Swoop

Not Verified | My wife and I flew Swoop Airlines for the first time from Edmonton to Abbotsford 07/26/2018 with no issues. We were booked to return from Abbotsford to Edmonton on Sunday 07/29/2018. Departed our accommodation with 2 hours to the 45 minute boarding cutoff. Due to a traffic accident on the TCH #1, the normal 40 minute drive to the airport became a 2 hour misadventure. We arrived at YXX Abbotsford Airport, hoping that the bag check in was still open. It was not, and upon contacting the Swoop customer service airline, the office was closed on 'Sundays and statutory holidays. No Swoop personnel at the check in, and we were forced to book a flight on the following day. Most unpleasant experience on the return to Edmonton, with no customer service and even less compassion. Swoop has lost us as return customers, and we'll tell others to avoid this Mickey Mouse show. And unless one wants to get stung with a $15 plus tax charge to lodge a complaint, then it's not even worth the aggravation to do that!

✅ Trip Verified | Hamilton to Edmonton, the flight was delayed for two and a half hours because the pilot didn’t show up for work. This was announced approximately a half-hour before boarding, at which point they had already made the welcome announcement for the flight. The agent then announced the “good news” that they had found another pilot but that we would be leaving 2.5 hours behind schedule. We had a connecting flight with Air Canada from Edmonton which we missed because of this. I deliberately left a three hour layover between flights, but it wasn’t enough and I had to pay $500 for two people to rebook that flight. I know that Canadian passengers have few rights in these situations, but I asked the agent at the desk in Hamilton what Swoop intended to do to address this situation. As other passengers have noted, Swoop agents were utterly unhelpful and useless. She gave me a card with a customer service number and pointed out that I would have to pay $15 to call this number. So, Swoop wanted to charge me $15 to call them about making us late because their employee didn’t bother to show up for work, on top of the $500 I had to pay because of the late departure. Oh, and the customer service line was closed at this time anyway. All of this leads me to two conclusions: 1. Never fly Swoop and 2. Canada desperately needs an enhanced passenger bill of rights.

✅ Trip Verified | Abbotsford to Hamilton. I bought a brand new high-quality luggage bag, I checked my luggage in perfect new condition and got it back in terrible shape. One of the zippers is broken off and it is so scraped up. The logo is completely scratched out and the plastic on the bottom is all torn up. Besides that, the plane is so small and crowded, seats are uncomfortable, and the food selection is poor.

✅ Trip Verified | Abbotsford to Hamilton. Off to a bad start! My 12 year old is traveling alone, and Swoop couldn't offer a guardian pass to accompany him through the arduous task of security or getting to his gate safely or successfully. I will never fly on Swoop again or send a loved one on that airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Abbotsford to Edmonton. I bought two tickets, since I wasn’t allowed the option of round trip, only one way tickets. 12 days before my trip, I had to make the decision to cancel due to family illness. Swoop.com wouldn’t allow me to cancel online, I had to call. I called, waited 45mins online. When she went to cancel, at the end for one way ticket, she told me I would owe them?!! However, she waived that fee. So, $50 and taxes for each ticket and they also kept my money for my bag which for two tickets, was the entire amount! So, needless to say, I lost $200 to cancel 12 days in advance! Thanks swoop for stealing my money, especially baggage money, for bags that won’t even be on the flight! I will never purchase with swoop again!

My husband and I flew with Swoop from Halifax to Hamilton and were incredibly pleased with this airline. As long as you read their guidelines (and follow them, ahem, arrive more than 45 minutes ahead of time), you will have no issues! We flew a lot in Australia using budget airlines and this one far succeeded our expectations. Will definitely be booking again with Swoop!

Not Verified | I was supposed to fly home to Hamilton today from Halifax with my infant son. I arrived at the airport and received terrible customer service from swoop. I was turned away because I was 5 minutes passed their deadline to check-in. The counter agents where rude and unsupportive. They offered no solutions to my problem, just said I would not be getting on the flight. I phoned swoop and waited to for an hour on the phone to speak to an agent. The agents were rude and unfriendly. Both the agent and manager told me they would not put me on a flight home tomorrow and would not give me anything for my missed flight. They said it was my fault I missed the flight and were unsupportive and unsympathetic. I realize now that the fine print says you have arrive 45 minutes prior to leaving. Unfortunately life happens and when travelling with children you sometimes fall behind. The complete lack of support, kindness and professionalism was disgusting. I would recommend never booking with swoop. It is not worth it if something goes wrong.

✅ Trip Verified | I booked a flight for my son, daughter and I on Swoop to visit family in August 2018. Unfortunately, due to a work conflict my son was not able to join. I cancelled the trip 3 weeks before we were to travel. I understand, though am not happy with the fact that the refund is Swoop credit that expire in 90 days. What I am really upset about is the luggage fees. We were only going to travel with 2 suitcases between the 3 of us. I purchase one for my ticket and one for my sons. Since he is no longer travelling the money we paid is gone, not refunded and not transferable to my daughter who is still part of the original reservation. My daughter and I still need a second suitcase which I now need to purchase again. So I lost the seat selection fee, lost the $60 I paid to check a suitcase and need to pay another $60 to get the second suitcase on board even though I originally paid for 2. My flight east is now more expensive the with the other more common airlines and I still get only the discounted service. As a person who travels a lot for business and personal this is a real shame. Been looking forward to sending my business to someone other then Air Canada and apparently that isn't going to happen any time soon. Really sad news for us travelers.

Not Verified | We flew Swoop from Hamilton to Edmonton at the end of June with two toddlers. The flight to Edmonton from Hamilton was fine, the wifi did not work the entire flight which was annoying but the rest of the amenities on board were pretty standard. Our July 7th flight home on the other hand was non-existent. Swoop advises passengers check-in closes 45 minutes before the flight, we arrived 1 hour before our flight, there were 2 attendants working the check-in counter both had passengers with "issues", by the time the couple ahead of us got to the wicket the attendant stated "sorry the flight has been cut we cannot check you in". That was it, done deal. Our flight was scheduled for 10:25am, check-in closed at 9:40am, the couple in front of us got to the wicket at 9:53am the two attendants knew we were all in line waiting but made no attempt to get assistance or put the passengers with issues aside to get us checked in. Swoop's attendants left us stranded in the airport with a customer service number that was useless. We received zero compensation and had to pay an additional $1500 to get our family home with another airline. To top it all off the flight was delayed due to lightning and did not leave till after 10:25am - we absolutely could have made our flight. I do not recommend flying this airline, the staff from the check-in desk to the customer service call center is uncompassionate and extremely rude. If you choose to fly Swoop go in with zero expectations and you might have a good experience, If they let you board the plane!

✅ Trip Verified | Hamilton to Halifax. At 1:42pm on a Sunday we received an email saying that our flight was delayed by 30 minutes now leaving at 5:30pm not 5:00pm anymore. With the new departure time we arrived at the airport to check in at 4:30pm. My husband went to return the rental car and I went to check our bag, we were already checked in. The gate agent told me they were closed. I said ‘What are you talking about?’ and she pointed to a sign telling me there was a customer service number I could call. I called the number and customer service was closed on Sundays. I chased her down because she left the desk and she said she was going to get a supervisor. I kept saying this doesn’t make sense and she told me the plane wasn’t even there yet. I called my husband and told him they’re not letting us on the plane. The supervisor came and she confirmed this. I said I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old I had to get home to and she didn’t care. My husband in the mean time called WestJet customer service. Long story short the supervisors phone rang and my husband said ‘We’re getting on the plane right?’ She nodded. We are very frequent flyers with WestJet. We were told we were getting on the plane but our bag would not be travelling with us. We live 3.5 hours from the airport in NS. When I called the next day it was in the notes we were irate and the customer service agent called us liars, they wanted us to pay to get our bag to us. A girlfriend was going to the airport and got it for us. I was horrified at how we were treated when we were there 15 minutes before the 45 minute cut off time listed on their website. Everything else could have been ok but that kind of fear, to be left there with no where to go when I have young children at home makes this airline not worth anything. Poor, disgusting behaviour.