Any Travel Agents Here? Knowledge Of The Airline Industry????

[matcom]

here is the deal:

am looking to book airline tickets from Boston to Cancun, round trip, from Jan 12-22, 2005. Would prefer nonstop but whatever.

The BEST fairs seem to be with US Airways. BUT. I am aware they MAY be headed to bankruptcy.

Should I book with them? Someone else? Should I WAIT?? (I HAVE to book by mid-November)

what might you all suggest???

THANK YOU A TON IN ADVANCE!!!!

(confused here)

-Matcom

[Lefty48197]

1. I know this about the airline industry:

They have several seats on every flight to your chosen destination, at the price you would like to pay. Unfortunately, all of those seats have sold out, and they only have the seats available that cost twice as much. Sorry.

[Bossy Monkey]

2. Especially if you have to buy in advance, I'd think Travelocity/Priceline

etc would be the way to go. Sorry I can't offer more detailed advice; my sweetheart is the family online travel plan co-ordinator.

[Bossy Monkey]

3. For god's sake don't go with US Air

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20040927_1005.html?MONEYSCOPEad=true
Forgive popups, etc

[Bluebear]

5. Yeah but that story says Feburary....

scare tactics, Oh please mr. Judge, force these nasty union employees to take pay cuts because management screwed up!

[Bluebear]

4. You should be OK matcom

on USAirways....it's only a few months away and I don't think they are going to fold up like any minute. One way to do it is to book the ticket on United ticket stock (no great shakes on the horizon of healthy airlines but still doing better than US) since US Airways is their travel partner. You'll be flying USAirways but since United issued the ticket as a codeshare they would have to refund the money or find you alternate flights IF US is belly up. Or spend the extra hundred on Northwest or Aeromexico if you're really concerned and call it travel insurance peace-of-mind.

[SheilaT]

6. USAirways may be facing

bankruptcy, but I haven't heard they're facing imminent shutdown, which is what you are really concerned about.

In the past when airlines have abruptly stopped operating (Braniff, Eastern, Pan Am, Braniff again) other airlines have generally honored their tickets on a standby basis. And at that they're doing the passengers a huge favor because they probably won't get a penny for the defunct airline's ticket.

Maybe you should consider going somewhere else that some other airline flies to. What's the difference between USAirways' fare and other airlines' fares?

This isn't much help, but you really won't get much better an answer than this since who knows if US Air will be flying in January. Or what else might be happening by then.

Good luck!