dragon asked the representative too, earlier that morning, "So you are saying that if I don't have money to pay for a flight back to Edmonton your company is just leaving us here in Vegas?" And the representative said without a beat, "Yes."
So happy to be back home.
We will NEVER fly with Swoop again and will tell EVERYONE I know NOT to fly with them.
To end this rant, a special and accurate quote:
"I am embarrassed to be associated with that airline"- Westjet employee referring to Swoop, at the Las Vegas airport.
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