Note, though, that Delta bankruptcy is not expected to happen, if it does, until next year.

I bought two tickets thru Orbitz on a Delta flight to Rome. They code share with Alitalia, and the flight is on an Alitalia aircraft. What happens to me if Alitalia goes down the tubes? Will Delta get me to Rome on another airlines for the same price I originally paid?

Budman,

The ONLY thing that's guaranteed is "your money back". Anything else is a plus. They may/may not work with you on a new schedule.

It might be worth investigating travel insurance. Through recommendations on this board (insuremytrip.com), I found very cheap (Travelex) coverage, which includes:

"Unforeseen Bankruptcy or financial Default of a Travel Supplier (other than the travel agency or organization from whom You purchased the Travel Arrangements) which stops service after Your Covered Trip departure or more than 14 days following Your Protection Plan Effective Date. This coverage applies only if it was purchased within 21 days from the date the initial deposit is paid on the Covered Trip."

The price I paid (about $50 to insure $1250 in tickets through AirCanada) was worth the piece of mind.

What you will find is that travel insurance is starting to list carriers & providers that it will cover in case of bankruptcy. The insurance I got from Orbitz covers all the usual, but since Air Canada isn't on it's list of those covered for bankruptcy, if it goes bankrupt my recourse is my VISA card company. The list of air carriers that Access America covers for bankruptcy btw is amazingly short.

Hmmm...well, I haven't seen the fine print on my policy - only the part I pasted above, which refers to "travel supplier." Are you saying that when I get the policy (now in the mail), it's going to say something different, like "...default of the the following travel suppliers..."?

I did use my credit card, but when a similar thing happened with Ward's, my credit card company couldn't help me - and the eventual class action lawsuit garnered a whooping $.06 (really - the check's on my fridge) for my $300 purchase.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that I purchased my father's tickets to Italy for August a month ago, and they still haven't charged my cc or mailed the ticket. I called and they still have the reservation, the rep just stated that it was far in advance. Or is this normal practice? They mailed my frequent flyer miles ticket immediately, then again that came from Delta.

I had the same thoughts, but Alitalia processes them in order. I ordered my ticket over the phone in FEb. for May, and I received it a couple of weeks ago. The rep said they were swamped with spring break and Easter tickets. You'll get your ticket. Actually it was fedexed overnight from NY.

WillTravel - I had to laugh when I read your post that Delta may go bankrupt as well. So now I have tickets with 2 airlines, where both could go! Sigh. I thought I was sooo good with planning ahead and buying early. The good news is we're going, even if we have to swim there!

Budman, good luck to you, too! Looks like you may need a pair of flippers as well... ;)

Hey jbee -- I gotcha beat!!!

I'm holding tickets [including an award ticket] on United, Air Canada and Swiss, which is always in the running for going under.

sfowler - Are you the gambling type or what??? You definitely have me beat! I never knew traveling could come down to "the roll of the dice". Ironically, I live in Vegas... And don't gamble! :O

I'm booked my tickets with Alitalia for my May 12th trip to Italy. :@ I hope that it does not affect my trip! I would hope that based on what has gone on with other airlines, Alitalia won't disappear that quickly. Let's all keep our fingers crossed!

Monica ((f))

jbee -- I don't gamble either, but I enjoy the craziness of your town.

Between us, my husband and I are holding 2 tickets on each of the afore-mentioned airlines. Total of 6. All but one trans-atlantic. The one that isn't btw is for LAS :D

An important items of news has been deleted from this thread, because I did what Fodors asks "us" not to do: I cut and pasted an entire news article without its source. It's because the URL was very long, and I thought it would get more "reads" by just putting the whole thing here.

Today, I find this same news at a more convenient URL:

http://news.airwise.com/stories/2004/04/1081191638.html

This is the first sentence of that article:

"The chairman of Italy's state-controlled airline Alitalia on Monday denied saying that the airline had no more than one month of life left unless the government intervened."

I apologize to Fodors for creating a copyright/plagiarism situation that they had to police, and I hope that others interested in this story will go to the link.

Italian Welfare Minister Roberto Maroni declared today that Alitalia should receive some "good news" as early as this week. Whatever that means ......

Frankly, if I went to an actual travel agent about something like this and got some of the responses I've read above I would FIRE the TA; on the other hand, if the original poster had said at the beginning they had used a CC to purchase it would have made the "answers" a lot easier.