QUEBECER WHO DIDN’T GET SERVED CHAMPAGNE ON FLIGHT SUES.
Sunwing served sparkling wine on flight instead
When Daniel Macduff booked a holiday to Cuba that advertised “champagne service,” he expected, well, to be served champagne.
He did receive sparkling wine on the outgoing flight this February, but not the pricey classic from France’s Champagne region; it was one of the cheaper competitors connoisseurs generally consider inferior.
So the Quebecer launched a novel class-action lawsuit against Sunwing for what he considers misleading advertising, demanding both compensation for the difference in cost of the fizzy wines, and punitive damages.
The lawsuit has yet to be “certified” — meaning it could move ahead toward trial — but a preliminary decision this month on an application by the defendants has already resulted in a lengthy ruling.
The case is not so much about the subtle differences between effervescent wines as about truthful advertising, argued Sebastien Paquette, the Montreal lawyer spearheading the suit.
“You have to go beyond the pettiness of the (wine cost) per head,” he said Tuesday. “What’s important is you’re trying to lure consumers by marketing something, and you’re not giving them that something … It’s a dishonest practice.”
About 1,600 potential class members have come forward to join the lawsuit since it was filed in court, the lawyer said.
But Sunwing does dismiss the case as petty. It says it used the phrases “champagne service” and “champagne vacations” to denote the level of service in its travel packages, not the type of beverage served on flights.
And it has won a Consumer Choice Award in each of the past three years for that service, the company said in an emailed statement.
“Sunwing has always been proud to invest in experience-enhancing features for our customers,” the statement said. “We consider any legal action relating to the marketing of this service to be frivolous and without merit.”
After the lawsuit was filed earlier this year, Sunwing stopped mentioning champagne in marketing. Its website refers to a “welcome glass of sparkling wine” as part of its in-flight service.
Paquette says the travel firm employed the champagne phrase widely until recently, with billboards and ads in airports featuring smiling holidayers juxtaposed with flutes of a bubbly wine.
Macduff, a retired provincial civil servant from L’Ancienne-Lorette, near Quebec City, booked his holiday to the Cuban island resort of Cayo Coco in November 2016, partly based on the come-on of “service au champagne,” the suit says.
But when he got on the plane in February, the flight attendant gave him a “couple of ounces” of the inexpensive alternative in a plastic cup, Paquette said.
The cheapest bottle of real champagne sells at Liquor Control Board of Ontario stores for $40, the most expensive is more than $3,000. Popular alternatives from Germany, Spain and Italy retail from about $9 to $18. The difference per plastic glass would be about $2-4, Paquette estimates.