ailiton

I'm living in Canada and am planning to buy a Macau to Sydney, Australia ticket on Vivamacau. Since I'm not too sure about the financial status of the carrier, I'm looking for a travel insurance that would protect me from airline bankruptcy.

Please let me know if anyone has any knowledge on this topic. Thanks!

fly2w

Paying with a credit card should protect you against bankruptcy.

sbm12

Depends on the country in which the card is issued. US-based cards DO include such protections generally, but UK-issued cards do not, I don't think.

Barcky

The credit card would offer protection on the original ticket. I'd be interested in an insurance policy that would cover the added cost of having to buy a new ticket on a different carrier at the last minute at an extravagant price.

ailiton

What's the card insurance called? My Canadian card has a purchase insurance (theft or damage to products within 90 days of purchase). I don't know if this is the one you are talking about.

sbm12

It is not that one. It is an inherent function of cards issued in the USA that allow the consumer to dispute (not pay) the charge if the goods are not delivered. If the airline goes out of business then they don't deliver and passengers can go to the airline to get their money back. To facilitate this the CC companies actually withhold some of the money that the airlines are due for ticket sales, essentially placing the money in escrow. If the airline goes out of business then the CC company has cash on hand to deal with customer claims. The percentage withheld varies but earlier this summer Frontier declared bankruptcy rather than allowing 100% withholding from one of the CC networks.

When one of the British carriers went out of business later this summer the reports basically stated that package tours purchased from travel agents would allow folks to recoup their losses but direct buys would not. I'm not sure if the CC companies provide coverage on top of that or not.

And Barcky's point of looking for coverage that actually gets you a new ticket rather than just your money back is an important distinction. That could make a huge difference in terms of costs to you.

alanh

I'm not aware of any "replacement cost" insurance, just a refund of what you paid.

Replacement ticket insurance would probably be expensive, as it would often mean buying a full Y ticket on another carrier.

marble

My travel insurance policy has something called 'Scheduled Airline Failure' cover. It basically covers me up to Ł3000 to replace my tickets in the event of an airline going bankrupt (that's in addition to me claiming back the lost tickets through a credit card).

However, I've had a quick search and can only find UK suppliers for this (travel insurance policies or one-off policies like http://www.protectmyholiday.com/)