What protections are typically in place to cover passengers when something like this happens? I know that if they’re still flying that route when we expected to travel (next spring) we’d presumably be fine, but what if they cancel that route? Would we expect to be put on another airline? would we just be SOL?
I’m presuming that if something like that happens, we could just file with our credit-card company for a refund on the grounds of “services not provided” (we did something similar years ago when we purchased a gift, and the vendor declared bankruptcy before it was shipped).
I think in general, with airline bankruptcies, the travellers are SOL. I’ve heard of quite a few bankruptcies where travellers were essentially stranded in airports between flights with no recourse but to buy a ticket from another airline out of their own pocket.
I don’t know how it works in the U.S., but here in the U.K., if you buy anything on a credit card - Mastercard, Visa etc, but not charge cards like AmEx - between £100 and £30,000, it’s the credit card company that’s liable.
Ah - thanks. Dunno why it didn’t occur to me to go to FlyI’s webpage :smack:
This is part of our concern. That and having the entire trip cancelled suddenly, when it’s too late to book a reasonable flight on another carrier. It’s a big-deal family event, and telling them at the last minute that “we can’t go, because it would cost us 2,000 bucks to fly” would not go over too well.
There are similar laws here. FlyI’s webpage even references that. Of course if we wind up having to purchase more expensive tickets at a later date, we’d still be out the difference in fares. That’s not too big a diff right now, but if it’s hundreds more per ticket later on, it’ll be very painful.
I wonder if Travelocity would credit our account right now, and cancel our reservations, under the circumstances. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, funny aren’t I
Airlines typically spend a long time in Chapter 11, with things pretty much normal. If they were in Chapter 7, then you would have cause to worry.
Major carriers typically “cover” stranded pax on their competitors (even when they don’t have to…chance to woo another customer and so on), but Independence Air isn’t what I’d call a major carrier, it’s more like Southwest or AirTran, and I just don’t know how the other carriers would do as far as accepting your ticket.
As has been said, in this case your credit card is your #1 backup, but that would of course not reimburse you for a more expensive ticket that you might have to purchase on another airline.
Again, though, unless your ticket is for a long time from now, I really don’t think you have anything to worry about…
With the exception of sudden route/schedule changes, which often are done when an airline is undergoing Ch. 11 reorg. This might inconvenience you (perhaps even severely), but you would still most likely be able to get where you were going on Independence Air.
While this is true, it doesn’t cover the immediate situation of crises such as with Swissair, which literally collapsed in one day, not long after 9/11 (although it had been in trouble for a long time). There, the reassurance of being able to claim money back from your credit card isn’t much if you’re stranded in some foreign airport with a ticket that’s now worthless.
Oh, next spring. Sorry I missed that in your OP. Keep a watch on developments, then, int he next 3-4 months and plan accordingly.
One possible option, although it will likely be expensive, is to purchase fully-refundable “Y” fare tickets. Yes, they’ll be much more, but probably less than what you’d pay for a last-minute fare on them. And, if your Independence Air tix are still good, you can cancel the full-fare tix w/no penalty. (except for having your $$ out of circulation for this period, of course)
Indeed, I once met someone on a plane who had been on the last National Airlines flight into Las Vegas. 15 minutes before they landed, the passengers were informed National had just filed for bankruptcy (Chapter 7, I believe) and that the airline’s “obligation to their passengers will be terminated” as soon as they land the plane. After the 5-10 seconds it took people to translate the phrase from Weasel to English, people were pretty mad.
The other airlines were fairly understanding, and they rebooked most of the passengers at reasonable (for last-minute travel) rates.
You should be ok, even in three months. Some of the sudden suspensions in the US like Midway Air and National stranded a few people. But other airlines for the most part made up the slack and got folks home, if not for free, then for very deep discounts. It might be worse if you were flying to someplace with limited service like Duluth or Sioux City. FlyI generally goes to major markets.
Under Chapter 11, the airline will receive bank financing to stay in business while they work out restructuring. I didn’t see who they lined up as a DIP lender, but I would wager that they have one. You should be fine unless the bankruptcy court comes back and says that FlyI is beyond help and orders them shut down. Thats a low-probability event. I would think that the bigest reason they are filing is to get out of union wage and contracts and so they can break aircraft leases and get out from under the payments. It also scores them some time to recover from the oil spike in September.
As far as I know the sudden collapses of the big European airlines occurred because the bankruptcy laws there are a bit more strict. Essentially after the governments refused to throw in last minute financing, the airlines were finished.
