Is Swoop Airlines Review demonstrating it as a scam? One of the most important factors of a comfortable traveling experience, whether it’s for business/work, leisure, vacation, or study is the medium of transportation. When it comes to transportation, few options can rival the convenience and efficiency of air travel. But that’s not the case when you choose Swoop Airlines when we see their public reviews and how they treat their customers and passengers!
In this article, we’ll explain why traveling with Swoop Airlines is the experience you should AVOID at all costs. We’ll also go over some reviews from people who already have used Swoop Airlines recently and shared publicly on the most prominent Airlines Review platforms such as SkyTrax(Airline Equality), TripAdvisor, TrustPilot, traveling foodie, TrustRadious, and many more.
Note: Swoop is owned by WestJet Airlines and any disgrace it is causing to the travel industry is the same as what WestJet does.
Let’s take a look at the overall ratings of Swoop Airlines on many prominent platforms:
- SkyTrax– Swoop Airlines Review
The overall Swoop rating on the most popular platform for airline reviews is extremely low in comparison with any other known airline out there in the market. Even though this is a very cheap airline but customers have rated the affordability 2 out of 5 which shows how awful this airline can be.
- Trip Advisor– Swoop Airlines Review
The overall Swoop rating on the famous TripAdvisor platform is extremely low as well. To be honest, it couldn’t be worse. Both Customer service and the value of the airline are very low in comparison with market standards.
Notice that Swoop is promoting itself as a cheap option for travelers and lifestyle influencers but you even have to pay for a glass of water for a 1-year-old baby who is crying so bad onboard. Rational says to calm him down to create a calm environment for the rest of the passengers and keep them satisfied. Basically based on some of the public reports, you end up paying twice your fare fees for extra things such as a bag of food or carrying your purse into the airplane, stepping into the washroom, and even asking for a blanket for your little kid who is shaking out of cold air on the flight. At first glance, it seems very cheap but you are going to pay a lot more as you move forward into your fights.
#Scam Practices
They have shown a long history of scamming passengers on their return tickets and putting automated charges on their credit cards without their authorization at all.
- TrustPilot
The overall Swoop rating on this famous online marketplace for ratings for web platforms and online airlines is way too low and it is unbelievable.
- Better Business Beauru (bbb.org)
Rating: 1.12 out of 5
The Swoop reviews and rating on this world-renowned organizational platform for businesses is the most horrible and lower than any threshold for any business.
Here are some of the sample reviews of just a few actual passengers of Swoop in recent months:
#Deceptive and Scammy behaviors of Swoop:
#Lack of Support, lies, and Scammy behavior of Swoop:
#Scam on Cancellations and Refunds
At first glance, unfortunately, no other airline in the world has such a negative and scampish reputation as Swoop has demonstrated when you compile all reviews across many platforms.
Why Don’t We Recommend Swoop Airlines?
As we mentioned earlier, choosing Swoop Airlines is a terrible mistake that some uninformed or first-time passengers have made. We found out throughout our research that barely we find anyone who has used it twice or more. But we’re here to demonstrate in a simple and logical way why ones shouldn’t trust this airline or corporation.
In the following, we will delve into the numerous issues that plague Swoop Airlines and highlight why they should be avoided at all costs.
1- Fraudulent and Scammy Behaviours– Swoop Airlines Review
In numerous ways, Swoop has been engaged in scamming its passengers. When you read Swoop Airlines review on most of the platforms you see very often the followings happen:
- Your flight ticket gets updated with new dates and extra MASSIVE charges being placed on it without your authorization
- Flights get canceled or long delayed and you are promised to be reimbursed for either flight fares and/or hotel stays and they never reimburse them.
- Flights get canceled and you are asked to pay 4X for new flights
- Flights get even returned to airports due to mechanical issues and you get no refunds.
- You see unwanted charges for things you didn’t know going to place a charge on your credit card such as coming to the gates for a boarding pass last minute.
- There are reports they collect credit card information and sell them in black markets. Some people suspected the hacks on their credit cards were right after purchasing on the Swoop website.
- You have to buy everything for 3 to 4 times its regular price on board including a cup of regular water.
- Extra purses onboard can cost you up to $150.
- Extra luggage weights can be super costly in a very irrational way.
Some of the reviews:
#Big unauthorized scam: they may place a big charge on your credit card on their own authorization.
2- Terrible Customer Service– Swoop Airlines Review
Customers are the backbone of every business, and keeping them satisfied, particularly for a product that is a journey rather than a one-time use is always a priority. Real human customer service with compassion is the most essential requirement of an Airline, a Hotel, or a restaurant while Swoop Airlines lacks customer support entirely and relies on a Bot called Donna. They explicitly mention on their website that if you send us an email most likely we never respond to it.
According to many reviews by unsatisfied customers, there is no one to speak to at their Airline, and the only available option is an automated bot response.
Take a look at this review on Airlinequality.com on May 2023:
As you can see, this passenger had a frustrating experience when traveling with Swoop Airlines, and hasn’t been able to get the help they needed.
But that’s not all! Here’s another unhappy customer who had a problem with Swoop customer service and doesn’t recommend Swoop. There are 100s if not 1000s of written public reviews like this online.
And one of the many other ones is here that is placed on June 2023 by Mohammad Nambakhsh:
Not only this customer is unhappy with the lack of customer support and lack of compassionate customer support but also he clearly has been scammed by Swoop by placing a charge of $452 which was not their request and they didn’t authorize it. Imagine when your return flight is in 14 days and all of a sudden you have to come back in 7 days and pay also an extra $452 without asking for any of these. What a terrible experience and journey it could be for the whole family.
3- Expect Long Delays Very Often
Swoop Airlines’ chronic issue with flight delays has become a nightmare for passengers seeking punctuality and reliability.
It seems that their lack of operational efficiency, shortage of flights, and disregard for timeliness have resulted in an alarming number of delayed flights and even canceled flights with zero compensation for passengers and in many cases insults for food coupons worth $20 for the 6-passenger group.
In most cases, passengers are left without a proper explanation leading to a waste of their valuable time. Many passengers missed their plans due to Swoop’s consistent inability to commit to schedules.
Take a look at this review:
There are many more passengers similar to this disappointed passenger. Here’s another review:
Travelers carefully plan their schedules for events such as work meetings, family gatherings, doctor visits, or vacations but Swoop has no regard for them.
However, with Swoop Airlines’ lack of timely notification for delays, passengers’ travel plans are ruined. Their notifications have been also false and given false information to passengers in dangerous countries or areas such as Mexico.
They are left with wasted time, missed opportunities, and disrupted schedules, all due to Swoop’s failure to inform them properly and sooner. Many passengers like the one above were even left to find hotels in the middle of the jungles of Mexico with their tiny ones and had to deal with many crazy dangerous situations.
Here’s another unsatisfied passenger explaining their experience:
4- Unreasonable Refund Policy along with Frequent Cancellations
One of the main problems with Swoop Airlines is its scampish and unacceptable refund policy which contradicts “The Consumer Protection Act, 2019”. As we saw in the reviews, passengers are having problems obtaining a refund for cancellations of no fault on their end, lost luggage by Swoop, and long haul delays. They even promised to refund one side of the return flight and never stick to their promises.
This passenger asked for a refund, and has been unable to obtain it for 4 months! Take a look:
5- Cancelling Without Any Reason & Very Limited Rebooking options
But one thing we’ve learned from the Swoop flight cancellation experience is that Swoop flights have a higher probability to get canceled. You must expect 5 out of 10 times your flights get canceled with no proper honest reason and worst of all no refund. You are going to deal with non-existent support and non-compassionate staff and a company with no proper place to go to at any airport.
It is extremely risky to take flights with Swoop especially if you are a family or group traveler and even worst if it is time sensitive flight.
If Swoop doesn’t get enough passengers riding, the flight will most likely get canceled because they’ll lose money. They are ultra-low cost, staff salary is more likely lower than other airlines so lack of staff is common and they only run flights if they get full.
#First to be Cancelled by Airports:
During situations where airport needs to reduce airplane landings, ULCCs are the first to get cancelled. This is true for what happened to many people. One reported incident has been:
“According to Swoop staff at the gate, our flight got canceled because Toronto Pearson was limiting planes landing due to winter weather, but we saw some flights from bigger airlines arriving in Toronto that didn’t get canceled.”
#Rebooking issues and limitations:
Because of the frequency of cancellations for ULCC flights and the fact that ULCCs generally have fewer flights available to-and-from destinations, rebooking options can get very limited. In fact, you might even be stranded for much longer if the ULCC doesn’t have daily flights.
6- Lack of Sympathy and Compassion for Sick or Vulnerable People
In many cases, it has been reported parents with the need to visit doctors or those in need of immediate help on board such diabetes were totally brushed off by Swoop staff to either pay for some cheap sugar packs or pay for extra unnecessary fees to keep their return flight as it was supposed to be. Customer support has shown no mercy or empathy in dealing with this category of passengers.
Here are some examples:
#Passenger with Diabetes
#Mother with a kid with a brain tumor
This is the conversation of a mother with a very sick kid in need of visiting a surgeon. They send numerous messages to customer support and never got any response back.
#not caring about families and kids
7- No changes to the flight can be made earlier than 72 hours prior to the flight
Imagine 71 hours prior to the flight you need to extend your date of return. Definitely, it is impossible with Swoop. Even if you have a brain surgery it is not possible. They ask you to buy a new ticket to go back and your current ticket is canceled.
8- You cannot trust what Swoop tells you
Always in troubled times such as canceled times gate managers lie to you and while there is no direct phone to call or any proper customer support channel then you have to rely on them and accept their manipulations regarding rescue flights or taking other Westjet flights.
Conclusion
In this article, we tried to explain why you need to avoid Swoop Airlines, as they are incompatible in many ways. If you cherish your time, money, and comfort, make sure to consider traveling with other companies.
We hope this article helps!
For any inquiries regarding this article or to correct any parts reach out to me as the Original Author: Mohammad Nambakhsh.
Email: [email protected]
I travelled with Swoop Airlines in June, 2023 from Toronto to Punta Cana and had a massive nightmare.
