An Ontario mother who recently travelled to Cuba on vacation with her husband is "appalled" after an airline lost her custom wheelchair, forcing her to be "bed bound" and away from her children.

Rose Finlay and her husband booked the trip via Sunwing Airlines. Finlay claims the vacation, which was supposed to be a romantic holiday for the Bowmanville, Ont., couple, was a disaster from the start.

"My husband Brandon and I travelled to Cuba last Tuesday for what we thought would be an amazing getaway to reconnect as a couple without the kids," Finlay said in a Facebook message that was posted on Thursday and has since been shared more than 26,000 times. "From the moment we landed in Cuba, I was treated so poorly and humiliated both by the Cuban airport staff and the representatives of Sunwing."

Finlay claims her custom wheelchair, which she was told would come out on the carousel with her baggage, was delivered "dead last." She said she was forced to sit in a "rickety old wheelchair" while she waited at the airport.

After it was finally delivered, Finlay's experience in Cuba didn't improve. She claims Sunwing wouldn't help her resolve the issues she was having at her resort, and as result she developed a "pressure sore from the mattress."

Finlay said they wanted to return home early, but were not able to arrange a flight because they had "no way of contacting the Sunwing representative who was supposed to be at the resort."

When it was finally time to fly back to Canada, Finlay said there was a snafu at the airport over which flight the couple was supposed to board. She claims she received an email confirmation from a Sunwing representative that her flight had changed from WG681 to WG219. But when they arrived at the airport, they were told they were not on that direct flight, and were instead on flight WG657, which was two hours longer and included a stopover in Mexico.

Finlay eventually broke down in tears when she was told she'd have to check in her wheelchair before boarding her six-hour flight.

"I was instantly humiliated again and began to cry, in front of three planes of Canadian travellers," she said in her Facebook post. "There was no way that I was going to check my custom wheelchair that is essentially my lifeline and my only support for independence in my activities of daily living."

Finlay asked an official if she could be given an exception – a process which she claims took three hours.

"I was treated like I was concealing a bomb, all because I needed my own wheelchair," she said.

Finlay and her husband eventually boarded their plane. She said she asked the crew to ensure that her wheelchair was also on the plane. "The Cabin Safety Manager asked three times to ensure the loading crew put my chair on the flight," she said.

After arriving in Toronto, Finlay learned that her wheelchair was lost.

"We waited until the entire plane had been empty and the unloading crew came up and said, 'there is no wheelchair down there,'" Finlay said. "My heart sank; I instantly felt sick to my stomach."

Finlay said she called and emailed Sunwing a number of times, and didn't receive a response.

"I am stranded, bed bound until my wheelchair is returned to me – if it is ever found and returned in the condition it left me," she said. “I’m isolated from my children as I can’t get out of bed to be with them after a week away from them.”

She added that she's disgusted a Sunwing spokesperson hasn't made an effort to contact her. "I'm appalled that they won't return my calls or emails and are yet again ignoring me and failing to provide good customer service."

CTV Toronto reached out to Sunwing on Friday. The company said the wheelchair was "offloaded in error on a flight returning from Varadero, which arrived in Toronto on Thursday, May 28th." A spokesperson said the wheelchair is expected to be returned to Finlay on Saturday.

"We are extremely sorry for the significant inconvenience that this has caused the customer and have reached out to her to express our apologies and extend a full refund for the family’s trip with us," a statement from the company said. "We will be taking steps to review our procedures to ensure that an incident of this nature is not repeated."