I was going to book a ticket to Tucson for Christmas today with America West and my travel agent told me that he wouldn't feel comfortable selling anything on America West outside of the next two weeks. He almost refused to sell me the tickets. I decided to hold off and wait. Has anyone heard ANYTHING about this? I haven't even heard a whisper. United yes, but not America West.

They have been in financial trouble, of course, but not as much as United, I don't think. Also, I believe they've restored their flights they cut back already and they just got $60M fed bailout money. They were fined for maintenance violations of 1999 a couple days ago but it wasn't that much money in comparison and they have time to respond to that. I wouldn't trust a travel agent to know anything special, maybe he just read about that fine. America West has been in financial trouble a long time, though, surely you've heard that, but their profit/loss reports are not as bad as some other airlines from what I've seen (AA, USAir and United) so what's your alternative? All of this is purely speculation on my part, though, but all of what I said is public info and should be in business reports/newspapers, what's your agent's source?

I've heard nothing specific to AWA.
But AWA has been buried in red ink since the early 1990's.
The news about United regards profitability during the second and third quarters of next year. UA is not going to fold before Christmas!
USAir has been teetering on the brink a long time.

Maybe my prayers have been heard?

On MSNBC yesterday, they had a report that America West was going to declare bankruptcy, but the gov't bail out money has extended their life a bit. They also reported that United told their employees they would shut down if this situation continued, rather than continue flying the planes. It was a story about how planes are parked in the Movahe (sp?) desert in Arizona. Shelee Smith, I believe did the piece. I don't know the answer to your question, but thought I'd pass this report on to you and the others.

The planes are in the Mojave desert an hour east of Los Angeles in California.

Isn't America West the airline that's "lost" several unaccompanied children in the past year? Maybe that's your only option for carriers, but they have a dreadful reputation.

Well, that depends.
Its main hub is the safest airport in the US.
It's one of only 2 major carriers in the US without a fatality in its history.
And it's certainly not the only airline which has had a faulty child escort program.
Personally (and this was debated here earlier this year) I think there is always a measure of risk when you send a child travelling alone. I realize that some parents have little choice economically, but I simply couldn't trust ANY airline that much.

We flew AWA twice during October. Planes were almost full, service was punctual, and baggage handled properly.

Well, my only other choice would be Southwest to Tucson at double the price. My agent told me one sign of an airline going through trouble is that they heavily discount tickets into all the markets (or most) that they fly. I don't know. I still can't decide if I should risk flying them. Anyone?