The U.S. office of the Tourism Corporation Bonaire has issued the following notice today:

As of Friday, October 1, 2004, DCA (Dutch Caribbean Airlines) ceased operations. At this time, there is no further information available about the airline. It is advised that passengers traveling on DCA contact their travel professionals, and/or contact Air Jamaica, American Airlines, BonairExel or Divi Divi for alternate service.

I just spoke to DCA in Miami and they confirmed that the last flights from Miami would be October 13th. If you have tickets they will refund your money. Their telephone number in Miami is 1-800-327-7230. To get a refund you must write to their office at the following address:
DCA - Refund Department
1150 NW 72nd Street
Miami, Fla. 33126
You will have to enclose your paper tickets if you have them. I also spoke to my credit card company and they confirmed this is the proper procedure. They recommend sending your letter and tickets by registered mail and if you do not receive your refund from DCA they will handle it.

I spoke with Rosalta at DCA and she informed me that the airline is reorganizing. If you have tickets, she suggests to call the end of October to find out their situation. Rosalta also told me that DCA will credit our credit card account if we don't get to fly.
Ingrid

Honnestly Ingrid, I would not take the risk to wait that long, get your money now.
Have a look
http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/29/182639.html?1096834054
http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/29/183459.html?1096988664

Ingrid, I also spoke with Rosalita. Upon questioning she admitted that the last flight would be October 13th. So, why wait until the end of the month? My credit card company strongly recommended going after the refund now. My request is in the mail.

I have requested a refund from DCA. I also spoke with my Bank. If DCA does not refund our money, our bank will credit our account.
We have re-booked with Delta from Miami to Bonaire through Montego Bay. The flights are filling up fast. If anyone is thinking about it, I would suggest to book fast. December 18 from Bonaire to Montego Bay is sold out. Good luck to All.

It looks like the last flights of DCA happend today ...
http://www.amigoe.com/artman/publish/article_9536.shtml

Hi All,

We booked tickets on DCA in route to Trinidad and today is the first time we have heard anything about the airlines closure (and we came across the info by chance). Anyway, we are wondering if anyone has successfully been reimbursed after filing a claim with their credit card. Our cc explained that the money will not be credited to us until and unless their investigators are able to collect. Just wondering if anyone has been able to get a refund? any info or suggestions is helpful!

Angela,

DCA is in what's considered a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the U.S. - liquidation of assets. They were horribly in debt, and there are a lot of creditors with a lot of money waiting in line to collect. Press harder with your credit card company, as you have not and will not receive what you paid for (and they will not be getting their money back either).

Jake

We sent all the requested information to DCA by registered mail and have not received anything. My bank has reversed the charges for our tickets with DCA and we received full credit.
Ingrid

Thanks Jake and Ingrid for the information. When I contacted my credit card company they took the claim but stated they would not credit the account until they were able to get the money from the airline. Is there something in particular you said that encouraged the cc company to do a refund or did you have some type of extra coverage for this type of situation?

Thanks again for your help.

No, I do not have extra coverage. All they wanted was copies of everything we did. I even had e-tickets. Anyone can print them on the computer. They were very nice and immediately took care of this. Good luck!

We had paper tickets and sent them to DCA by registered mail. We do not expect them to give a refund. However, our credit card, Visa, with Citibank said it would credit our account after January 8, the date of our flights. They were very accomodating and said we were entitled to a full refund but they had to wait until the flight date, makes sense to me.

Angela:

If the credit card is from a US bank, the rule -*generally* is they refund your money provided you never got the good/service. I think that will be the case here.

See http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fcb.htm for a general discussion. The cardholder agreement should layout your rights & responsibilities. The process is far from perfect http://www.consumerreports.org/main/content/display_report.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=380313&bmUID=1100013258631 but worth a try.

I just confirmed with my CC Co. that they have credited my account for my DCA tickets purchased in July for a January flight. Originally, they said I would have to wait until after the flight date but since there is no chance of a DCA refund the credit was made. Our CC is Visa through CitiBank.