Wow Air's demise sent ripples through the airline industry, but for leisure travelers, it was more like a chill.
The low-cost Icelandic carrier that tempted us with $99 fares ceased operations March 28, stranding thousands of customers who thought they were getting a great deal but ended up getting, if not the shaft, a lot of inconvenience arising from their quest to save money.
As we approach the summer vacation season, Wow's belly-flop raises this question: Can you minimize your exposure to financial risk and still find an affordable fare? Mostly yes. Here are ways to protect yourself:
_Keep abreast of airline business news. You don't have to read quarterly earnings reports, but keep your eyes and ears open for signals that something is amiss.
Here was an important clue: Wow Air was cutting routes abruptly, said Seth Kaplan, airline analyst and founder of Airline Weekly. It dropped Los Angeles International Airport in January in what it called a restructuring.
The key word is "abruptly." Airlines change routes, Kaplan said, but when they do it quickly, it should raise a flag.
Another cause for alarm: a business model that mystifies. Wow Air served Iceland winter and summer with a fleet of new planes, Kaplan said. The eyebrow-raisers there: "winter," which isn't high season, and "new planes," which must be paid for.
Bottom line: "If you're selling something that costs you more than you're making to produce it, you're probably not going to be in business very long," Kaplan said.
_Look at your time frame for buying your ticket and look at the credit card you're using.
Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, you have 60 days to dispute a charge, said Bill Hardekopf, chief executive of LowCards.com, a free credit-card comparison site.
If you bought your Wow ticket less than two months before Wow died, your first move, Hardekopf said, is to call your credit-card company.
If you bought your ticket in October for, say, a Feb. 28 flight, your first move is to call your credit-card company because you don't have the slam-dunk legal protection, he added. But you need to ask _ nicely. "This is such an unusual situation that there could be exceptions" to the 60-day rule, he said.
It's also important to find out whether your card has travel insurance that covers a company's financial insolvency, he said. If it does, you probably will be covered.
You also could be covered if you bought travel insurance that covers insolvency. Call the policy issuer to see whether you are covered.
_Understand that when you fly an ultra-low-cost carrier, the Allegiants, Spirits and Frontiers of the world, or have chosen a basic economy fare, you are in for a ride that could be bumpy if you don't understand the terms and conditions.
Before you book consider whether the basic fare is worth it and whether the math makes sense.
Kaplan perused airfares on a legacy carrier for a trip from the Washington, D.C., area to south Florida for him, his wife and his child; the total was about $1,500. Then he looked at an ultra-low-cost carrier; the tab was $1,000 less for the three of them.
Yes, they would have to pay to check a bag, but they decided the cost of one checked bag still made the low-cost carrier a better deal. And because he's an airline analyst, he knows a thing or two about terms and conditions _ and was willing to live with them.
_Reconsider whether price should be the primary driver of your ticket purchase.
Leisure travelers are notoriously price-sensitive, but here's a great truth: You get treated better if you're an elite flier on a certain airline because loyal customers tend to speak well of their experience, said Janelle Estes, chief insight officer of Usertesting, a company that allows organizations to see themselves through their customers' eyes.
Those are the customers airlines want, so a carrier may go out of its way to ensure that the experience is positive. If you tend to buy based on price alone, you're not going to be anyone's favorite child.
Estes helps airlines understand the importance of building empathy for customers to make their experience more enjoyable. When she told me that, I wondered why we don't build empathy for ourselves.
Every dollar spent on a higher fare steals, in days or experiences, from our hard-earned vacation. But if you punish yourself in the cheap seats just to save a few dollars, don't you undermine the premise of your trip?
