Help! I had Spanair booked and they went bankrupt today

[World Gallery]

We are booked from Barcelona to Copenhagen on June 16th We are doing back to back cruises and we needed to get to Copenhagenb. I had no idea this was going to happen. I booked about a month ago. Any advise on getting a refund for 7 people? I paid over $800 for our flights from Barcelona to Copenhagen. What do I do? There website can't be access and they won't answer the phone.

I would appreciate any all and suggestions. Thanks.

Also, what airline should I book on now?

[6rugrats]

We are booked from Barcelona to Copenhagen on June 16th We are doing back to back cruises and we needed to get to Copenhagenb. I had no idea this was going to happen. I booked about a month ago. Any advise on getting a refund for 7 people? I paid over $800 for our flights from Barcelona to Copenhagen. What do I do? There website can't be access and they won't answer the phone.

I would appreciate any all and suggestions. Thanks.

Also, what airline should I book on now?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/spanish-airline-spanair-runs-out-of-funds-to-cease-operating/2012/01/27/gIQApt2zVQ_story.html

 

Yes, Qatar Air has withdrawn from negotiations and the government has decided to stop funding this airline. This is the reason one purchases travel insurance.

 

I hope you can get your money back. I would be contacting my credit card company and starting a dispute ASAP. Their webpage works fine. Here's a message there for you:

 

Spanair Communication to their customers

- Spanair advises today, the 28th January 2012, that the airline has suspended operations. Due to these exceptional circumstances all our flights are canceled

- In case you have acquired a ticket with Spanair to fly in the next days or weeks, there are different alternatives:

a- If you have paid the ticket by credit card, please ask for information from your credit card issuer or bank about the different refund options.

b- If you have travel insurance, please contact your insurance provider to receive information about coverage.

,

c- If you have bought your ticket in a travel agency, please contact them.

d- If you have purchased a ticket with Spanair that is operated by another airline, in principle your flight will be unaffected. However for clarification we suggest you contact the operating airline.

e- Spanair, in coordination with the Generalitat, has reached an agreement with Vueling, Iberia & Air Europa. For all those passengers that bought tickets to fly in the next three days they will have the option of a special fare:

The price of the tickets will be different according to the destination:

o Domestic & Balearic islands: 60 EUR

o Canary islands: 90 EUR

o International: 100 EUR

f- In all other cases to claim the refund of your ticket, please contact:

· Spanair sales offices

· AENA help desks located in airports in Spain

· Tourist information offices in Spain.

· Catalan consumer agency

- Spanair is permanently in contact with the Spanish aeronautical authorities and the airports where the airline operates its flights to deal with this situation.

- The Spanair contact center (Telephone number within Spain: 900 13 14 15 and from outside Spain: +34 971 916 047) and our Spanish sales offices in the airports will remain open to attend to customers.

- Spanair apologises to all our customer affected by this situation

Barcelona, January 27th of 2012

[World Gallery]

What is best to do if we have travel insurance and used a credit card? Who should I try to get the money from, the credit card by disputing or do I start a claim with Travel Guard?

[6rugrats]

You should start by filing a dispute with your credit card, and I would get on this immediately. I am glad you purchased travel insurance!

[First Time 2008]

You are in good shape with the credit card. Since you only purchase about a month ago, you simply dispute stating that the airline when out of business and you have not flown yet. Simple, you should get your money back right away.

 

Now that still leaves you with the problem of finding 7 cheap seats from Barcelona to Copenhagen... Hmmm... Gotta think about that one. Be back in a little bit.

[paul929207]

I would start with the credit card company.

[First Time 2008]

Any advise on getting a refund for 7 people?

 

Get it from the credit card company, easy refund.

 

I paid over $800 for our flights from Barcelona to Copenhagen. ...

Also, what airline should I book on now?

 

I have good news for you. Book with Norwegian Air Shuttle. Leave BCN June 16 at 12:05pm, nonstop to CPH at 3:05pm. €74.10 per person, and 7 seats are available. This will come out to €518.70, which is a good savings over your previous $800.

 

So this Spanair bankruptcy may have worked out well for you in the end.

[World Gallery]

Thanks everyone for the help. It is greatly appreciated since I was in a panic (need 7 new flights!)

I am not a frequent flyer so I am unfamiliar with European Value lines. Can you tell me more about Norwegian Air Shuttle? Is their safety standards the same as major airlines? Would it compare to a USA domestic airline like say, Southwest? I have never heard of it but I am open.

 

The only thing I knew to do was go to Orbitz. The options were SAS and Air Berlin (with one stop) at $178 per person one way. With these two airlines, there are no baggage fees for one bag person. This sounds high to me.

[World Gallery]

One other question. I went to Norwegian Air and Vueling but noticed that I can't see what kind of plane each flight option uses. How do you see what kind of plane for each flight and the seating chart?

Also, is Norwegian Air or Vueling better? The cost about the same but I do not see if they have baggage fees.

Thanks.

[msmayor]

One comment to add that may help others in the future...not every travel insurance policy will cover the bankruptcy of an airline. You need to know BEFORE purchasing the insurance if there are carriers they are excluding from coverage.

 

Insurance companies will evaluate existing carriers all the time, and if there are indications that they may go out of business in the future they will 'cut off' coverage for those carriers if you purchase from them after a specific date.

 

Its not always easy to find this information...its why you need to read the exclusions of a plan before you purchase.

 

Just a word of caution.

[First Time 2008]

One other question. I went to Norwegian Air and Vueling but noticed that I can't see what kind of plane each flight option uses. How do you see what kind of plane for each flight and the seating chart?

 

Vueling uses Airbus (A320) and Norwegian uses Boeing 737. In all cases, seating is 3-3 across. With both, you can prepay extra to preassign seats.

 

Also, is Norwegian Air or Vueling better? The cost about the same but I do not see if they have baggage fees.

 

I would say both are about the same. They both have baggage fees, but they are reasonable fees (cheaper than the U.S. airlines fees). If I had to pick, I would probably pick Norwegian, as they seem to be in good financial condition (you don't need another Spanair, do you?). Just two days ago, Norwegian announced the largest purchase order of aircraft by a European airline ever: 222 aircraft, and options for 150 more. Unlike Spanair, they don't seem to be on the verge of bankruptcy.

[6rugrats]

One comment to add that may help others in the future...not every travel insurance policy will cover the bankruptcy of an airline. You need to know BEFORE purchasing the insurance if there are carriers they are excluding from coverage.

 

Insurance companies will evaluate existing carriers all the time, and if there are indications that they may go out of business in the future they will 'cut off' coverage for those carriers if you purchase from them after a specific date.

 

Its not always easy to find this information...its why you need to read the exclusions of a plan before you purchase.

 

Just a word of caution.

It's very easy to find this information on Travelguard's webpage. At the time of this writing, Travelguard still has no notice about not covering Spanair.

http://www.travelguard.com/customerservice/alertlist/

 

OP should be fine in any case, as her credit card company should take care of this.

[World Gallery]

Travel Guard did check the Travel Alert page while I was on the phone with them and said I was fine, Spanair wasn't on it. Notes were made in my file but a claim cannot be made until after I dispute with my credit card, which is the first step. If for some reason, that falls through (and I can't see how. Master Card said even if they are not paid, they will have to eat the cost because of a law), the I move to claiming it on travel insurance. Thank goodness this isn't our main flights over to Europe on Delta. I couldn't have waited until to June to get that money back!

[Fattony]

Another one bites the dust. Shows that travelers need to research airines before simply jumping on the best fare (I haven't always done that, I admit). Spanair was in the Star Alliance, but that obviously doesn't mean much now. We're in Brazil and have seen big carriers, such as Vasp and Transbrasil, go belly-up, and others, such as Varig and Webjet, bought up.

[PennyAgain]

Your credit card company should help you out, but be prepared to wait a while to get the credit to your account. In a similar situation I had a posting fairly quickly, but it took about 4 weeks to get the amount of money permamently credited to my account.

[Donray]

The credit card company will not issue credit until after your flight times. After all, they could start fying again.

[World Gallery]

I am a research fanatic but I now realize that there is only so much one can do. Luckily, I used a credit card and had travel insurance. Everytime I added a part to the trip, I called Travel Guard and added it to the policy immediately.

 

Donray - Do you know how one can find out or predict if they will start flying again? My issue is, if I book another airline and they do start flying again, I will not be able to dispute it and will have paid for two flights for 7 people.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Your credit card is your best way...

[easy spirit]

As previously said in other posts the credit in your credit card mayl take a while.

I disputed a Spanair charge mid November, still not resolved. The credit card asked for a lot of documentation, which I promptly submitted.

Hopefully now that Spanair is no longer in business, they wont be able to refute my dispute & my credit will be permament.

[World Gallery]

Yes, I realize it may take a while but according to what the credit card rep told me, in the end, if Spanair doesn't end up getting providing the service, we will not have a problem getting our refund. They hold out to see if somehow, Spanair will provide "the service" they charged us for. I asked about what would happen if they couldn't not get their money back and they said that Mastercard has to "eat the cost".

I guess my back up is Travel Insurance.

[Donray]

I am a research fanatic but I now realize that there is only so much one can do. Luckily, I used a credit card and had travel insurance. Everytime I added a part to the trip, I called Travel Guard and added it to the policy immediately.

 

Donray - Do you know how one can find out or predict if they will start flying again? My issue is, if I book another airline and they do start flying again, I will not be able to dispute it and will have paid for two flights for 7 people.

 

The Credit Card company will not process any of your claim until after the date of your tickets. If they do start flying again before you ticket date you will not get a refund from the CC company nor your insurance.

If you buy for other tickets then you lose money if they start flying again.

I have no idea if they will start flying again.

Sort of a catch 22 in that you need to make arrangements, but if you do and they start flying again you lose money for one or the other.

 

All I am trying to point out is that the CC company will do nothing until after your flight does not happen in June. You have no loss untill after the June flight date and it does not happen.

 

Put in the paper work and make sure you make the payments until resolved sometime after June.