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Wedding Guests Scrambling After Airline Bankruptcy

POSTED: 3:28 pm PDT April 8, 2008
UPDATED: 5:19 pm PDT April 9, 2008

A long to-do list is nothing out of the ordinary for a bride-to-be.

But Mariana Luevano is adding more things on to her list instead of crossing items off.

"We thought we had our plane tickets paid for and done and something off of our to-do list for our wedding, and it turns out the agency went bankrupt," said Luevano.

Luevano's wedding is in July in Honolulu, Hawaii. Luevano, her fiancé and about half of their wedding guests booked tickets on ATA Airlines.

"At that point I didn't know what to do. I started freaking out, not mostly about us but about my guests and thinking that we had gotten them a deal and everyone was very excited about hotels, etcetera. Now, there are 24 people without airline tickets," said Luevano.

Luevano is not alone, as many other bride-to-be's are having to make other plans due to the collapse of Aloha and ATA airlines.

On several wedding Web sites, many women are expressing anger and frustration about the bankruptcies.

"When Aloha went down, one of the brides said (on a Web site) that 80 of her guests were booked on Aloha and some of those guests are booking through ATA because they found it cheaper. So they had to go through both of those bankruptcies," Luevano said.

Luevano and her guests had to purchase new airline tickets. They still don't know if they will receive a refund.

However, airline tickets are only half of Luevano's battle. She is also a teacher who recently got a pink slip from the San Diego Unified School District.

"It's one of those things up in the air and we're kind of hoping for the best," said Luevano.

Despite a challenging year, she wears a constant smile because she knows she's about to tie the knot in Hawaii.

ATA customers who bought tickets using a credit card should contact their credit card company or travel agency directly for refunds, according to travel experts.

ATA is not giving refunds for those who bought tickets directly from the airline with cash or a check.

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