We're booked on a flight to Brazil in August on Varig--which is just a few days away, apparently, from being shut down. An auction for its sale which was held yesterday drew only one bid which was way lower than the minimum price. The bankruptcy judge is going to decide this weekend whether to shut it down. Things don't look good.

My ticket was purchased through Expedia. What are the obligations---if any--for them to get me on another flight? Or am I going to be totally, er, up the creek without a paddle, to use the polite colloquialism for what I really want to say?

Janet:
I'll step in here but really I do not know Brazilian law. If Varig is liquidated, you are out of luck. If the judge accepts the lower offer, your tickets are probably still good for the new entity.
Other airlines have no obligation as far as I know absent some sort of pact or contract between them.
Varig has in all likelihood collected your cash from the credit card company and spent the money. You become an unsecured creditor unlikely to collect because of the massive losses.
Maybe Expedia can work with you, but again I do not think they have any legal obligation.

ouch, I was afraid of that...geez these weren't cheap tickets either...$2000 worth... I called Expedia and basically they said they couldn't tell me anything yet until they heard something definitive from Varig, which I guess will be sometime next week. Monday is the ruling.. They did infer that if they shut down I would be rebooked and they'd contact me with options---but I don't think the agent really knew, yet, what was going on.

Janet, had you booked directly with the airline it would be a complete loss to you. However, I believe Expedia should have some obligation to help you out if the airline they booked for you shuts down.

I booked my Delta flight through an online Ontario travel agency a day before Delta filed for bankruptcy this past year & had the same concerns as you.
I called the agency and she clarified this for me.

Also, I paid with a credit card and notified them of the possible situation. My credit card company would've gone after the travel agency if they refused to provide an alternate flight.

Hope it works out for you.

If you paid with a credit card, and you have not used the tickets yet on any flight of the itinerary, your credit card company should be able to credit you back.

This happened to me a couple of years ago on flights with a small airline here in Florida servicing the Northeast. It went bankrupt and I recovered all my funds through AMEX as NO PART of the ticket was used.

Call your credit card company if they go under.

Doug

Janet, did you buy travel insurance?? If so you are covered.

Ginger

Thanks all.

Ginger, I do have insurance with TravelGuard but the insurance specifically does NOT cover Varig going under. All travel insurers exclude airlines that are already in bankruptcy, as far as I know. Varig was already in bankruptcy when we bought the tickets, but we thought we would be okay, as TAP Portugal had just announced they were going to buy a large percentage of the airline (I am not sure what happened to that deal--I guess it never happened.) Anyway, I knew this when I bought the insurance, but we get it primarily for the medical evacuation coverage etc.

I did buy my tickets with Amex card but my understanding is that the claim has to be within 60 days of the purchase. I bought the tickets back in February

Part of our itinerary (within Brazil) is on TAM and we still will need to use that part of the ticket, although I guess it may have to be re-booked as well. Its really all speculative until we find out what happens with the bankruptcy judge on Monday.

Well that's something I never considered about when you buy a ticket so far in advance that the there was a limitation on how long you could claim compensation from the credit card company if an airline goes under. It seems like now you are getting better deals on buying tickets further out when years ago you could wait and if you were lucky get a ticket cheaper closer to when you leave. Especially for an overseas flight. Let us know how you do with this, good luck on getting compensation and or getting re-booked so you can go ahead with your holiday which as we all know here is super important!

quote:

Originally posted by Janet:
Thanks all.

Ginger, I do have insurance with TravelGuard but the insurance specifically does NOT cover Varig going under. All travel insurers exclude airlines that are already in bankruptcy, as far as I know. Varig was already in bankruptcy when we bought the tickets,

Well crap, this is terrible for you. I will keep my fingers crossed that the powers that be make the right decision for everybody involved. Is Delta in bankruptcy yet?? I bought my tickets for Rome in January.

Ginger

Maybe all is not lost yet. Knight - Ridder is reporting that:

quote:

A report issued by Brazilian investment bank Banco Pactual after the auction estimated a 60 percent likelihood that Varig would be liquidated by the end of the year. Several travel agents said they no longer sell tickets for Varig flights, and the government already has crafted a contingency plan for those holding Varig tickets.

No details but you can read about it HERE.
I think it means the Brazilian government may try to help those holding tickets. When you think about it it makes some sense, because it means that people will travel to Brazil and spend money.

In my experience with online companies like Expedia (or Travelocity, which is the one I got caught up with) don't do much of anything if something happens to your ticket/flight/airline. I had to deal with Travelocity when my ticket was lost (for an airline where you couldn't have those printout online ones). They basically just said "tough luck" and said we'd have to deal with the airline directly. The airline said we would have to deal with Travelocity, and this went back and forth until I missed the flight (about 2 weeks). In the end I just cancelled the credit card charge. They tried to force us to pay but they knew they didn't have anything to stand on, so after a couple of threats that was it!

Anyway the point is, their customer service and knowledge of their employees doesn't seem to cover anything other than selling you the ticket and collecting your money.

Suzanne,
Was your experience with Travelocity?

Did Expedia handle anything for you?

The reason I ask is because I had excellent experiences with Expedia...re: hotel bookings and cancellations & refunds and also with my airline bookings I've done through them.
I called Expedia and dealt with their customer service on the phone to my satisfaction 3 times.

Hope Janet gets some service to her satisfaction.

Chiaro - It was with Travelocity (sorry if I didn't make that clear), but the whole experience made me very wary of booking with these online companies that deal with so many airports!

Well, so far I am getting no where with Expedia. I've called and spoken to three different reps--none have a clue as to the Varig situation; all say that until they receive some kind of word from Varig there is nothing they can do; the flight is still showing as unchanged. All I can do is cancel the ticket and get a credit---with Varig--very funny.

Today the bankruptcy judge gave the bidders until Wednesday to prove they can come up with the funding to purchase the airline. This weekend, they cancelled 20 flights (including the JFK-Sao Paulo flight I will be taking), other flights are experiencing 6-7 hour delays, and creditors are putting an injunction on their planes.

To tell the truth, at this point I am really not happy with the idea of flying with Varig even if the deal goes through. It will have to take them weeks, if not months, to get back on track and meantime, who knows if more flights would be cancelled, not to mention that maintenance is suffering as well. I have a connection that I need to make in Sao Paulo (on TAM, thankfully) and with long delays becoming the norm I would be anxious that I'd miss it. I will be anxious from now to August!

I feel really trapped. I am sorely tempted to just call it a $2300 loss and just buy new tickets on another airline (I think the TAM portion of my itinerary would be secure, at least). But, I guess I will wait until the final judgment to decide what to do--I just hope it comes Wednesday and that there is not another extension. The longer I wait the less chance of getting another flight and the more it might cost.

anyway just venting here,
thanks for listening!

quote:

Is Delta in bankruptcy yet?? I bought my tickets for Rome in January.

Ginger

oh yeah Ginger, sorry to say that Delta has been in bankruptcy for quite awhile. And their default is not covered by Travelguard -- here is the list:

http://buy.travelguard.com/tgdirect/customerservice/alerts.aspx

On the other hand, I do think Delta will hold it together --- they did recently get the concessions from the pilots union they had been looking for.

an update...

its really been a roller-coaster ride the last week or so...but it looks like the end of the line is coming soon. Varig has suspended all flights to/from the US through the end of the month; and a total shutdown seems almost inevitable. But there's still a chance they will reopen the bidding. So I'm agonizing over what to do.

I think I've decided NOT to cancel my trip, and to do what it takes to get to my destination. I could, in fact, still cancel and get back my deposit for the hotels/guide etc, but I am not sure where that gets me. It leaves me with no summer vacation, and at this late date most any other destination would cost as much, if not more, than my original trip. This trip has been in the works for six months, and we're all geared up for it--both practically and psychologically. As we all know, half the fun is in the planning, and I don't want to rush planning for something else in a month! Thats just stressful, not fun!

So now my dilemma is---do I take a chance and wait till the official shutdown--at which time it may be really, really difficult --or even impossible--to rebook the flights I need--or write it all off now and buy new tickets (which are going to cost me an additional $2700.) Tickets are already getting scarce, one flight I need is already booked, and I'll have to take an alternate. The risk is, if by some miracle Varig does pull out of this, and doesn't shut down, I'll have two sets of tickets, and no possibility of getting any compensation. (In theory I am hoping that in the event of a shutdown I will eventually get money back from the credit card company.)

there's also a possibility that if they shut down, other carriers will accept the tickets, but there's no guarantee I'd be able to get there on the day I need to be there.

Right now I have a ticket reservation on hold until friday, so I can see what develops between now and then, but by Friday I will need to commit, or not.

Help!! What would you do??