By now you have already heard that Primera Air, the low cost international airline, has declared insolvency and basically vanished in just minutes from the face of the earth.
Am I being sarcastic? Check out this Twitter thread from a stranded passenger:
Looks like it came a little too early for us… they let us get all the way to the gate, pay for bags, etc. and a little more than a half hour to board we were told at the gate. Now we are stuck here with no current way home.
— Hinson (@roundhouse2face) October 1, 2018
That’s right. They literally ceased operations AFTER taking this passenger’s money for baggage fees but BEFORE the flight took off.
But then Hinson dropped this gem.
Yes. And by the time they got us all a bus back to the terminal and our bags were on the carousel four high the sign was already taken down at the gate. They handed out some piece of paper with legal jargon on it but offered no other help.
— Hinson (@roundhouse2face) October 1, 2018
That’s right. The Primera Air sign was already removed from the baggage carousel! Mere hours after he paid to check his bag!
Crazy.
Mind you, this airline had introduced new routes within just the last month. So it wasn’t crazy to think they’d be around a while.
Note that the same page with the news of insolvency has links to press from mid-September with the new Madrid routes.
OK, so two things.
- If you have an upcoming flight with Primera, you obviously no longer do. You will not be rebooked nor accommodated in any way. Primera no longer exists and there are no phones to call. That’s important to know. If you booked the flights yourself on their website, call your credit card company to initiate a chargeback. If you booked via a travel agent or online travel agency, call to find out your options – which should range from reaccommodation to, at the least, a refund.
- If you booked this flight with a debit card, you are going to be out the money. Hopefully you didn’t book it with a debit card. But if you’ve ever thought about booking travel with a debit card, this is the reason not to. You want your credit card issuer to be able to help if this happens. And a bank/debit card offers no such protection. It’s like cash.
Are you impacted by this? Let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
New to all of this? My new “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available now.
