The sudden collapse of the discount airline Jetsgo has left many travelers across Canada high and dry, however only a few University of Calgary students have been affected by this sudden turn of events according to Travel Cuts’ MacEwan Student Centre branch manager Susan Giesen.
“On Friday morning, we did a scan on our computer system to find all of the passengers who have purchased tickets with Jetsgo but have not yet flown,” said Giesen.
Those students who had bought their tickets on its website have been contacted and are guaranteed full refunds from Travel Cuts. Credit card companies offer charge cancellations to those who have purchased tickets online using their credit cards through the Jetsgo website.
“Jetsgo only sold via credit card, so that’s a real plus in this particular situation, because pretty much all credit card companies will refund the cardholder if they don’t get [the] service that they’ve purchased,” said Giesen.
Passengers cannot make claims to their credit card companies until the services have officially been cancelled on the day of departure. Other credit card companies, stating that Jetsgo has yet to declare bankruptcy, are currently refusing to reverse such charges until bankruptcy has been declared. Travel Cuts President Rodney Hurd stated no customer has ever lost money when a supplier has gone out of business, and promised this trend will continue with Jetsgo.
Trip cancellation insurance does not cover sudden bankruptcies. However, insurance agencies such as RBC Financial offer compensation which are set aside as a limited sum each year. Therefore, while RBC Financial can use their fund to finance claims for Jetsgo, claims from any subsequent cases may not be so lucky if the funds dry up.
Jetsgo, a privately-held dis- count airline based out of Montreal, ceased operations Fri., Mar. 11, leaving 17,000 passengers stranded at airports across North America.