WASHINGTON -- Euram Flight Center, the 18-year-old consolidator
here that closed on July 22, said it was trying to determine the
amount of cash refunds owed to people left without tickets, but
could not make any commitment that cash refunds would be issued.
In a telephone interview at his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., office,
Euram owner David Scott said the firm got about 60% of its $32
million to $33 million business from travel agents, and estimated
that credit card sales represented "close to 90%" of total
business.
Scott said Euram has not canceled any reservations in order to
protect customers' seats, particularly critical for summer travel
when seats are scarce. He advised agents and consumers who paid by
credit card and didn't get tickets to charge back the sale, saying
many airlines and other consolidators were issuing tickets at about
the same price against the same reservation -- for a second
payment.
One of those consolidators was Trans Am Travel in Alexandria,
Va., a rival that had shared the same customer base. One of the
airlines involved was Swissair, which installed a toll-free number
at (800) 247-3308 solely to handle an estimated 200 Euram-booked
passengers without tickets.
Scott said the Airlines Reporting Corp. has declared Euram in
default, and the company has until early August to work out a
repayment plan or it will lose ARC accreditation.
Euram "temporarily laid off" its Washington staff, and its Fort
Lauderdale office stopped taking new bookings on July 22, when the
Washington office closed, he said. A telephone recording at the
Washington office asked agents and consumers who paid cash to dial
an extension to leave a message, but the voicemail boxes were
constantly full. Scott said Euram was trying to clear out the
mailboxes as often as possible.
Despite recent events, Scott remained optimistic that he could
reopen. He said talks with his bank, Chase Manhattan, and potential
buyers, whom he declined to identify, were going well.
His game plan is to reopen a "smaller office" in the Maryland
suburbs of Washington, where he already planned to relocate, and to
have a reservations and ticket fulfillment center at the Florida
office. Scott said he was "a victim of circumstances" when his bank
froze his account after he got chargebacks of sales on defunct Pan
Am and Western Pacific.
Meanwhile, cash-paying consumers and agents probably considered
themselves to be victims of circumstances if they were stuck
without tickets (see box, this page).