Sun Mar 13/05
Logizomechanophobics conspicuous

Here's the non-story of the day, courtesy of the Toronto Star and society's lingering mistrust of the Internet: "Doubts raised about online booking." It goes like this:

• Jetsgo booked a lot of tickets through its website.

• Jetsgo's tits are pointed up.

• "…the sudden demise of Jetsgo… has spawned stories of travellers stuck with little hope of compensation."

• This may drive people away from online bookings and back towards travel agents, whose customers are covered by government reimbursement plans in Ontario, Quebec and BC — or so say paid representatives of the travel agent industry.

Garbage.

First of all, the "online" thing is a sham: Ontarians, Quebecers and British Columbians who fall outside the purview of the government reimbursement plan do so not because they booked their tickets on the web, but because they booked them directly through Jetsgo. People who telephoned Jetsgo or bought their tickets at the airport are in the same situation as those who bought them from jetsgo.net.

Second of all, though there are indeed plenty of stories of "travellers stuck with little hope of compensation," they all appear to be crap. As every article about Jetsgo's demise has stated, those who purchased their tickets with a credit card are covered. That's everyone who bought his or her ticket online.

Third of all, "Steve Gillick, president of the Canadian Institute of Travel Counsellors of Ontario" and "Christiane Théberge of the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies" are not reliable sources for statements like "In the long run, maybe people will get the idea [that booking through a travel agent is] the safest, most competent way to travel," and "People might think twice when they book online," respectively. The article itself states: "online agents such as Expedia and Travelocity are covered by Ontario's plan," so there's two ways to book online and be covered right there. And, of course, neither of them mentions that you're not covered if you march into a travel agent in Saskatoon and pay for your ticket in cash.

So in the end, every single person who booked a Jetsgo ticket online will be reimbursed, either because they live in Ontario, Quebec or British Columbia and booked through an online travel agency, or because they used their credit card (the only allowable form of payment) to book through Jetsgo directly. That this situation might "raise doubts about online booking" is both ridiculous and entirely befitting of a country and a mass media that couldn't think its way out of a paper bag.