Find cheap Sunwing Airlines flights

Sunwing Airlines is a Canadian carrier that is known for its affordable prices and efforts to cater to families and budget-conscious travellers.

Sunwing is not technically a low-cost carrier, but it operates like one. It is primarily the airline arm of an integrated travel company that sells affordable vacation packages to sunny destinations and operates a few domestic routes at certain times of the year.

Check-in

Checking in to a Sunwing flight is pretty straightforward. The airport desk opens three hours before your scheduled departure and closes an hour before.

Because Sunwing caters so much to families heading for their well-deserved vacations, it means the check-in desk has to deal with a lot of inexperienced travellers, so lines at the airport can move slowly.

That’s why I like to save time by checking in online beforehand, an option that Sunwing offers 24 hours before departure. Don’t wait until the last minute to do so because online check-in is cut off an hour before the flight leaves.

When you check in online, you can select your seat in advance but Sunwing charges you a fee to do so. You won’t be charged if you make your selection at the airport or if you are travelling with children under the age of 14. Any baggage you check in online will have to be dropped off at the Sunwing check-in desk or bag drop counter.

Because Sunwing is a Westjet subsidiary, they sometimes transport customers on Westjet flights so you might have to check in online using that airline’s website or at one of their airport counters.

Baggage allowance

Passengers on Sunwing flights get one free checked bag, but only if they are travelling on a Sunwing vacation package. Unfortunately, that perk does not apply to passengers with vacation packages in Florida. They have to pay for their checked luggage, just like those travellers who have only booked a flight with the airline and not as part of a holiday package.

A fee applies for the first checked bag, which is lower if paid in advance and higher if paid at the airport. If you are on a return flight, the fee will be applied in both directions. The maximum weight of the bag is 23 kgs (50 lbs) and the maximum dimensions are 158 cms / 62” which is calculated by adding up its length, height and width measurements. As you check more bags, the fees go up.

If you’re travelling as a family and want to minimize the number of bags you have to pay for, do what I do when I travel with my wife and kids. We put all the things we want to pack into a pile then evenly divide everything in the biggest suitcases that the airline allows. There’s no sense in having kid-sized luggage for each of your children when you can fit all of their stuff into a single bag.

Don’t think that you are going to avoid fees by bringing a carry-on suitcase onboard the plane. Sunwing charges a fee for bags that go in the overhead bin. The fee includes tax and can be paid in advance, If you pay at the airport, it’s higher. In either case, the fee is applied in both directions. Carry-on items cannot weigh more than 5 kgs (11 lbs) and can be no larger than 51 cm x 40 cm x 23 cm (20” x 16” x 9”).

You are allowed one personal item on board for free like a purse or camera bag, but it can be no larger than 40 cm x 25 cm x 16 cm (16” x 10” x 6”). Parents travelling with infants can bring an additional diaper bag on board at no cost.

Because Sunwing caters to leisure travellers, many of them travel with sporting equipment for their vacations like golf clubs, bicycles, scuba equipment, snorkelling equipment, kiteboards, fishing rods and skis or snowboards. The fee for transporting these items is separate from what is charged for normal luggage and can only be paid at the airport.

Seats & legroom

The seats on Sunwing flights are not the most comfortable in the world, but I think they are fine for the distances that the airline flies. If you’re looking for more comfort, Sunwing planes don’t have business class seats, which makes sense because it is primarily a leisure airline. What they do offer is five rows of premium seating in the front of their aircraft.

These are known as “Elite Plus” seats and offer six more inches of legroom than the standard seats used throughout the rest of the plane. These can be reserved for an extra fee, as can exit row seats which give you 10 more inches of space. When you purchase these seats, you also get the advantage of priority check-in, boarding and baggage handling.

The fee for Elite Plus and exit row seats is the same and will be applied in each direction. It will cost you more if you purchase yours less than 24 hours before the flight or choose to upgrade at the airport.

Considering the relatively short length of Sunwing flights, it doesn’t really seem like it’s worth it to me, but if you’re exceptionally tall or just can’t get comfortable in an airplane, then you should definitely consider it.

Wi-Fi

If you are counting on having in-flight internet connectivity to communicate with people back home, forget it. There is no Wi-Fi on any Sunwing flights. Personally, I enjoy those few hours of being disconnected from the world. I either bring a book, load my tablet with some TV shows to binge watch or catch up on the many podcasts I’ve saved on my phone.

In-flight entertainment

Sunwing is a low-cost airline, meaning it has to cut frills so it can pass on the savings to its customers. One of those frills is in-flight entertainment.

There are no seatback screens on Sunwing flights and because there is no Wi-Fi, they don’t even offer you access to a library of movies and TV shows to stream, as some airlines do.

All is not lost as some of their planes do have televisions mounted throughout the cabin where they screen movies and family-friendly TV shows. Unfortunately, there are no such screens on their newer Boeing-737 MAX aircraft, so you’re on your own. As a consolation, their MAX planes do have charging ports at each seat to help keep your devices powered throughout the flight. My recommendation? Bring your own devices with your own entertainment.

In-flight meals and drink

There is no scheduled meal service on Sunwing flights, but you can order snacks, beer, wine and light meals from their Sunwing Café menu. There is a decent selection to choose from, but since I am from Montreal, I always go for the Schwartz’s smoked meat sandwich. It tastes nothing like the real thing they serve in the legendary Montreal deli, but it’s still pretty good. Keep in mind that you can only pay for these meals with a credit card. If you prefer, you can pre-order and pre-pay for your food in advance using the Sunwing app.

Change & cancellation policies

Because Sunwing is primarily a vendor of vacation packages, it treats airline-only customers differently than those who have booked holidays with them.

If you cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking, you may be eligible for a full refund. If it’s past 24 hours, you are not eligible for a refund, and you might incur cancellation fees.

If your flight is part of a vacation package, you can cancel up to 45 days before departure and receive a full refund minus a deposit fee. If you cancel between 44 and 31 days before departure, you’ll get a 50% refund of the total cost. If you cancel within 30 days of departure, you won’t get any money back.

If you’re at all worried about the possibility of cancelling, Sunwing offers a “Worry Free” insurance plan for an additional fee that allows you to make one change or cancel your travel plans up to three days before your scheduled departure for any reason, except for no shows or if you are denied boarding for whatever reason.

Premium Lounges

Sunwing passengers flying out of Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton or Winnipeg can take advantage of Plaza Premium Lounges located at those airports. In my home airport in Montreal, Plaza Premium operates the Air France lounge which Sunwing passengers can use.

When flying with Sunwing, you can purchase admission to any of these lounges in one, two, three or six-hour increments. This will give you access to everything the lounges offer, including hot meals, alcoholic drinks, free Wi-Fi, access to their business centre and even showers in certain locations.

Loyalty programs

Sunwing does not operate any sort of loyalty program so you’re out of luck if you’re someone who likes to collect points for free travel. Even though the Canadian airline WestJet acquired Sunwing in 2019, there’s no indication that they have plans to make Sunwing flights or vacation packages eligible for their WestJet Rewards program.