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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Smart Buying
Cheap Charlie · July 10, 2000

Recently, one of the larger "charter/scheduled" airline combinations, Tower Air, declared bankruptcy. This is a real bummer if you had a paid ticket for a Tower Air flight.

What's a passenger to do with a ticket from a bankrupt airline?

Here is a case where payment with a credit card - and working with a travel agent - makes all the difference in the world.

If you paid with a credit card for your Tower Air ticket, immediately contact your credit card company in writing. Let them know that the charge on your card will not result in the service for which you have paid. They will refund your money through a credit to your bill.

If you purchased your ticket with a credit card through a travel agent, call your agent. They will arrange for a credit to your credit card.

If you paid by cash or by check to a travel agent or directly to Tower Air, get ready for a long wait. You are one of their creditors and normally your refund will be paltry. It will not be a pleasant time.

Here are some general rules for airline ticket payments and refunds. You can clearly see that paying with cash or personal check is simply not advantageous. Use a credit card or work through a travel agent.

If you plan to pay in person and with your own bank check, take along at least two forms of identification such as a driver's license, major credit card, and employee ID card. Airlines, travel agencies and other ticket sellers will want to confirm your identity, particularly when you purchase tickets far from your home town.

If you pay for your ticket with cash or personal check, the ticket refund will generally have to be processed through the airline accounting department and mailed to you. The airlines have 20 business days - a calendar month - to process your refund.

When you pay by credit card, your account is billed, whether you use your tickets or not. You won't receive credit unless the unused tickets are returned to the airline or travel agency, and you can't get a cash refund for a credit card charge. The credit card refund, however, is immediate.

If you buy your ticket with a credit card and then change your flight, the ticket agent may want to credit the amount of the old ticket and issue another with a second charge to your account. You can insist that the value of your old tickets be applied to the new ones, with the difference in price charged or credited to your account. While this creates a little extra work for the airlines, it prevents double-billing on your card.

You will almost always have to pay a $50 to $75 service fee to change or refund a ticket, except in extreme cases.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at charlie@ticked.com or access his Web site.