Family stranded at London, Ont. airport spend thousands to get home

By the time they got to Toronto Sunday night, Krystle Linic and her grandmother could smile, but to get to that point had been an ordeal.

Linic, her parents, and grandmother had booked a roundtrip flight from Edmonton to London so they could be at Linic's great-aunt's funeral over the weekend. Getting out of Edmonton was no issue, but flying back home became a frustrating, expensive process.

"We couldn't talk to anybody," says Linic. "There was nobody to talk to, nobody to call."

The family had checked in for their Swoop flight Saturday night, only to learn in the morning it had been cancelled, Linic explains.

Swoop, and its parent airline, WestJet, had experienced what it called a "severe disruption" to its service because of a system-wide outage. Hundreds of flights across the country were cancelled as a result.

Krystle and her family at her great aunt's funeral near London, Ont. on Nov. 5, 2022. (Source: Krystle Linic)

Linic and her family were rebooked on a flight for Tuesday morning, which was not a reasonable option for her.

"My mom and I are both teachers, and I didn't have any more days off," says Linic. "So it would be at my expense for the substitute teacher, plus loss of wages."

"It was going to be in the thousands of dollars for me to stay [in London] for two days," explains Linic, so they rented a car and drove to Toronto and caught an Air Canada flight.

It was an expensive decision that cost about $3,800, but she says it was cheaper than waiting in London.

Swoop Airlines Boeing 737 on display during their media event, Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at John C. Munro International Airport in Hamilton, Ont. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tara Walton

"[Swoop] responded via Facebook Messenger," says Linic. "I responded with what my issue was and they said, 'Well we gave you a flight home, so tough luck.'"

Since that rebooking offer, Linic says her messages have gone unanswered.

WestJet issued a statement Monday saying it is trying to help customers as quickly as possible, and accommodation information would be shared through email.

A request for comment from CTV News London to WestJet Wednesday was not returned.