Weird and bad junket experience

Hi there! I would like to share a tale of woe.

I've never been on a casino junket, but I was supposed to be on one right now. MLife reached out with $200 in free play, $50 per person, plus a $49 upgrade to Comfort Class on a Sun Country flight out of DCA (National Airport) down to Gulfport and a three night stay at Beau Rivage. I figured, eh, why not. Go for it.

Before the flight, I get an email from Mlife, saying that the return flight back from Gulfport has been rescheduled from 3 pm to 8 am. Massive bummer! Now instead of sleeping in, taking my time, and getting back to Washington in time for dinner, I have to get up at like 5 am Sunday morning at the end of the trip. Tough luck, but not a deal breaker, so I live with it.

So it gets to be the evening of Thursday 1/28, and I get my work done, and I head to the airport way early, since I don't know how any of this works. I walk up to the Sun Country counter and give them my ID. They give me a boarding pass, seat 15C.

I go through Clear, and the guy has a quizzical look on his face. He glances at the "boarding pass", and it's just my name, seat number, and some other info scribbled on a sheet of orange paper. He lets me do my retinal scan, and hands the "boarding pass" to the TSA agent, which results in quizzical look #2. It took like five TSA agents to scamper around and find a list of people who were scheduled to be on the flight. Sun Country, or someone, spelled my name wrong on the "boarding pass". TSA supervisor gives me quizzical look #3.

I get through Clear, but I'm not entitled to Pre-Check because there's no bar code on the "boarding pass". So I go through the normal security for the first time in ages, and manage to muddle my way through that with minimal caresses/fondling from a TSA guy who was very interested in my tummy.

I go through and try to eat a restaurant right past security. The server tries to rush me because they are closing soon, since "there aren't any more flights". Well, mine is at 8:50. Quizzical look #4. I eat and get some of my 10,000 steps per day in wandering around Terminal A (the historical terminal, or the bitch terminal, depending on who you ask). I'm just walking and waiting for Sun Country personnel to stand at the gate so I can make sure I'm in the right place.

Some time goes by, and a guy walks from the jet bridge and out to the gate. He says, "This flight is canceled. Someone will call you tomorrow to reschedule it." Quizzical looks numbers 5, 6, 7, 8...

Everyone gets upset. I decide to Uber back into the city. I get home and call up the number where I originally booked the trip. I tell them what happened and ask for a $99 refund. I obviously couldn't see the expression on the guy's face, but I bet it was quizzical look #846 or whatever. He puts me on hold, verifies the situation with Sun Country, comes back, tells me I'm getting that $49 upgrade back, and then puts me back on hold to "uncheck" me out of Beau Rivage. He comes back and tells me I'm getting that $50 back as well. I ask him how long until the refunds are processed so I can check my card in due time. Back on hold. Back off hold. 12 business days (exactly precisely 12).

I thank him. I hang up. I drink. I wake up. It's now. I'm sharing this with you.

Thanks for reading!

 

Ouch!!! Make sure that mLife knows about this and this would go towards CANCELING Sun Country's charter partnership. Completely UNACCEPTABLE!

 

Wow. Sorry for the bad experience. I took a Beau junket in 2017 and all went fine.

Looks like most of this resides with Sun country, and of course that is MLife's only operator with these so they share the blame.

I had the handwritten boarding pass too and thought WTF!?!? Is this even legit?

 

I've alerted MLife and will update this thread with the response. Also, I love that this thread caught notfromconectrate's attention because this feels like a very @notfromconcentrate story!

 

We're scheduled on one next month and we were given a number to call the day of the flight to verify the flight status. (also in their email)
Curious if you were provided or called the number?
In any case that is weird and they should have called or texted. I was debating if being there 2 hrs early was really necessary.

 

I called in the morning and was told that all was well.

 

Dang, sorry this didn't go better for you. We enjoy those junkets to Biloxi.

 

wow- this is amazing.... I keep getting these offers but until 2nd vaccine is done, I am not going anywhere...I did take one to Atlantic City in 2019 - all was fine - plane was packed... I wonder why they canceled - maybe they didn't have a full plane? My latest offer for Mlife is for April.

 

I'm getting almost weekly offers to fly somewhere from Caesars. Just a bit hesitant... more so now!

 

I've heard so many horror stories about Sun country. They cancel flights all the time. And leave customers stranded to fend for them self.

 

Yeah, I figure a company as large as MGM could afford to partner with a more reputable airline, but maybe not...?

 

Wow, that's awful. Sorry you had to go through that. Amazing that they expect people to show up again the next day.

 

Sun Country eats a bag of dicks. Terrible airline.

 

Sorry to hear that. We just returned Friday from a junket. We do 3 or more each year and have never even had a schedule change. But you are right about precheck. I give them my TSA numbers every time and it's never on the boarding pass.

 

UPDATE: Just got off the phone. The plane was at Gulfport when it had mechanical issues. The person who tried to fix it (a) was unable to do so; and (b) found more problems that they were unable to fix. So the flight never left there and headed to Philly, where it was then supposed to swing by DCA to grab us. Then, there was <gibberish> about how they apparently allegedly could not have communicated this to us, or something?

Also, I can rebook for free for one year from now and not have to pay the $50. If I want a Comfort Class upgrade, that will still be $49. They say that they have refunded my original $99 ($50 hotel cost and $49 Comfort Class upgrade).

There was a lot of "this is the nature of the beast" type of stuff, but honestly I think I still wish they simply partnered with a better airline. The entire Internet is full of Sun Country horror stories.

I'm not sure I'll ever do this again. The experience is both off-putting and seemingly repeatable.

 

Sun Country also doesn't have crews in most of the charter cities they go to. And they are cheap not wanting to contract it out to people actually on the ground.

My flight to GPT actually flew with 3 maintenance crew members in addition to the FAs and pilots, who also did the baggage handling on the ground in the charter cities.

 

I had bad experience with those cheap & small airlines. Never do that again.

 

I guess maybe more incentive for them to make sure everything is working right hopefully.

 

We have one bad & one good on Sun Country. First was a 12-13 hr delay on the way home. That was not fun sitting at Gulfport airport for that long. I was arguing (nicely!!) with the gate attendant because she kept insisting that they didn’t need to feed us etc. In their contract of carriage at that time I finally found something & she read it to a supervisor. After a few hours they finally gave us a $10 lunch & $10 supper voucher (only Arby’s or the bar/grill there - now Arby’s has actually closed too). The attendants were battling for us. By the time we finally boarded they had managed to get us a $100 or $150 voucher for a future flight. They actually needed to pick up people in Texas so they sent a larger plane for them & then cut over to pick up us. Next trip was fine. Last month was Spirit from Green Bay. I was worried but no issues (VERY cramped seating but no flight issues except not being able to get to gate at return).

I actually remained so mad at SC that I sold my voucher on the internet lol.

 

We had a similar experience flying to Laughlin on December 30 one year with "Republic Airlines" many years ago. Or as I like to call it Banana Republic Airlines. We got to the Calgary airport around noon and they finally put us up in a hotel around 8 pm. The next door, more issues but we finally got out of there around noon. Some people at the airport paid for direct flights through other airlines in order to not miss NYE. Flights at the time were about $1000 each and while that may not be an issue for some...it was and still would be an issue for me. We eventually got there.

The issue was not even mechanical. The airline failed to get the FAA or TFSA or whoever checks that out. How anyone screws that up is beyond me but it was a mess and almost cost me a NYE night out in Vegas!! (Often on 4 night Laughlin Charters we do Laughline/Vegas/Vegas/Laughlin)