cesco.g

Agree. They'd have to cut that fare at least into half to make me even consider it!

nk15

This is just crazy to even consider it.

largeeyes

Why on earth would they all of a sudden make all of their tickets refundable?

gabrielz

AB is refusing to refund even FULLY REFUNDABLE tickets purchased prior to the bankruptcy date. Just let that sink in.

-G

Calchas

Nothing like bankruptcy to add a bit of excitement to your life!

jiaogulan

And here I was thinking I was so spicy for living on the edge with an Alitalia codeshare of a bunch of flights never actually flown on their metal.

If someone doesn't sweat after throwing $2,700 at this one, then they probably can afford to fly way better than Air Berlin business class anyways.

C17PSGR

Well ... if you pay with a credit card and they don't fly, you do get your money back. One of the business quandaries of running an airline in financial trouble is that the credit card companies assess the credit worthiness of an airline because the law in the US is that the traveler gets a refund from the credit card company if the airline goes under.

So, for example, when you buy a ticket on DL to fly in September, the credit card companies pays DL now. In contrast, if the credit card company is worried about being on the hook, they won't pay AB until the flight is flown or only pay a small portion of the fare in advance. This creates a spiral.

All that being said, I don't think $2700 is all that bad from the west coast. Can you still earn Aadvantage miles based on the business class fare?

Kacee

Except your plans are ruined.

Add me to the list of "why would anyone even consider this?"

cesco.g

Despite the government-sponsored credit facility AB might be running out of operating funds in less that 3 months resulting in curtailed flight operations soon.

https://www.cash.ch/news/top-news/tr...faelle-1095130

(in German)

cheltzel

It appears (according to the Google translation of the article) that the credit card holdback of payments until the passenger actually flies the booked travel is largely responsible for the cash shortfall.

Not criticizing the practice, just pointing out that @C17PSGR was correct.

C17PSGR

Several years ago, I flew F9 as my secondary airline when they were trying to compete in the JetBlue/B6 style. On day, I was taking the redeye to NYC and as the plane was sitting at the gate in Den, it was obvious that something had happened with gate agents talking to the flight crew. Turned out that F9 had just filed bankruptcy unexpectedly and the reason was that the credit card processor had upped the holdback and that killed their cash immediately.

So, buying a ticket for travel in the near term probably doesn't have a lot of financial risk (assuming you are from the US with a US credit card) but I'll agree about the travel disruption issue.

But ... does AB still give AA miles for travel?