Late Wednesday afternoon, Las Vegas-based National Airlines landed their remaining in-air flights, told their employees to go home and reduced their Web site to a single static page saying basically, "Sorry, but we're out of business now." Although National has been dealing with bankruptcy courts for the past two years, it was unable to reorganization to the satisfaction of lenders, and in a surprise move, simply closed up shop and left passengers stranded.
We here at Frommers.com feel for those neglected travelers. If you are currently holding either a paper or an electronic ticket issued for National, here's what you can do.
If you want your money back, contact your credit card company immediately to dispute the charges. Don't contact National. It's not issuing refunds.
If you still want or need to make your previously planned trip, four airlines at the time of this writing have offered to accommodate valid ticketed passengers. As a general rule, you should expect to fly standby with any of these carriers on the same dates as your original itinerary if the planes are filled. Expect also to pay change fees, which will vary between carriers honoring the tickets. You will need to present either your paper ticket or your printed itinerary for e-tickets at the counter before changes can me made.
Contact any of these four carriers to review reticketing conditions and to make arrangements:
- Alaska Air (www.alaskaairlines.com, 800/252-7522)
- America West (www.americawest.com/national.htm, 800/235-9292)
- Frontier (www.frontierairlines.com/national, 800/432-1359)
- US Airways (www.usair.com/about/press/nw_02_1107.htm, 800/428-4322)
Are you on the short end of the stick of National's closing, or do you have an opinion to share otherwise? Please, let us know in our Air Travel Message Boards. See what others are saying.