ATA Bankrupt

[scottr0829]

Looks like ATA Airlines has ceased operations immediately. http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/03/news/companies/ata_bankruptcy/index.htm?cnn=yes

No more Southwest to Hawaii since they partnered with them to get from the west coast to Hawaii. Anybody hurt by this because of future tickets?

[Jeff California]

ata has declared chapter 11 and has cancelled all flights. I had tickets for 5 for Hawaii may 8th.......I payed for all the darn tix. anyways, their website says I am outta luck unless I can get a refund with credit card WHICH IS AN ATA CREDIT CARD! Last week this company raised my credit limit by 100%. I assume their ata credit cards were supplied from an outside source.... I earned alot of points charging and paying off the account monthly. I have enough points for Andrea and I to fly to Hawaii free. Now they are trash. I am disgusted.
I wonder how many people payed for a Hawaii dream vacation and are now screwed? They say if you payed with cash or check you might get something back from the courts. maybe 10 bucks per 1000? I am looking at new flights as I have reservations all in place for everything and most are red eyes.... This sucks.... I will buy 5 more tickets with another airline today.....

Disgusted

Jeff

[Jeff California]

Freitag said ATA will set up signs at airports alerting travelers of the shutdown, and will also update the airline's Web site with current information. He suggested that customers with existing reservations make arrangements with other carriers for travel.



this is such crap. i am thankfull I can afford this, but there have got to be a bunch of folks that are not going to be able to make their vacation. ABSURD.....

still disgusted....

only bright light in this is SWA saying they will reschedule flights booked through them..

Jeff

[scottr0829]

Jeff, unfortunately I immediately thought of you when I read this and had a feeling you would be getting screwed by them. Sorry to hear that and I hope you are still able to enjoy the vacation - even with the huge financial hit.

It sucks that customers that have paid for services are always last in the line of creditors when a company goes Chapter 11. You would think the system would want to take care of the little guy whose finances are a bit more burdened than a huge corporation who can easily write it off.

Glad to see SWA trying to take care of their customers. Are they trying to rebook people on other airlines or are they investigating another partnership or are you not sure?

[scottr0829]

Here are some tips from The Consumerist on what to do if you have tickets on a bankrupt airline:

http://consumerist.com/375602/what-do-you-do-if-you-have-tickets-on-a-bankrupt-airline

Jeff - most likely, the credit card was through another company, so you should be able to do a charge back. According to the article from the site above:

An ATA insider tells us, "When an airline bills you for your ticket, they don't receive payment—the money's escrowed until you fly or the terms of the contract are met, i.e. one year validity limit, so the bankruptcy doesn't affect those customers."

[Jeff California]

Thank you. Yes, the guy I talked with said he will just dispute the charges and credit my visa in a few weeks. Hope that happens!!!! With ata and aloha out of the picture, the choices for tix sucks. I dont like red eye flights!!!!!

Thanks again for the insight. It was a relief to find out I likely wont have to pay it. The guy had to put me on hold to confirm because i bought the tix and paid the card off in febuary... Scary stuff and likely a ruined year for many families.....

[tusphotog]

I dont like red eye flights!!!!!


Same here. Hawaiian has non-redeyes out of HNL for the mainland, as does, AA, UA and NW.

Some good might come from this as people will probably cancel their hotel reservations and there might be some good deals that open up.

[scottr0829]

There is a good blog entry on the SWA Blog about why SWA couldn't just take over the flights:

http://www.blogsouthwest.com/2008/04/04/why-no-southwest-to-hawaii/

Interesting stuff.

[Jeff California]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/04/04/airlines.bankruptcy/index.html another one gone. we booked on United for a day flight. Was only about 300 more for all the tix.

[CAflyer]

We had just given my parents a surprise 50th ann. trip to Hawaii on ATA for June, a week later they folded. My sister is taking care of getting the money back but now they will have to go in the off season because now tickets are too high. Imagine the people who were going for weddings or something time sensitive like that!