AC not to help stuck Jetsgo passengers

[Genessee]

unfortunately there's still a girl here who is out $700 now...

If she paid with Mastercard or Visa, she can get it back. MC isad they would do it this afternoon and Visa shortly after. Nice of them to take care of customers like that.

[ACman]

I hope no one worked for jetsgo on this forum, or knew any family or friends that did.

[A332]

Ahh... I suppose I figured more people would have tuned into SG's problems after the December 23rd disaster and then the mishap at YYC...

I have been a vocal opponent against Jetsgo for quite some time and I have prevented several of my own employees from booking with the airline (some of whom would be out lots of money right now)... unfortunately there's still a girl here who is out $700 now...

And I agree that if AC feels the desire to reach out to the stranded pax, then so be it.. however, AC should not take any flack over not doing more... the customers made their choice and walked away from AC/WS/C6 and picked Jetsgo instead...

[sturla]

Why should Air Canada be forced to lose money helping out customers who were too cheap to book airfare on AC in the first place?

As well, this is a very busy travel season and AC simply does not the extra capacity to carry all these people around. I do feel some sympathy for the stranded passengers, but at the same time, you get what you pay for. When you opt out of flying a reputable carrier and go for the cheapest flight possible, you waive all rights to complain about crappy service... that's my opinion.

Just like when Consumer Reports says not to buy a used vehicle due to mechanical issues, and you buy it anyways and complain about it breaking down.. it's the same principle.

But again, thank god Jetsgo is gone! I was grinnin' all the way to work this morning!

You weren't the only one grinning all the way to work (ok, so I took today off but I'm still very cheerful today)!

I guess the problem is that whereas a consumer report may highlight something wrong with a car, there was no official word of problems from Jetsgo, nor was there anything other than speculations which were always denied by SG themselves. Since Jetsgo is not a public traded company they do not have to be as open with their finances, no securities commission filings to worry about or anything ... and that made people thing that, even though things may not be great, a shutdown wasn't imminent. If you had asked me last weekend whether it'd be safe to book on SG this weekend I for sure would have said "don't see a problem with that but don't book a year in advance." I think a lot of people saw it that way.

Oh, and I wasn't advocating that AC should lose money, rather that it would be a smart business move to offer available seats for cheap. Some of these stranded passengers are people who now will have to find another airline to be loyal to, be it WJ or AC (sorry CanJet).

-Sturla

[UnitedFlyer]

Air Canada I am sure did not make this decision on a whim. Although, as Sturla pointed out marginal costs are associated with extra pax, some of these people will HAVE to pay full price for a ticket home. They have a chance to really make some money since most of WJ's seats will be gone, some will come a pay high dollars for AC tickets.

It would have been great for PR though.

[A332]

Why should Air Canada be forced to lose money helping out customers who were too cheap to book airfare on AC in the first place?

As well, this is a very busy travel season and AC simply does not the extra capacity to carry all these people around. I do feel some sympathy for the stranded passengers, but at the same time, you get what you pay for. When you opt out of flying a reputable carrier and go for the cheapest flight possible, you waive all rights to complain about crappy service... that's my opinion.

Just like when Consumer Reports says not to buy a used vehicle due to mechanical issues, and you buy it anyways and complain about it breaking down.. it's the same principle.

But again, thank god Jetsgo is gone! I was grinnin' all the way to work this morning!

[uy707]

It depends in how you set up the shop, which legal status you pick up for your business. Some statuses such as the PLC provides with provisions in protecting the founder's personnal assets. In this case this may compare with Corbet who still lives in a 1,800 sq feet/600 sq meter exclusive panthouse with prime-view over the Place des Vosges in downtown Paris
On the other hand, creditors managed to foreclose 7 aircrafts "belonging" to Corbet (4 in Orly, and the 3 DC.10-30s agonizing at HAV). It would be interesting to see "who" concluded the deals over JetGo's MadDogs and Fokker 100s : the airline itself or the founder/owner ...
Another similarity will surely be found with the staff members who agreed to trust their careers and fate with JetGo ... Unless they radically change, they may get on a same runway end as lots of Air Liberté staff members.
Alain

[Legend_Airlines]

Westjet is offering standby fares, and seeing how this is one of the busiest weekends anyways, I wouldn't be surprised at all if most of these "ex-Jetsgo" passengers can't find any open seats

Unless anybody here wants to admit the load factors on WJ are sucking?

[Genessee]

From what I heard on the radio this morning, for the people who booked directly with SG, the only thing they can do is to call up their credit card companies... the process would be long and arduous and the chance to get something back is suspect

Some credit cards are very helpful with charge backs. I've had to twice, and both times they were quick at getting a credit. Both times though I had delt with the vendors involved, and made it clear that calling the CC co, was a last resort.

What I find pretty shadey is some people booked flights last night. -- According the some of the news stories around anyway.

"I just bought it (my ticket) online last night," one woman told a radio station after she landed at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport from Bathurst, N.B., and waited in vain for her Jetsgo flight to Florida.

"They couldn't have called and told me?"

[Proud_Wings]

I dont know if its just me, but in canada there is a complete lack of regulation on these sorts of things. If this were to happen in the US then i beleive certian cariers would have an obligation to get these passengers home by law. But honestly, i whould have thought that AC would have taken the chance to either get a bit of publicity by helping out the passengers, or find some way to make money off it.

Personally, by providing help for passengers now, AC may have had the opportunity to cash in later when all the passengers who have booked flights into late april and may. It'll be interesting to see it they chance their mind


Oh well feel bad for the employees and the passengers but im glad the airline is gone

[sturla]

I do agree with what Westjet is doing. But the problum with the AC side is...

A: High load factors making it hard to fly passengers when planes are full or some seats opem, making familys split up
B: AC just pulled out of bankruptcy no less than 6 months ago, this would defenitly make them loose a substantial amount of money.
C: Im looking at flights out of Halifax, there all stacked FULL, so can you tell me how your supposed to put stranded pax on a FULL plane?
D: Maby some seats are open, but there could be emplyee's travelling which will fill up the seats.

Well, guess the only MD-80 operator in Canada is gone.

It is my understanding that WestJet's offer is "subject to availability" (isn't everything?) and that they will not set up any extra flights - merely allow stranded Jetsgo passengers to book cheap flights if there are any remaining available seats. So it wouldn't be any losses, just selling the last couple of seats for next to no profit. Just to clarify: I wasn't suggesting that AirCanada do anything else either. And yes, putting stranded pax on a full plane isn't an option.

-Sturla

[avro_arrow_25206]

Looks like the gov't won't help either ..

No federal refunds for passengers stranded by Jetsgo bankruptcy ...

I'm amazed how close "Finincial Analysts" were with their April05 predition of SG going under.

Oh well, they were fun flights while they lasted.

Is it true that there is a law in the US which requires competing airlines to offer stranded passengers flights at greatly discounted rates on flights with open seats. when an airline goes under? Why isn't there something like this in Canada? Where's the consumer protection here?

From what I heard on the radio this morning, for the people who booked directly with SG, the only thing they can do is to call up their credit card companies... the process would be long and arduous and the chance to get something back is suspect

[avro_arrow_25206]

I am with you. After all Air France resisted pleas and did not started wooing stranded passengers left behind by Air Liberté ....
AF behaved just on the smartest ; as the archi-rival who had not any single reasons to bent. And I appreciated that CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta took care of personnally advising Jean Charles Corbet to go and see somewhere else.
It was a great sweat revenge, back in 1998, a JC Corbet, then an AF captain and altogether a shop steward waged a strike on the eve of the World Soccer Cup. JC Corbet later left the airline .... to take up Air Liberté with some whismical financial backing . But in fact he proved much more a CON-MAN, and a f*cking one than anything else. Well should this Mr Leblanc comes from the same mould as Corbet and also has some hidden assets in either the Cayman Islands or Luxembourg, AC should not refrain to ask
- some clarification
- initiate some forclosures on Leblanc's presonnal holdings
and use the proceeds as a cover for JetGo customers repatriation costs.
Alain

I doubt Leblanc has any personal dispute with Robert Milton or ACE, so I don't think you can really compare it to your AF scenario.

From what I understand, when a company goes backrupt, the owner needs not compensate from their own personal finances. So given his history, he will most likely start another business somewhere. Let's hope it's not an airline. Perhaps Sturla can clarify this...

[Genessee]

Looks like the gov't won't help either ..

No federal refunds for passengers stranded by Jetsgo bankruptcy ...

I'm amazed how close "Finincial Analysts" were with their April05 predition of SG going under.

Oh well, they were fun flights while they lasted.

[ACman]

I am with you. After all Air France resisted pleas and did not started wooing stranded passengers left behind by Air Liberté ....
AF behaved just on the smartest ; as the archi-rival who had not any single reasons to bent. And I appreciated that CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta took care of personnally advising Jean Charles Corbet to go and see somewhere else.
It was a great sweat revenge, back in 1998, a JC Corbet, then an AF captain and altogether a shop steward waged a strike on the eve of the World Soccer Cup. JC Corbet later left the airline .... to take up Air Liberté with some whismical financial backing . But in fact he proved much more a CON-MAN, and a f*cking one than anything else. Well should this Mr Leblanc comes from the same mould as Corbet and also has some hidden assets in either the Cayman Islands or Luxembourg, AC should not refrain to ask
- some clarification
- initiate some forclosures on Leblanc's presonnal holdings
and use the proceeds as a cover for JetGo customers repatriation costs.
Alain

Thank you!!!

Just you wait, LeBlanc will create another airline soon.