Let's just say USAirways closes its doors. No chapter 11, just shuts down, like the Old Midway. Let's say I have a Swissair award ticket for travel after US ceases operations, obtained with redeemed US miles. It is on US ticket stock. Will this ticket still be valid? I assume it would as it would have been 'paid for' by US to SR upon ticketing, thus a done deal. Any insight? I know this barely happens and there isn't much precendent, however.
For a similar situation check out the Ansett forum. I believe that in the Ansett case, tickets that Ansett had issued for other carriers whether paid or award are not being honored. I doubt that the settle payment immediately, they probably just wait until the end of the month, so when Ansett refused payment to the other carriers, the cancelled the tickets. It seems to me like the Ansett pax got really screwed. So much so that is smells fishy from the Air NZ side of things. Again, I'm not an expert, this is just what I have observed.