Airline Bankruptcy Protection

The recent bankruptcies of several major airlines and travel agencies are a timely reminder to be careful and make sure our volunteers are well protected - both physically, and financially.

In order to bring additional financial security and peace of mind to the volunteer travel market, the volunteerIDcard is including as part of its travel assistance benefits, airline ticket protection up to US$2,000.

This protection:

	Applies to any and all humanitarian, volunteer or other airline tickets purchased by a volunteerIDcard holder from an authorized volunteerIDcard travel agent.
	Covers airline tickets purchased by volunteerIDcard holders directly from an airline using a credit card (not debit card).
	Will reimburse any ISE Cardholder up to 100% of the amount paid for an airline ticket no longer being honored by the airline due to bankruptcy on the part of the airline. volunteerIDcard holders will be required to fly on alternate carriers which accept the ticket on a stand-by basis. The volunteerIDcard will reimburse the fee which is usually charged by these alternate carriers to accept the bankrupt airline's ticket. In the event that this is not possible, the volunteerIDcard holder should purchase a new ticket, and then shall make application for refund of the old ticket through the credit card which was used to pay for the ticket (if applicable) as well as with any governmental or travel industry programs which provide for consumer refunds. Once these benefits are calculated and paid, the volunteerIDcard program will reimburse any remaining, unpaid balance between the original price paid and the reimbursement benefits paid by other programs.

The volunteerIDcard offers its cardholders travel assistance through the europe assistance office located in Washington DC. Operators are ready to help 24 hours per day, 365 days per year and are fluent in 26 languages. The europe assistance center can be reached at (866 925 9054 from within North America, or from all other parts of the world please call USA 202 828 5894 (all collect calls are accepted).

The volunteerIDcard and it's affiliated International Student Exchange Identity Card - ISE Card - trace their founding to 1958, and since that time, not a single volunteer or student holding a volunteerIDcard or ISE Card has ever lost any money due to the financial collapse of either an authorized travel agent or an airline. Even during the massive collapse of Pan American Airways many years ago, or more recently, Swissair, Varig, Ansett, Nationwide, ATA, Aloha, (the list goes on and on), no volunteerIDcard or ISE Cardholder has lost any money. ISE Cards and the volunteerIDcard can offer this protection because it's agents are carefully selected, and deal almost exclusively in genuine IATA (International Airline Transportation Association) issued airline tickets.

The volunteerIDcard protects volunteers.^®