TORONTO — Sunwing says it appreciates travel advisors’ patience as the company works through issues with its Sunwing STAR loyalty program.

One agent, however, tells Travelweek her patience is wearing thin – and she says she’s not alone.

“It has been over two months now that they have a technical issue with the STAR cards and no one has been able to access their STAR Points to change them over to their spending card,” says the ON-based travel advisor, adding that she has close to $500 in points that she’s waiting to move to the Visa card.

“They are sitting on everyone’s points and as agents we are very concerned,” she says.

“I HAVE 268,636 POINTS IN LIMBO”

At the end of last year Sunwing switched over to a fully electronic version of the card, with a new supplier.

The agent shares that after some early trouble accessing her new card online, and some back and forth and help from Sunwing, she received a new card.

“I was able to convert the points I had accumulated at that time onto my Star Visa and get it loaded into my Apple Wallet for use. I sat on this credit as I knew the majority of my travellers were in February and March, and I wanted to have a large amount on the card so I could purchase something of value,” she tells Travelweek.

“I generally convert most of the points but leave enough that the minimum will be accessible once the accumulation has slowed down,” she adds.

She says problems arose by mid-February. “The second week of February or so I attempted to convert points. They wouldn’t move from the points tally onto my card as cash. Yet the points continued to accumulate. I reached out to Sales and they notified me they knew there was an issue and were working on it.

Since that time she’s been checking every week to see if she can can convert her points over to the Visa card for cash, with no luck.

“I now have 268,636 points sitting in limbo, which is $489 that I am unable to access. I’m very concerned that I will end up losing these … they will just shut the program down and we will all burn for our points. They have had two months to fix this problem and frankly in this day and age of technology I find it hard to believe they haven’t been able to. I feel we are getting the runaround.”

SUNWING’S RESPONSE

Travelweek reached out to Sunwing to find out more, including any word on a timeline for a fix, and received this response.

“We understand the frustration that some travel advisors are experiencing with the Sunwing STAR Program, and we sincerely appreciate their patience as we work through this situation.

“Over the past few months, point redemption challenges have arisen due to issues with our third-party payment provider, XTM Inc., which has not met the standards we expect.

“In February 2026, the Bank of Canada ordered XTM to cease certain retail payment activities, which has impacted advisors’ ability to access or withdraw their STAR Points. While regulatory conditions have since evolved, full functionality has not yet been restored.

“Importantly, all STAR Points earned by advisors remain secure and continue to be tracked. Advisors are still earning points on eligible bookings, and those balances are being safeguarded.

“We are actively exploring alternative solutions to enable advisors to access their earnings and are treating this as a top priority. We remain committed to supporting our valued travel advisor community and will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.”

“WE WERE MADE TO FEEL WE HAD NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT”

The agent tells Travelweek that many travel advisors share her frustration with the status of the STAR program. The retail travel community is especially wary after the issues Transat had with BonBon, its popular agent loyalty program.

Transat suspended BonBon in August 2025, and initiated legal proceedings in September 2025.

At that time Transat said the suspension was due to factors beyond the company’s  control, including the termination of the contract between the program’s banking services provider and the program manager, as well as ongoing technical issues.

“After what happened with many of our Transat BonBon points, I keep taking printouts of the page as it updates, as my points are still accumulating,” the agent tells Travelweek. “I failed to do that with Transat as we were made to feel we had nothing to worry about. That was obviously not the case.”