Who else is affected by direct air?

HeatherC

Alas...these people I live with ...
Joined
May 23, 2003
Well we were one of the many. Booked five tickets for April school vacation from Worcester, MA which are now completely cancelled.

What a headache! Filed our claim with Amex and spent all last night trying to find replacement flights. We are now flying out of Newark which is 3 1/2 hours from home where Worcester is 20 minutes. At least they are nonstop flights both ways.

Unfortunately, it cost us $500 more! it was either that or cancel...and I have already paid for Bonnet Creek. Just drove to Sc over Feb. break so do not want to waste four days of our trip doing that long drive.

Anyone else fall victim?
 
We, the 3 of us, were on the same flight. :confused3 :mad::confused:
I've been checking other flights for the same week. The cheapest rates I found have been between $300-400 for flights departing anywhere from Manchester NH to JFK New York. :surfweb:
We've driven before and we might do it again. :sad1::sad1:
Good Luck All,
Joe
 
I'm sorry to hear this Joe! Truly stinks!

We opted to do Newark and eat the extra $500. We figured we would rather do that than the long drive. The other deciding factor is that I am familiar with Newark airport and they are both nonstop flights. if we had to do layovers each way, I would rather drive.

We are flying JetBlue down and United home. Dates are April 12-21.

I found pricing one ways on Kayak gave us more options. Maybe that can help you in your search?

Best of luck!
 
Us too! Also flying out of Worcester, or WAS flying out of Worcester......Were you guys able to get refunds on your flights? I Pricelined a car rental so am out that money unless I can fly onto Sanford on a different airline... I don't know where to start with this problem!
 


Sorry for you too! Could you maybe fly into MCO and rent a car one way to SFB to pick up your Priceline car.

AMEX told me there shouldn't be a problem getting refund since we have cancellation in email from Direct Air with their logo.

Good luck!
 
Us too! Also flying out of Worcester, or WAS flying out of Worcester......Were you guys able to get refunds on your flights? I Pricelined a car rental so am out that money unless I can fly onto Sanford on a different airline... I don't know where to start with this problem!

I use Priceline all the time for hotels never for car rentals but it might be worth a call to customer service to explain the situation about what happened with DirectAir. They may consider a refund given the uniqueness of the situation. Worth a try if you haven't already done so.
 
I use Priceline all the time for hotels never for car rentals but it might be worth a call to customer service to explain the situation about what happened with DirectAir. They may consider a refund given the uniqueness of the situation. Worth a try if you haven't already done so.

PL gave me a refund on an airport zone hotel. I was unable to use it because my flight was cancelled (weather).

There is a contact tab on PLs website. Send a message. You'll probably get an email back with a phone number to call.
 


DirectAir flies most of the flights out of Niagara Falls airport. The local news showed all the cars parked in the lot there, presumably of people who flew them out of town. As sorry as I am for those of you with future flights booked, my most sympathy goes to those who are stranded away from home. I can't imagine being on vacation & finding out you have no way home. I wonder if people got notification from DirectAir? We don't always see the news when we're on vacation, so I wonder how travelers got the news?

And most other flights to Western New York fly into the Buffalo airport, about 30 mins away from Niagara Falls airport. So anyone who is out of town now & manages to get back to Buffalo will need to find a way back to the NF airport & their car. What a mess.

Good luck to all who are affected by this.
 
PL gave me a refund on an airport zone hotel. I was unable to use it because my flight was cancelled (weather).

There is a contact tab on PLs website. Send a message. You'll probably get an email back with a phone number to call.

Thank you, I will definitely try!
 
DirectAir flies most of the flights out of Niagara Falls airport. The local news showed all the cars parked in the lot there, presumably of people who flew them out of town. As sorry as I am for those of you with future flights booked, my most sympathy goes to those who are stranded away from home. I can't imagine being on vacation & finding out you have no way home. I wonder if people got notification from DirectAir? We don't always see the news when we're on vacation, so I wonder how travelers got the news?

And most other flights to Western New York fly into the Buffalo airport, about 30 mins away from Niagara Falls airport. So anyone who is out of town now & manages to get back to Buffalo will need to find a way back to the NF airport & their car. What a mess.

Good luck to all who are affected by this.

It is March Break here and many people in SW Ontario (or other border areas - it is just that the SW Ontario are the ones affected by this) drive to the US to get cheaper flights. Many stories in our papers/on our news of people stranded in Florida (not sure how they got the news - some people may not yet have the news). A couple made the comment that you did - they bought new tickets (very expensive) plus had to take a taxi (or something) from Buffalo to Niagara Falls.
 
We flew DirectAir last spring break, out of Worcester. My dh was continually on me for booking a Thursday flight when we didn't cruise until Sunday, and then finished our WDW stay on a Friday and then went over to visit my ds in Tampa until Sunday. Well.....if this had happened at this time last year??? We would have been packing up the car and driving. There is no way we would have been able to pay the addtl cost for flights with another airline, not this close to departure.
That's why I booked the flights I booked.....juuuuust in case. That way, we could have started the drive on Wednesday night, and had a somewhat peaceful drive down over 2.5 days. And then head back home on Friday morning and not have to rush the drive.
Now he gets it. I feel so badly for those who have to now run around, trying to figure out alternative methods of transport!!
 
We flew DirectAir last spring break, out of Worcester. My dh was continually on me for booking a Thursday flight when we didn't cruise until Sunday, and then finished our WDW stay on a Friday and then went over to visit my ds in Tampa until Sunday. Well.....if this had happened at this time last year??? We would have been packing up the car and driving. There is no way we would have been able to pay the addtl cost for flights with another airline, not this close to departure.
That's why I booked the flights I booked.....juuuuust in case. That way, we could have started the drive on Wednesday night, and had a somewhat peaceful drive down over 2.5 days. And then head back home on Friday morning and not have to rush the drive.
Now he gets it. I feel so badly for those who have to now run around, trying to figure out alternative methods of transport!!

We did the same thing, Di. Had a flight going in on Thursday, actually still do. Called my CC today (capital One) and they will credit my account if/when they go under. Since my flight is not until June I will have to see how it pans out.

I can't wait until May 15 for them to decide if they are flying or or not so I bit the bullet and booked JetBlue. $1200 for three of us,non-stop. Not great but could have been worse. If DirectAir is still flying I can keep my tickets and cxl JB and have a credit for a year costing us $300 in cxl fee. For me the best scenario would be for them to go under well before then and I'll get my entire $500 back from DirectAir.

BTW, the lady at Capitol One said she has received lots of calls today on this.
 
I talked to a service agent at Chase Visa. She told me we'll get a refund after the Flight Date. In our case, since the Flight Date is 4/14-4/21, our refund will be issued after 4/21. She's going to send me the material to get the process started. :sad1::sad1::sad1:
The big question is, should we risk it, spend $1200, :scared1::scared1::scared1:, book another flight, hope the DirectAir flight remains cancelled and we get a refund or should we just drive down if the DirectAir flight remains cancelled? :confused::confused::confused:
Good Luck All,
Joe
 
Direct Air will not be flying until at least May 15, 2012 IF at all. This information is found on the Direct Air website.
 
We had 4 tickets for the end of April flying into Lakeland. Hopefully the credit card companies come through and refund our money. I have been searching for replacement flights and car rental. Our Bonnet Creek reservation is already paid for.
I also feel sorry for all the stranded passengers in Florida and Myrtle Beach who are scrambling to get home. On the news yesterday they mentioned that this affects several baseball/softball teams who had flights reserved around Easter. Direct Air is a joke and I don't expect them to ever resume flights. Their customer service was terrible before this incident and now they won't even answer the phones!:sad2:
 
I talked to a service agent at Chase Visa. She told me we'll get a refund after the Flight Date. In our case, since the Flight Date is 4/14-4/21, our refund will be issued after 4/21. She's going to send me the material to get the process started. :sad1::sad1::sad1:
The big question is, should we risk it, spend $1200, :scared1::scared1::scared1:, book another flight, hope the DirectAir flight remains cancelled and we get a refund or should we just drive down if the DirectAir flight remains cancelled? :confused::confused::confused:
Good Luck All,
Joe

Direct Air will not be flying until at least May 15, 2012 IF at all. This information is found on the Direct Air website.

As the PP stated, DirectAir will not be flying any flights until at least May 15th, if at all.

For those stuck for SPring break, check in to flying down and driving back with a one way rental. Budget and Alamo have amazing deals on one way rentals since there is such an influx of cars in Florida. $20 a day for a full size car unlimited miles.

Good luck to all.
 
I booked flights from JFK to Orlando in replacement of our original tickets from Plattsburgh. We were planning to drive to NYC.

A friend told me about Megabus. The one way fare from Burlington, VT to NYC is on $5! It is also direct, takes 6 hours, which is the actual drive time. So, the family and I will be taking the bus, which drops near Penn Station, then the public transport to JFK. Funny, the public transportation to get to JFK will be more expensive than the trip from VT to NYC!

Google Megabus if you are interested. Hope this helps another fellow budget traveler!
:goodvibes
 
We too are victims of this joke they call Direct Air. We have actually flown with them several times before with no problems....the airport in Worcester is 10 min. from our house and the price couldn't be beat. However, I am REALLY pissed the way they have done this. We had tickets to fly down & back for our Disney Cruise 4/14-4/19. There are 10 of us in all going on the trip. Like many others here, we have been looking at all the airports in the northeast hoping to find another flight at a decent price.....I just don't know that it's going to happen. Driving is an option that we really don't want to take....I think our kids would maim each other being in a car together that long...lol.....but we are considering it...at least one way. I just hope we all get our money back. Everyone should also file a complaint with the attorney general.....the more pressure on them to refund our money, the better! ;)
 
We had 3 tickets to fly out of Worcester June 23 and return on July 1st. I am not going to wait until May 15th to "see" if they can reorganize. I called my cc company this morning (Citi) and they are conditionally crediting me back the 650.00. It will take 2 days. They are sending me the dispute paperwork. they were totally understanding about teh situation and said they didn't blame me. I can book SW now out of Manchester NH for 300.00 more. Oh well at least I didn't lose my money. I know many people who are stranded and many others who are scrambling for April school vacation week. they handled the whole thing very poorly in my opinion and I doubt they will recover from it all.
 
No reason to complain to the AG. Passengers who booked flights which have been canceled are getting refunds. Direct Air is (or was?) a public charter. Fares are deposited in an escrow account.

I'm saying was a public charter because the company may be effectively out of business. It is a public charter. They don't own, lease or operate planes. Fares they quoted weren't high enough to cover expenses including current fuel prices.

You booked them because "the price couldn't be beat". Price tickets low enough and you'll fill your planes but lose money. Direct Air didn't have a large bank account to cover losses.

Booking them for an extra trip may have made a lot of sense. Booking them for a cruise meant assuming some risk. Actually a lot of risk. Many of us always thought the question wasn't if Direct Air would go out of business but rather when.

Good luck finding airfare. I suggest you contact DCL. It's possible, but not likely, they have some consolidator tickets available for less then what you can find on your own.







We too are victims of this joke they call Direct Air. We have actually flown with them several times before with no problems....the airport in Worcester is 10 min. from our house and the price couldn't be beat. However, I am REALLY pissed the way they have done this. We had tickets to fly down & back for our Disney Cruise 4/14-4/19. There are 10 of us in all going on the trip. Like many others here, we have been looking at all the airports in the northeast hoping to find another flight at a decent price.....I just don't know that it's going to happen. Driving is an option that we really don't want to take....I think our kids would maim each other being in a car together that long...lol.....but we are considering it...at least one way. I just hope we all get our money back. Everyone should also file a complaint with the attorney general.....the more pressure on them to refund our money, the better! ;)
 

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