OT: Canadian airline shuts down, strands passengers

[Maple Leafs]

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...acodalogin=yes

Jetsgo, a discount Canadian airline, has shut down in preparation for bankruptcy. Not unusual in an industry facing touch times, but the way they went about it is stunning: they waited until midnight last night, right before one of the busiest travel weeks in Canada (March break). Since it's a discount airline, no doubt many people were buying tickets for weekend travel right up until they shut their doors. It seems clear that the strategy was to pick up as many late ticket sales as possible before shutting down.

No refunds. Very little chance of making alternate arrangements. And best of all, any passengers who are already at their destination and holding return tickets are out of luck. And of course, competitors are now raising their prices to take advantage of the desperate.

My sister is in her first year of teaching. She works with special needs children and loves it, but she doesn't make much money and desperately needs a holiday. She'd booked this week for a vacation to the Dominican. Now she not only won't be going, but has lost the money she'd been saving for the trip.

Any Canadian FOFCers getting screwed by this travesty?

[cartman]

Your sister might check to see if another airline will honor her ticket. Sometimes other airlines will do this as a measure of good faith. It can't hurt to ask at this point.

[FrogMan]

wow ML, that sucks for your sister. Just saw the news about it this morning, didn't know they went that sucky way with it...

We're not traveling much so no, we were not screwed, but I feel for people who got screwed by it...

FM

[KWhit]

Wow. That sucks.

[bbor]

Hmmmm...is this not the airline that has been pimping their 1 cent flights for the last 2 weeks.


I always wondered how they stayed in business doing this.

[KevinNU7]

They don't have Class Action Lawsuits in Canada?

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

They don't have Class Action Lawsuits in Canada?

Who would you sue? A bankrupt company?

And a lawsuit isn't going to help the people who thought they were flying this weekend.

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...acodalogin=yes

Jetsgo, a discount Canadian airline, has shut down in preparation for bankruptcy. Not unusual in an industry facing touch times, but the way they went about it is stunning: they waited until midnight last night, right before one of the busiest travel weeks in Canada (March break). Since it's a discount airline, no doubt many people were buying tickets for weekend travel right up until they shut their doors. It seems clear that the strategy was to pick up as many late ticket sales as possible before shutting down.

No refunds. Very little chance of making alternate arrangements. And best of all, any passengers who are already at their destination and holding return tickets are out of luck. And of course, competitors are now raising their prices to take advantage of the desperate.

My sister is in her first year of teaching. She works with special needs children and loves it, but she doesn't make much money and desperately needs a holiday. She'd booked this week for a vacation to the Dominican. Now she not only won't be going, but has lost the money she'd been saving for the trip.

Any Canadian FOFCers getting screwed by this travesty?

Yep. My buddy and his wife were due to fly out to British Columbia this weekend for some spring break skiing. They got a "deal" at $675.00 with return fare included.

They just had a kid, so money's tight and now they don't think they can afford to put another grand down for another flight (as you said, the other airlines just raised their prices).

Sickening...absolutely sickening.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by NoSkillz

Yep. My buddy and his wife were due to fly out to British Columbia this weekend for some spring break skiing. They got a "deal" at $675.00 with return fare included.

They just had a kid, so money's tight and now they don't think they can afford to put another grand down for another flight (as you said, the other airlines just raised their prices).

Sickening...absolutely sickening.

That's a great deal. Isn't $675.00 Canadian like, 12 bucks US?

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

That's a great deal. Isn't $675.00 Canadian like, 12 bucks US?

it used to be, until your dollar took quite the nosedive, now it's like 30 bucks US

FM

[stkelly52]

From CNN

MONTREAL, Quebec (Reuters) -- Canadian discount airline Jetsgo ceased operations Friday and said it would seek court protection from its creditors, stranding hundreds of passengers during the March break school holidays, one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

Montreal-based Jetsgo, Canada's third-largest airline, said difficult market conditions and competitive pressures forced it to take the drastic measure. It offered no details on the state of its finances.

The privately-held company was already under scrutiny from Canadian regulators because of safety concerns.

Jetsgo, which began flying in mid-2002 and immediately launched a domestic fare war, said the request for bankruptcy protection from a Quebec court would allow it to consider all options to reorganize its affairs.

Analysts said the grounding of Jetsgo, which operated a fleet of 25 jets and accounted for about 10 percent of the Canadian domestic airline market, would likely benefit Calgary-based no-frills carrier WestJet Airlines Ltd. , the country's second-largest carrier.

"We view the demise of Jetsgo as a positive for WestJet and think the shares will respond accordingly," said Merrill Lynch analyst Michael Linenberg in a research report Friday.

Linenberg raised his rating on WestJet stock to "buy" from "neutral."

WestJet shares closed at C$11.17 (US$9.28) in Toronto Thursday, well below it's 52-week high of C$19.25.

At Jetsgo's two key hubs, Pearson International Airport in Toronto and Montreal's Trudeau International Airport, the airline's kiosks and counters were abandoned.

"Where are the executives? They should be here to explain. They should be accountable," said Toronto traveler Craig Baumgartner who was on his way to New Brunswick.

Computer terminals had been removed and there were no Jetsgo staff to assist stranded passengers. Jetsgo's website, through which it booked much of its ticket sales, was not working Friday morning.

"We deeply regret that this had to happen. The decision to cease operations was only taken after difficult deliberation," Michel Leblanc, president of Jetsgo, said in a statement.

"We are very concerned about our customers and the significant hardship that this action causes."

Leblanc advised passengers to contact their travel agent or an alternative airline.

ACE Aviation Holdings Inc.'s Air Canada, the country's top airline, said it regretted that Jetsgo had made no arrangements that would enable Air Canada to accept the grounded airline's tickets.

Air Canada, which itself emerged from 18 months of bankruptcy protection at the end of September, said it would try to redeploy aircraft capacity to make as many seats available as possible to assist Jetsgo ticket holders, but flights were already heavily booked because of spring break.

WestJet said that until Monday, it will provide stranded Jetsgo customers with special fares on confirmed seats in all markets served by the two carriers.

WestJet also said it was offering C$35 standby fares to stranded Jetsgo crews, including flight attendants, pilots and maintenance personnel, until Sunday.

Jetsgo's grounding came just two days after Canadian officials said investigators had identified shortcomings in the airline's operating methods. The shortcomings were discovered during "a special inspection" into a forced landing of one of the airline's jets in January.

At least WestJet is trying to help out a little bit, offereing C$35 tickets.

Sounds like there are a lot of their employees who are stranded as well. Wouldn't that stink. "yeah, your fired, now try to make your way home"

[Fonzie]

One thing's for sure: if they ever come out of bankruptcy they will have zero potential customers after pulling this shite.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by Fonzie

One thing's for sure: if they ever come out of bankruptcy they will have zero potential customers after pulling this shite.

They'll be just like AirTran.

[Bubba Wheels]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

it used to be, until your dollar took quite the nosedive, now it's like 30 bucks US

FM

Anybody who thinks its cheaper up in Canada should take a little road trip and see for themselves. Fill up with gas and after you get done paying the GST (Government Service tax) you will have easily paid $10.00 more for the tank of gas than you would have in the U.S. They used to refund this tax to U.S. citizens until someone took a look at it and asked "why?"

[Joe Canadian]

According to CTV, the Transport Minister knew about this the night before it happened...

[chrisj]

Originally Posted by Fonzie

One thing's for sure: if they ever come out of bankruptcy they will have zero potential customers after pulling this shite.

Doubtful.

He even did it a few years ago, although a different name. The guy who owned the company has pulled this shit before. He used to own an airline called Royal Airlines, which he sold to Canada 3000 back in 2000-ish. Needless to say, Canada 3000 didn't take a good look at the company they were buying, as it was in awful shape, and the whole thing went down the toliet a year later.

I think this was his 5th airline that he's run.

The airline was awful itself. Not uncommon for 2-3 hour delays. Just goes to show, just because something is cheap, it's not always the best way to go.

Thankfully, most people buy their tickets either with a travel agent or online with a credit card - so they should mostly all be able to get a refund on their unused tickets.