JetsGo airlines shuts down overnight, strands travellers
 

JetsGo decided late in the night to do the bankruptcy thing and not tell anyone, leaving everyone with a plane ticket stranded and no chance of getting a refund.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/natio...go-050311.html

My GF works in travel insurance... she has a BIG day ahead of her.

thats fuckin bullshit

Can you imagine people on holiday for spring break?

There's going to be a lot of very very pissed off travellers today.

My favorite part of every bankruptcy is this line:
'blaming the decision on "difficult market conditions and competitive pressures."'

Difficult market conditions makes sense with the high oil prices. I don't get why they didn't charge a fuel surtax though. They still would have been a lot cheaper than Air Canada and maybe been able to stay in business.

Yup, being a "discount" airline means having to be cheaper, but not at the risk of going bankrupt.

Maybe there's more going on behind the scenes with TSBC
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...tional_Toronto

Holy fuck.

Yikes, that's insane...
"The federal Air Travel Complaints Program received 160 complaints in 2004 about the airline, more than triple the number lodged in 2003."

They can't compete with the fact that Westjet runs a better business, and have all along. Not that I had much faith in something born of the death of Canada 3000... it was likely the shittiest airline in existance.

I hated Jetsgo from the Getsgo

service, plane and conditions were the worse I seen since I started fly over 30 years ago. Last flight to vegas everyone on the plane complained it was way too hot but the head stewardess said to passengers (*and I still cant believe it to this day) - "sorry its hot for you but Im not turning on the air conditioning because then I'll get to cold" - wtf is with the "I" factor?? Your paid to make us happy to fly - not YOU !!

Thats what it boiled down too - hope they fly and crash all their ancient planes into Michel Leblanc's house. I only feel sorry for the passengers, hopefully now the quality of flying will increase - now give me a pillow you cheap bastards and a free bag of peanuts !!

Damn, GOOD timing for once.

Usually I'd have already bought my tickets to get to Legacy's wedding.

Time to shop around again.

OMG - now thats the professionalism I come to expect from Jetsgo

Ms. Fraser said her family went through a "harrowing experience," made worse when "one of the flight attendants at the rear of the plane was praying out loud and crying."


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their pilots and staff were cheaper for them than other companies because they were 'trainees' - just got out of school. they cut corners everywhere... now maybe quality will start making a comeback rather than cheapness

No shit... I'm thanking God I no longer work in the credit card industry. The Canada 3000 fiasco was a headache for over a year for us and I can imagine how much this is going to suck. I pity my former co-workers.

I'm also thanking God I didn't book my tickets to Phoenix and Vancouver on Jetsgo. I came very close to doing so.

This is the email that Jetsgo president Michel Leblanc sent to all employees earlier today:

Dear colleagues,

For myself and the management team, the decision to cease Jetsgo's operations has been extremely difficult to make. It was taken only after all other options had been exhausted.

Unfortunately, one creditor in particular that has the power to stop all Jetsgo operation at once, exercised extreme pressure on our cash reserves last Monday, although aware of the disastrous consequences of such a drastic action would have for each and every one of you. You don't deserve this.

To the contrary, I want to congratulate you for the part you played to build Jetsgo, to thank you for all the efforts that our growth required and also to wish you the best possible future.

Right now, we are making every effort to minimize your loss of employment. I wish it will be short and temporary.

Again, many thanks!

Michel Leblanc

their planes are from like the early 60s and everyone I know who flied jetsgo had a delay problem or a really bad flight.

My mother and father-in-law used them 2 or 3 times and said they were just fine, and for the price, they couldn't be beaten.

I've never flown them, so I don't know.

When I looked to book tickets about a month ago, their price from Winnipeg to Toronto was a little over $200.00. That was half of any competitor at the time, so for a two hour flight I was willing to give it a shot.

Thankfully I held off.

I checked that up this morning too, from the link I found, it seems everything is early-mid 90's

http://www.contrailsphotography.com/fleets/jgo.html

Here's an interesting question, as a consumer can I file a chargeback with my bank for not providing a service? I imagine that would be no problem right?

WG

Well I reckon giving away airfare at a buck didn't help matters much. I only used hem once and it wasn't a bad experience. I feel for the poor bastards that have to find an alternative way to get back home from where ever they are.

that's crazy, i heard the opposite from friends.

I am so glad I didn't book them for the flight I am taking in a few weeks, some friends even suggested Jetsgo and I said as of right now I didn't really want to fly with them, thank god I didn't! We were just talking about them last night and a family friend used them to fly to Madrid and they left yesterday. I guess they have to find another plane to get home on!

Big problems. BIG BIG problems. Once bankruptcy is declared, chargebacks can't be filed against the company. Bankruptcy offers protection against creditors. As a ticket holder, you're considered a creditor.

Their trustee might offer something, but that's not guaranteed.

Right now, if you were to call your issuer, they'd tell you there's nothing you can do. At the very least, you'd have to wait til the flight date on your ticket passes before any action can be taken.

i've never flown on jetsgo, but i liked the idea they had of a slightly upgraded class for just a little more money. guess i never will.

My gf just said that she's taken 40 calls in the last 3 hours... that's just her, that's not including the 100's of others in her department. Her department deals with travel agents, there's a whole other bigger department that handles the travellers themselves.

To give you a comparison, she gets about 60 calls in an entire 8 hour day. 3 hours in and she's taken 40.

What a mess.

Damn, it almost seems easier to file bankruptcy to avoid a lot of problems like this.
WG

"The federal government can do little to help passengers holding worthless tickets for the discount airline Jetsgo, said Transport Minister Jean Lapierre on Friday."

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/natio...rre050311.html

From what I'm reading, you have to wait until after the day your flight is booked before you call for a charge back. There's no way of knowing 100% whether you'll actually get that flight booked a month from now.

Not sure how the bankruptcy protection will play in, but...

Yep, like I said, you definetly have to wait until the flight date has passed before you're eligible for a chargeback.

As for the comments from Mastercard, unless a trustee steps in and frees up funds to reimburse ticket holders, whether or not credits will be issued will depend on the banks.

When you initiate a chargeback, the funds are taken from the merchant's account at his acquiring bank. If the company has declared bankruptcy, there are no funds to be had in said bank account, meaning no funds to issue refunds with.

This was the case with Canada 3000. Some banks issued no credits. Other banks (TDCT for example) made arrangements with Canada 3000's acquiring bank to split the costs of refunding customers who had exhausted all other paths to a possible refund and filed claims before a certain date. In other words, the banks took a loss and issued refunds from their own "pockets".

If you have any compassion for poor customer service agents, don't call your bank until after your flight date has passed. I can guarantee you they're being swamped with calls from angry, frustrated customers right now.

That's crazy. Usually there are some rumblings before a company files for bankruptcy & actually closes the doors. There are going to be a lot of disappointed families for Easter & spring break.

This isn't a big surprise, they got into the airline biz at the wrong time. I also heard their service wasn't the best (I'm being polite btw).

Can't say this wasn't expected, I mean this guys were "cheap" on everyfucking level...

Yikes :eek2

Just to add to that possibility is:
If the company has declared bankruptcy, there could be millions of dollars in said bank account, however once the bankruptcy is declared it goes into the hands of a Trustee and all bank accounts are then blocked - the only debits in the account are those authorized and signed for by the Trustee. After a financial statement is produced & they know where they stand with the finances - they hold a creditor's meeting. After all those steps and deciding it can't get back on its feet and resume operations by working a payout plan with it's creditors - then the funds start getting released - the travellers are almost always the last to get paid. If you paid for insurance, hopefully you're covered. If you have a creditcard, some have insurance that you may not be aware of included in your yearly fee - or it's part of their guarantee. Go online and check what benefits you have as a cardholder.

The Airline business is tough on every carrier these days.

We were having a flight booked with them for our trip (april 10-17) to Patty's Dad home in Palm Beach Florida... We called Visa yesterday and with a simple Fax to them and proof of purchase, the guy at Visa told us that we'll get the transaction cancelled (chargeback) ...

Hey Dave! Bring your fat ass up here, the Ski conditions are awesome :winkwink: