My husband and I were one of the many unfortunate passengers due to fly back from Las Vegas with MAXjet on December 30.

On December 24, we received the email informing us that they had filed for backruptcy (goodness knows when we'd have heard without the Blackberry). We called and emailed their "customer service" contacts on numerous occasions only to be told that we had been prioritised by departure date and would be contacted with an alternative itinerary.

By December 28, and having received no further updates, we took the matter into our own hands and booked alternative flights with American Airlines - which would get us back to Stansted to collect our car. (We also had to book new alternative connecting flights from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas). These new tickets costs us just over £2,500.

However, since arriving in the UK, we've been told by our travel insurance company that we are not covered for airline bankruptcy, and that most insurance policies would not cover us for this. We assumed this would be a given as it's exactly the kind of incident that you would insure against! Can you please advise how we should obtain reimbursement of this additional expenditure? Jill Leake, Solihull

Assistant Travel Editor, Times Online, Ginny McGrath responds: If you have booked a flight direct with an airline and it goes bankrupt, the airline is not obliged to reimburse or repatriate you.

In this case Maxjet struck a deal with rivals Eos to offer assistance to its passengers stranded in New York, but did not arrange anything similar for its Las Vegas passengers. As Maxjet states on its website, customers who arranged their own alternative flights home will have to seek reimbursement from their credit card company or travel agent.

If you book flights through a travel agent, you may receive financial protection against airline bankruptcy by purchasing Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance, which can only be bought through an agent. It is not offered by all travel agents and does not cover all airlines - for example, it may not cover start-up airlines or those airlines filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the time of booking. Check your travel documents or phone the agent to confirm.

Alternatively, if you bought the flight as part of a package, including a hotel, for example, the travel agent should have bonded your holiday through the Atol scheme, which means you would be protected.

Under the Atol scheme travellers are flown home and reimbursed in the event of any of the holiday providers going bust. All sorts of high street and online travel agents offer Atols, and some will offer them with flight-only sales. The only way to check is to ask the travel agent or tour operator when you book whether all of the elements of your booking will be bonded.

If you didn't book with a travel agent, your only chance for reimbursement is if you bought the tickets on a credit card.

Under the Consumer Credit Act, protection is offered for purchases of more than £100 if the supplier folds. This does not apply to purchases made on debit cards and it may also exclude purchases made directly with companies based overseas. At the moment section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, which concerns overseas purchases, is under debate in the courts, and it is up to individual credit card companies whether they will pay up or not.

It is worth trying though. There's advice on the Consumer Direct website concerning how to claim and even letter templates to download and send off with your details. Good luck.

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