Mainline begins
refund processThe phantom airline had promised
L.A.-Hawaii tickets for
as little as $89 each way
Mainline Airlines has begun to issue refunds to people who accepted its deal for Los Angeles-Hawaii seats as low as $89 each way.
Dawn Wilhelm of Mililani said she received confirmation yesterday that the more than $3,000 she spent to buy nine tickets had been fully erased from her credit card bill.
Stephen Levins, director of the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection, said he was aware of one other customer getting full repayment since the would-be airline announced Wednesday it was giving up its plan to launch service July 3. The office had not had many complaints, Levins said.
Mainline Airlines founder Luke R. Thompson, who initially said he was based in Wellesley, Mass., and recently said his business had moved to Henderson, Nev., was revealed this week as an 18-year-old college freshman who had no aircraft and no authority to fly.
Thompson, who launched the cheap-tickets deal in April on a Web site that has now been taken out of service, maintains that he always intended to be just a tour operator who would use a licensed charter business to provide the planes and crews.
But after legal actions by state authorities in Hawaii and Massachusetts, he said he was forced to quit because he was being viewed as a "fake airline."
That is just what Mainline was, said Wilhelm, an arts and crafts program specialist with the Mililani Town Association. "It was all just fully a scam," Wilhelm said. "I don't think he meant to go through with anything," she said.
She and some friends thought the deal was legitimate at first because they were alerted to it by a text message on their T-Mobile cellular phones. She went to what they thought was a thoroughly professional Web site and made her bookings, she said.
Then came a Star-Bulletin story quoting a federal official as saying Thompson could not legally sell tickets unless he had at least had his charter operator file a certificate with the Department of Transportation.
Wilhelm got nervous and contacted Thompson. She said yesterday she had a lot of e-mails back and forth and talked to Thompson on the telephone. He ended up promising to return her money and now has done so, Wilhelm said yesterday.
Levins said the Office of Consumer Protection intends to go ahead with a court hearing Monday to get a permanent restraint against Mainline and Thompson. His office has asked people who paid money to Mainline Airways to contact Consumer Protection at 586-2653.
Authorities initially said Mainline may have sold hundreds of tickets. Thompson said he made only 120 "pre-reservation sales" that weren't legally tickets. He said credit-card bookings are covered by a merchant account that ensures repayment if the service is not provided.