American Airlines bankruptcy impact on future travel? About This Page:

[Arnir]

With AA filing bankruptcy, should I be wary of booking tickets with them for later this year? They are one of the few realistic choices for getting from Texas to Orlando.

[acidreignn]

We just booked tickets to Key West, they were the only airline available, hope we don't get jerked around.

[Dave Marx]

While I can't say, "You have nothing to worry about," chances are everything will be fine if you book with AA. Every major airline (except AA, up 'til now) and most smaller airlines have gone through bankruptcies, and most have come out on the other side as operating entities, with few service disruptions along the way. As the goal of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy is to have the company survive and prosper, the bankruptcy court, which supervises the company during bankruptcy, tries to keep the company going business-as-usual whenever possible.

If you purchased your ticket after bankruptcy was declared, you're actually in very good shape. While the bankruptcy court has the power to modify or nullify transactions that took place before the bankruptcy, all transactions made during the bankruptcy (purchases, sales, etc.) have to be honored or refunded.

AA is mostly doing this in order to renegotiate contracts with the unions, aircraft and airport leases, etc. The court has powers in that regard that the company doesn't have on its own. They didn't need a bankruptcy to cancel service on non-profitable routes, so if if service to your airport wasn't under threat before bankruptcy, chances are things will remain as they are. Cutbacks of this sort are usually done after management has formulated and the court has approved a "reorganization plan" - the plan for what the company will do after the bankruptcy.

[lesabrowning]

I follow travel guru Peter Greenberg and he has been talking about AA quite a bit lately. He thinks they will come out of BK just fine, although they may very well be involved in a merger. (talk of a US Air/AA merger are certainly out there) Peter has also reported that for now, if you have a ticket you are good. The bigger issue will be what happens to their smaller routes down the road. Near me we will no longer have AA at Burbank airport and I have heard twice now that "leisure" routes including Orlando could be affected in the future. We prefer Delta when flying to Orlando but about half of our trips are on AA as they are still a great choice out of LAX. I would hate to see that go away. (and the healthy competition)

[dolphin041599]

While logically, there is little to be worried about as others have said, I'm always nervous about that kind of stuff. I don't like things messing with my vacation. And goodness knows, I don't need any more stress in my life.