On Thursday night, Sun Country flight 117 from Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) to Las Vegas (LAS) arrived with not a single checked bag loaded onto the aircraft. You read that right. None of the 168 passengers on board had any of their checked luggage upon arrival in Las Vegas as it was never loaded onto the aircraft before takeoff.
The airline responded quickly and refunded the checked baggage fees for all passengers on board and distributed $50 in travel vouchers. Luggage for passengers on flight 117 arrived in Las Vegas on Friday per KSTP, although many passengers had to head back to the Las Vegas airport to retrieve their luggage.
Our Analysis
This news comes less than two months after stranding hundreds of passengers in Mexico, and weeks after they attempted to spin reduced legroom as a benefit for passengers. This is just the latest public relations snafu for Sun Country since the airline adopted an ultra-low-cost carrier model and were sold to a New York investment firm.
In February, Sun Country announced layoffs of nearly 20% of their workforce. These layoffs included ticket counter agents and “below-wing” workers who handle mail, cargo and de-icing. Sun Country is now contracting these jobs out to Global Aviation Services, LLC.
It isn't clear whether this had any role in the airline forgetting to load the luggage for flight 117 to Las Vegas on Thursday night. Although anytime this type of work is contracted out to a third party firm, chances of mistakes will often increase.
Baggage Delay Reimbursement
This situation is a great reminder of the importance of carrying a credit card such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Both of these cards provide $100 per day for up to 5 days if your luggage is delayed to its final destination for 6 or more hours. This benefit will cover any clothing, toiletries, cell phone chargers, etc. that you needed to buy due to the delay of your luggage.
Bottom Line
Sun Country just can't seem to get out of its own way. The airline's reputation locally here in Minnesota has taken quite a beating since the announcement of the new low-cost model and situations like this certainly aren't going to improve that.
As a previous Sun Country employee who unfortunately took a position with Global and quit after 30 days with this company…. it was entirely Global’s fault. Working at the terminal under Global, is nothing but a train wreck to say the least. They are inexperienced at working for an airline that is an actual hub and it’s not going to get better any time soon. While I was there it took almost two hours for passengers to get their bags from what we call the 6 pm bank. That would’ve never had happened when the terminal was under Sun Country.
if you allowed raging creative profanity about the new sun country i may not be finished with this comment before tomorrow another good guy bites the dust
long time sun country customer
Sun Country can try to spin they’re new airline anyway they want but the bottom line for me is safety and when you start cutting corners and employees the safety is bound to suffer. Jude Bricker came from Allegiant air a airline that had the worse in flight incidents in the industry. How long before Sun Country heads down that same route trying to reduce operating ratio?
I did aviation ground handling for 6 months for a contract ground handler at FSD while I was waiting to start grad school.
One of my coworkers once took all of the destination bags, drove to the baggage drop without unloading them, and proceeded to return to the plane, load all of the destination bags back on the aircraft, and send them back to the hub.
Fortunately, that was his last day of employment.
It is tough to expect too much from a poorly managed company, that pays below poverty wages, with no benefits in a tight labor market. You can only compete on price, quantity, and quality, so Sun Country better start cutting their prices pretty quickly if they want to survive (and get rid of Jude Bricker while they are at it).