As the economy contracted last year, consumers cut back on spending and air travel collapsed, pushing prices down to their lowest levels in a decade.
Until the current downturn, the bumpiest patch came after 9/11, when travel collapsed and Four Seasons refused to cut room prices, to the consternation of some owners.
And as if that weren't enough, she pointed out that air travel, after collapsing in the aftermath of the gulf war, returned to normal within a year, even in the midst of a recession.
Of all the thousands of people at La Guardia Airport whose travel plans collapsed this weekend beneath the Blizzard of 2000, consider the plight of Sheikh Kabir, 30, a mild-mannered database manager scheduled to be married this week on the other side of the world.
Using a credit card does offer extra protection for consumers if things go wrong, such as a travel company collapsing, and, of course, allows people to book tickets on credit.
The Gulf war saw one of the biggest travel-company collapses in history.
As travel in Europe collapsed after Sept. 11, the number of delays also fell sharply.
Airline staff queued up to go on strike, collapsed travel companies left clients stranded around the world, and holiday bookings wobbled as consumer confidence dipped.
Bookings for Turkey were down by 40% even before the latest attack, and travel agents report collapsing demand for north Africa too, after last year's beach shootings in Tunisia.
Check your policy as not all cover the collapse of travel providers.
