exAC

The big winners will be the people that were standing on the side lines and wanting to get into the airline business. There are always people with money that want to spend it on owning their own airline.

I know of at least two new airlines in Canada that are poised to start up with non domestic services. This development makes room for them to get into the domestic market now also.

As for JetsGo passengers and whether they will thank WS or AC for rescuing them. I just saw a bunch of very sad people in YYZ T1 that heaved a big sigh of relief when they got boarding cards on AC flights home.

I think that AC handled the PR angle properly this time. They were already very full and do not have a lot of inventory to sell. The worst thing to happen (as has happened before) is that the JetsGo ticket holder gets too high an expectation that some other airline will come along as a saviour and take their tickets for free or allow them to buy a ticket comparable with what they got from JetsGo. This time they did not clog up the airport ticket counters clamouring for AC to 'Help them out' as the expectation has been built. Watch the bad feelings if the passenger is expecting a good deal and then get to the airport and find out there are no seats available except full fare Business class.

the happy booker

Agreed. While I feel sympathy for those passengers who purchased Jetsgo tickets at a reasonable fare, and in good faith, and think that it would be a real nice random act of kindness for AC and WS to help travellers holding those types of tickets out, the fact is that many of the Jetsgo tickets circulating were purchased at ridulously low fare, like the 1cad plus tax ones. The travellers purchasing those promos knew darned well that the tickets were being sold below cost, and didn't give a hoot. Add to that the fact that lately it was no secret Jetsgo was having financial difficulties, and equipment related safety issues, and you have to wonder what on earth these people were expecting? Happy to fly on an unsafe plane if the fare was low enough? And where was the airline to get the money to make thier planes safe? Certainly not from these folk.
People who want something for nothing seldom learn, and I guarantee you that they'll be out there looking for the next great bargain as soon as they're safely back home. In the meantime, you're expecting AC and WS to accept tickets at face value that only had a face value of a dollar plus taxes? That isn't fair to either AC or WS.
As for the PAX being the loser when fares start to rise again after this, are they really losing when they purchase a ticket that isn't being sold below cost, and enables the airline to pay for proper maintenance on it's planes, meet the bills, and not leave them stranded due to an untimely bankruptcy? Or is the passenger the winner when the fare is cheap, and the airplane falls out of the air? Fares rising to normal levels and an end to this type of nonsense might be the best thing to happen to the travelling public.
And as to who will be the winner as a result of all this: in the short term it's going to be WS and AC neck in neck. In the longer run, it's going to be AC coming out ahead, with Canjet gaining by increments and WestJet falling back to it's Western bases.
One final note: seeing the demise of a rival which was follwing pretty much the same strategy as WS has of late, must be giving Clive a massive case of the heebie-jeebies. I'll bet you he's going to be doing some heavy thinking over the next little while.
RM, on the other hand, must be out popping the corks on numerous bottles of the fizzy stuff.
Tokaj's better.

ACePJB

I can't say who will benefit the most from Jetsgo's demise, but I can say that I did benefit. Returning from MCO to YYZ today my family and I were upgraded to J due to the additional Jetsgo pax load . Irony is sweet, last year our return flight on Jetsgo from Stanford was delayed 10 hrs. First and last time that I purchased a Jetsgo ticket - don't know what I was thinking.

The only disappointing aspect of our return trip was at the MCO RCC -- they don't allow comp. access for *G members and their families, only one guest is free. I was told that if my wife, my 3 year old, my 2 year old and I wanted to enter I would be required to pay $20 USD as per the agreement United has with Air Canada.

Every time I enter a MLL with my family we are all welcomed with a smile.

PJB

Altaflyer

Right, and if you look at the MLL policy re: *A Gold access it too is restricted to one guest whereas Elite can bring a family:

"Aeroplan Elite members:

Elite members with a valid membership card and a same-day confirmed ticket on an Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz, Star Alliance or Air Canada Codeshare flight are entitled to access the Maple Leaf Lounge.

Guest Policy:
Immediate family: complimentary
1 complimentary guest
Guests, $10/per person before 11:00 a.m.
Guests, $20/per person after 11:00 a.m.

Star Alliance Gold:

Customers who present a valid card with the Star Alliance Gold logo are entitled to access the Maple Leaf Lounge when traveling on a departing Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz, Star Alliance or Air Canada Codeshare flight.

Guest Policy:
As per the Star Alliance agreement;
1 complimentary guest
Guests, $10/per person before 11:00 a.m.
Guests, $20/per person after 11:00 a.m."

7E7

Besides passengers, another set of losers in the Jetsgo failure are the airport authorities. In the short term they are probably out some fees and aif that has not been paid and their plasn for the year probably inlcude Jetsgo activity.

Hopefully the people who were going to fly Jetsgo continue to fly with another carrier.

DanJ

Just had the Halifax news on, and said that Jetsgo owed Halifax Airport $165,000, and had missed their March 1st payment. I'm sure this is a similar story to airports around NA.

Altaflyer

AC was just slower at the switch....they too have now "adjusted" their fares.

parnel

Open mouth insert foot once again...see below

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...6&postcount=30

Braindrain

Interesting. Every time I bring my "family" into a RCC, I never have any problems. However, they didn't travel with me to MCO.

Ken hAAmer

He he... you would never find me complaining in this situation.

As for the MCO MLL, I'm guessing that because they have a much larger percentage of "families" travelling through, they might need to hold to the rules more strictly. I know there have been several reports over the years that most RCCs will let in *G's and their families.

airbus320

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ery=air+canada

NordsFan

http://www.recorder.ca/cp/Business/0...b0311141A.html

http://www.nordtech-aerospace.com/EN/index.asp

LeSabre74

Oh really, why then is Aeroplan so successful?

I hope you aren't becoming blind to AC's faults. The initial press releases from WS and AC are classic examples. I'm glad that AC went back and "softened" their position, but the intitial tight-@ss press release should never have gone out. The tone of the WS release said "we can help", the AC release reads "not our problem".

Will people remember the specific news release; of course not. Is it just one more thing that reinforces the public a negative impression of them: you bet.

AC Lurkers; you're building a great product, stop shooting yourselves in the foot (feet?)

ProudEdmontonian

Well, I know it's not the food and drink they serve at their Do's because I ate at CARA in YYZ...unless they're serving 'special' meals to parnel !

Simon

This is actually a very pertinent question. It would be quite interesting to know what proportion of AP points are actually earned flying vs. on credit cards. If on the latter (which would not surprise me one bit), then there is indeed no loyalty to anything but the lowest price. People are just happy to cash in their miles wherever they get something for "free", and it would probably make no difference to Average Joe if that was AC, WS or RyanAir.