Thousands of passengers canceling or changing their spring travel plans due to the threat of coronavirus overloaded Sun Country Airlines' call center this week, leaving the carrier scrambling to respond.
More than 25,000 calls came into the Twin Cities-based airline's customer service line Thursday, 10 times the volume of a normal day.
Sun Country quickly authorized unlimited overtime pay for its call center workers and triggered its backup call center in Las Vegas, but was still only to answer between 4,000 and 5,000 of those calls.
"We are working to get to calls as quickly as possible and would appreciate everyone's help in ensuring we can do so by only reaching out if you have immediate travel [in the next 72 hours]," said Kirsten Wenker, a Sun Country spokeswoman. "If you have a little bit more time before your trip, please give us a couple of days before calling in."
Most of the callers were seeking to cancel or change flights between now and May. Sun Country is currently offering a waiver for all bookings scheduled between now and April 15.
This comes six months after Sun Country said it had strengthened its call center processes. Last summer, the airline faced a backlog of calls triggered by a technology change, creating a queue that took workers three weeks to clear.
March is historically Sun Country's busiest month due to Minnesotans love of warm-weather spring break locations. The spreading COVID-19 outbreak will inevitably hurt the airline's revenue like it has Sun Country's much larger peers, including Delta Air Lines, as passengers avoid nonessential travel.
Kristen Leigh Painter • 612-673-4767
