ATA Airlines Bankrupt too. NO FLIGHTS

[Carey]

As of noon, expedia reps said they would be getting back SOMETIME with our guest...just got back from Merrie Monarch (this mornings' fun adventure has made us sleepy!) and no word yet from expedia...
Credit card MAY be reimursed, but hasn't been yet. Good news,our guest was able to get a flight out on Monday, so she will be at the PUNAWEB beach party...
Oh, She also has a return flight here on May 15 (this RT was over $600 cheaper than the one way fare for the same departure date....) so she may be able to pop out for graduation!

[hooligal]

Mella we are going thru HNL for our Hawaiian flight. [B)] I'd jump for joy if Hawaiian ends up with a direct ITO to/from OAK...here's to hoping!

[Kapohocat]

quote:

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Originally posted by Damon...I guess the issue is for Big Island residents is that ATA was the...Carrier that flew from the mainland directly to the Big Island....ThisMay 1st pick up isn't going to fly out of the Big Island so this still leaves Big Island with very few options to fly directly to the mainland from the Big Island...

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Not true. I know USAirways still flys Kona/Phoenix direct, and United is Kona/SF, American has a flight direct to mainland also from Kona - Kona has quite a few choices actually. There are no more direct flights out of Hilo but still from the Big Island. Me, i would rather drive two hours through beautiful Hamakua Coast, then sit in Hnl 1.5 + hours.

[mella l]

Current article in today's Chron seems to have spelled out the problems and the potential future of air travel, included comments from stranded passengers.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...8VVGGQ.DTL

mella l

[mella l]

What ATA ticketholders can do (last paragraph of the article covers refunds.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...8VVGGQ.DTL

One last thing I recently learned from friends planning on traveling to China. Trip insurance does not cover insurections or political instability! They had planned to travel 1 week to Lasha, which was cancelled, and the entire tour group rather than substitute another city for a week, canceled the entire 3 week excursion. No refunds either! So if you are counting on trip insurance in the future, be sure to read and understand all the fine print!

mella l

[ArtM]

This is a great loss for East Hawai`i. That Oakland <-> Hilo layover-free flight was wonderful.

ArtM

[hooligal]

Maybe if we get a 'petition' together we can ask Hawaiian to run OAK <-> ITO nonstop? Heck, if they are aware of demand, they might consider it. If they have the gate at OAK, why not? We already know their planes can make it SFO -> HNL without stopping....OAK -> ITO is only a few miles more.

ANyone in the airline industry think we'd be wasting our time, or do you think an airline might respond to a signed petition/request?

[woodkin]

Hooligal,
We bought ATA tickets with our Debit/VISA cards in March for an April 9th flight, called Bank of America(card issuer)the morning the news came out and had my refund in my account that night! Are you sure you can't get a refund, our bank said because it is a visa debit card that it was covered by visa...

[robguz]

I would love to see Hawaiian pick up that route. I wonder if our mayor is doing anything to try to woo an airline to do so. I would imagine bringing a full plane to Hilo everyday has some positive impact on our economy.

[Bullwinkle]

I would love to Virgin fill the trans pacific void . They recently started transcontinental US service wi fi and comfy airplanes

I think some one will pick up the routes. Aloha carried 340,000 last year The pundits say ata flew ten times as many

that is 10,000 seats a day that left the market, with the fares up, it makes sense for the existing carriers to absorb some of the routes. I wouldn't mind a sna stop ... right now its through portland or vegas