I’ve been watching the struggles of Sun Country from afar this fall and wondering if the airline will survive. Losing Sun Country would be a shame for many reasons, including healthy competition for Delta. But I would miss its service and comfort most of all. Amid an increasingly cramped and grungy mode of transport, Sun Country managed to provide relatively comfortable, competent and cheerful service (for which it was recognized as among the best in the nation for the third time in October.) Here in Boulder, I’m watching the similar struggles of Frontier, another small airline that’s been losing money. Like Sun Country, Frontier is banking on the busy winter vacation season to provide a cushion — and some profits.

For consumers, the question is when do you give up your loyalty for security? What if you book your vacation to Mexico for February, and the airline goes under at the end of January? Consumers who buy their tickets with credit cards typically are protected from the loss of the cost of the tickets, but booking a new flight on short notice could be prohibitively expensive. I’m planning a trip to theYucatan for the second week in April, and I’m really torn. The cheapest fares and direct flights are on Frontier. But April is just past the winter travel peak; the airline is going to go kabluey, it will likely happen as winter sales tail off. I haven’t made up my mind. If you’re planning a winter getaway, what are you going to do?

Jenny Loeck of St. Paul booked a charter package through Hobbit Travel to Cancun in March. The charter package, put together by Funjet, included a room for two with balcony at the RIU Cancun, front and center in the Hotel Zone. They got into the hotel shortly before midnight, went out on the balcony to enjoy that spectacular ocean view, and discovered that the balcony door wouldn’t lock and that it was open to all the adjoining balconies on that floor. If you’ve been in Cancun during spring break season, you know that’s not a good situation. The front desk said the place was booked (so no room switch was possible), and that the lock couldn’t be fixed. When Loeck insisted on a fix, the hotel essentially nailed the balcony door shut (two days after she initially made the complaint).

Safe in her room, Loeck now was robbed of an amenity for which she’d paid dearly. Back at home, Loeck wrote letters, made calls, and after banging her head on many doors got Hobbit to secure a $249 refund (a check, not vouchers) from Funjet, the company that sold the vacation. I told her that was probably about as good as she was going to get, and that she made the right moves by seeking a fix right away and then pursuing it; if you don’t ask for help (or compensation) you won’t get it. It’s also commendable because it’s often hard to get any of the responsible parties in a charter package to be responsible. With the masses of people being moved, problems like this one inevitably crop up. Anybody out there who travels charter packages regularly have advice? Anyone had a similar experience with Funjet, Hobbit or RIU?