Ontario man denied boarding, forced to wait for hours after Swoop mistakenly considers him not vaccinated
An Ontario man flying to Edmonton on a Swoop flight says he was denied boarding at the airport and forced to wait for hours because the check-in staff said he was not considered fully vaccinated.
Adrian Logan, who received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Nov. 10, arrived at Toronto Pearson on Nov. 25 for his flight.
To qualify as a fully vaccinated traveller in Canada, a person must have waited 14 full days since their second dose.
For example, if a person’s second dose was anytime on Nov. 1, then Nov. 16 would be the first day the traveller meets the fully vaccinated condition.
Nov. 25 would have been first day the 31-year-old was considered fully vaccinated.
But he says when he arrived at the airport, he was surprised when Swoop told him he wasn’t eligible to fly until the next day and denied him from boarding.
"They clearly had a misunderstanding on how the process worked," Logan told CTV News Toronto on Monday.
Standing at the check-in desk, Logan said he spent about 30 minutes going back and forth with multiple Swoop employees. He said he counted out the 14 days multiple times on a piece of paper but "they refused to concede."
He said he also spoke to airport security, as well as police, who agreed he was in the right but Swoop still refused to budge.
"They refused to let us in and we had to leave the check-in station," Logan said.
Logan said he contacted Swoop's customer service line and his partner reached out to the airline on Twitter.
After waiting on hold for more than hour, Logan said a customer service agent agreed he was eligible to fly.
But the opposite happened on Twitter.
"I know it is confusing, but the agent is correct, you would not be able to board an aircraft until Nov. 26," Swoop wrote to them in a message on Twitter. "These are mandates from Transport Canada that Swoop must follow."
He said at this point he went back to the check-in desk, but the manager said he still did not agree Logan was eligible to fly.
Still refusing to accept he couldn't he was in the wrong, Logan tried to check-in for a third time.
He said on the third attempt, the manager apologized and told him he was in fact eligible.
Logan and his partner were rebooked onto a flight to Edmonton that departed six hours after his initial flight.
Because of the delay, Logan, who was in the process of moving to Edmonton, missed his lease signing appointment and had to pay for an Airbnb that night out of his own pocket.
Swoop offered him a $100 voucher for future travel, but he has turned it down and filed an official complaint.
Logan said it’s been more than a week since the complaint was filed but he hasn’t heard anything.
SWOOP 'SINCERELY APOLOGIZES'
In a statement to CTV News Toronto, a spokesperson for Swoop said Logan’s situation was "an error on Swoop’s behalf regarding the recognition of the 14-day period after their second COVID-19 vaccination."
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
"We want to first sincerely apologize to Mr. Logan for the disruption to their travel plans to Edmonton," a statement said.
Swoop said they understand the "stress and frustration" this would have caused Logan and a representative would contact him to discuss the issue further.
"We have passed along Mr. Logan's experience to our airport leadership team, who are continuously working to improve on providing our travellers with the best possible travel journey."
Meanwhile, Logan said financial compensation isn't the only thing he wants from the airline.
"We want to them to recognize the seriousness of the situation," Logan said.
"How many people have you turned away for this reason who might not have had the confidence to defend themselves?"
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.