Saskatoon man missing holidays with children after cancelled flights

Sterling Wilde never planned to miss his kids’ first holiday concerts since COVID-19, but Vancouver weather and cancelled flights mean he might not even get to hug his kids on Christmas this year.

The medical cannabis advocate and entertainer was in B.C. for an event and was scheduled to fly back to Saskatoon on Tuesday.

Sterling Wilde at the Vancouver airport on Dec. 20, 2022. (Sterling Wilde/Submitted)

Then the bad weather hit and quite a bit of snow fell — though nothing as bad as what Saskatchewan residents are used to, Wilde said.

“I would say that the weather here is not as bad as it can get in Saskatchewan and their ability to deal with snow is lacking, for sure,” he explained of the weather issues.

He has noticed since arriving in Vancouver that people are a bit more “skittish” about driving through snow.

But it was enough to have caused total pandemonium at the Vancouver airport over the past number of days. Wilde said the airline he flew with, Flair Airlines, shut down everything.

“No flights in, no flights out and the airport was packed,” he shared.

The airline has not provided any compensation for lodging or food while Wilde has been stranded. He said given that the airline is nearly fully automated, it took him almost a full 24 hours to even reach a person on the phone.

The next available date he was given to fly out was this coming Tuesday — a week after he was supposed to depart and “very concerning and disheartening to me.”

Wilde said he was told he could get a refund, which he agreed to. It wasn’t until that return had been processed and the call was ending that the person on the other end told him the money from that refund wouldn’t be accessible to him for anywhere from two to 10 business days.

For Wilde, who doesn’t use a credit card and needed the money from the return to book a flight back to Saskatoon, the delay is agonizing.

Sterling Wilde sweeps a path to say thanks for lodging at a friends. (Sterling Wilde/Submitted)

As a single dad, he was looking forward to nothing more than seeing his kids perform in their first Christmas concerts since the pandemic.

Wilde, who’s separated, said he’s currently trying to gain more time with his kids through Family Court.

“Which means I only get to see them every two weeks,” he explained, adding he was thrilled when his time with them fell on Christmas.

“That’s very difficult for me because it is Christmas and since COVID, this is the first year they were having Christmas concerts.”

Missing seeing the performances of his six-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son, and visiting with his 14-year-old daughter, was heartbreaking for him.

He said he had friends who were gracious enough to attend the concerts and video the performances for him, but “it’s not the same.”

“I miss my children dearly,” Wilde said.

Now in Langley, B.C., Wilde said he was fortunate to be able to connect with some friends who have given him a place to stay while he figures out how to get home.

He’s been looking at rideshares and renting a vehicle, but hasn’t had any success yet finding a way back home for the holidays.

“I’m very upset with the airline I’ve used and their lack of ability to assist their customers in such a hard time,” Wilde said.