I purchased two tickets from Sydney to London on
Thai for later this year in order to get the miles out of UA ticketing and into another carrier. Do you mean that if UAL goes south Thai could cancel my tickets?

I have since accumulated another 150k miles or so - so I would like to spend these too asap.



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Chris

Exactly. The money for the tickets does not change hands until after you fly, so Thai would be flying you for free if UA wasn't flying still. They might honor the tickets as a goodwill gesture, but there is no requirement they fly you for free.

I have a comment and question:

I booked an award for me and companion from NYC to NZ and OZ in mid-May on a combination of UA, NZ, and TG (using MP on a star award), returning end of May. I booked these tickets last October. I am keeping my fingers crossed that United will still fly. I want to go ahead and buy some domestic tickets in OZ on Virgin Blue, but I'm not sure if I should buy non-refundable tickets, given that there is a chance of no trip. What advice can you give? Do people see UA hanging around for another 2 months? I am at the point of not knowing what to do.

1. Mid May is quite safe on any kind of UA issued award IMO.

2. The UA -- > Hilton transfer mentioned often above has now been cancelled. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

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~ Glen ~

Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!

hmm, frightening conversation, I have a ticket (paper, incidentally) on Lufthansa that cost me 70,000 UA miles. The flight is in June. Are ya'll saying that if United goes down, this ticket may be defunct?

Yes, that's what everybody is saying. Purchase Award Guard "assurance" if you want to attempt to protect your travel plans [although I have some questions about its coverage and have not done so myself; caveat emptor].

Because your travel is relatively soon, however, perhaps UA has a better chance of riding out this crisis in the immediate short term. I would be less concerned about a ticketed award in June than I would, for example, about one set for October.

Additionally, there is the possibility that Lufthansa might honor the ticket as a goodwill gesture even if UA gets liquidated. But they have no obligation to do so.

So keep your fingers crossed, and if you can move up your travel plans to take advantage of your reward, by all means do so!

[This message has been edited by cAAl (edited 03-24-2003).]

The temporary pay cuts expire May 1. The unions and UA have not reached agreement on permanent cuts for after May 1, which is why it's gone back to the bankruptcy judge to void all the labor contracts. A lot can happen in the next few weeks. I'm not booking any UA travel until I see how this is resolved.

Here's a link covering what is currently going on with the unions:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030317/cgm084_1.html

[This message has been edited by tom911 (edited 03-24-2003).]

According to an article in the LA Times this weekend, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation does require other airlines on the same route to honor a ticket of a bankrupt airline if there's space available. There's a $25 fee each way and the ruling (Section 145 of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act) is effective until 2/04.
Read more about it here: http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/rules.htm

But does it require other airlines to honor award tickets? I don't see anything on that site that addresses frequent flyer tickets. There's actually a section that talks about receipts for payment of fare. Would be nice if award travel was specifically included by name in that section.

Tom - Randy has spoken to DOT and posted that award travel IS indeed covered.

See "Only Randy Petersen" Forum for fuller detial.

A useful way to burn UA miles right now is:

http://www.cruise4miles.com/specials/results.asp



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~ Glen ~

Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!

Terrific theory.

Last I heard however, Lufthansa was **NOT** an American airline. And DOT and Congress can only dictate such things to American domiciled airlines. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I can't help it if Randy and I read the same articles! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif


Don't shoot a messenger! Actually, Glen, it is hard to imagine a name like Lufthansa is anything but foreign. I can imagine, however, our government dictating to others what they can and can't do (even when not on our soil!)
It might help us if either you could find a reference to your statement or have Randy put in another call http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

To answer my own curiosity, I did a little research today in my spare time and I found info at the following page :
International routes are also covered by the Act but it does not apply to foreign carriers. For example, passengers holding tickets on a flight originating in Kansas City connecting to London on a U.S. carrier could only be accommodated on another U.S. carrier flying between both Kansas City and London. If the passenger was to fly beyond London to a point not served by another U.S. carrier, the passenger would most likely be accommodated to London, but not necessarily beyond. It follows that if there is only one U.S. carrier flying to the international point and it ceases operations, foreign carriers are not obligated to honor the ticket. If the insolvent U.S. carrier is in alliance, it should be assumed the other alliance members will honor the ticket in some manner.
If the insolvent carrier is the only one operating between a city-pair, there does
not appear to be any obligation for other carriers to honor the insolvent carrier's
tickets since there is little likelihood they will be compensated for carrying the
passenger....

Sorry to be so dense, but I don't quite keep up with American business news being on the other side of the Atlantic.

Why the sudden huge flap and panic over United Airlines potentially going bankrupt?

I've got 100,000+ miles on Frequent Flyer - should I start thinking about using them?

Andrew