We were planning on using our United miles to fly to Europe in Oct. Given that they came out yesterday saying that the airline may have to liquidate if war breaks out in Iraq, are we better to get our tickets now or hang on to our miles?

swalter-where did you hear the liquidate rumor? We have a lot of miles on UA also. Also we will be flying them next week.

Get insurance for your FF miles. This should solve your dilemma.

Where do you get insurance for FF points? Can you please provide more information. Also, where did United note that they might liquidate?

<BR>I would probably get them now, if my plans were fixed. You might get the ticket issued on one of their partner carriers, particularly if you are in a gateway city (like Washington D.C., where I'd probably get a Lufthansa ticket). Of course, the Euro carriers are suffering too and a couple of them liquidated (I'm thinking of Sabena and Swiss Air?).<BR><BR>If you have to fly a United flight to connect to your international flight, then you could become a victim of the downsizing that United will be doing. United has an e-mail notification system (I think it is under the &quot;My itineraries&quot; link at ual.com). That way, you will get notification if your United connecting flight is cancelled. If you get your award ticket soon and flights do get cancelled later, then hopefully it won't be yours and the award travellers on the cancelled flight will be scrambling to get onto yours.<BR><BR>s140, no reason to worry about your trip next week, UA got loans when they went Ch. 11 to continue flying for a while (I think for 6 months, at least). I haven't seen anything yet about liquidation, though they are losing 25 million a day.<BR><BR>

<BR>One more thought: I imagine that there is a sort of &quot;run on the bank&quot; going on. That is, people are worried about United going away and losing their miles, so they are cashing in now. So, you might have more competition for award seats these days. <BR>A bird in the hand.<BR>

The liquidation rumor has been all over the news in Chicago--don't know if it's posturing to get more gov't aid or really true, but it was from an interview with a United spokesperson. He made it sound like it was contingent on rocketing oil prices if war broke out.

Back to the insurance question--how is that done?I have heard about Financial Default Coverage, but how do you insure the free tickets?Unless you pay money for the tickets--not the &quot;fees&quot; etc etc but money for the tickets themselves.