ffay005

I'm looking at flights to TXL 05OCT and back home to HEL 07OCT. AY is in the €300s and AB half that. What would you guys do? I'm not thinking about the (lost) miles here, merely thinking about whether AB will fly those flights.

It was speculated that with the loan from the Government, AB will keep flying up to the German elections, but maybe not for much longer. Well, the elections are tomorrow...

Also, I usually book directly with the airline because schedule changes etc are so much easier to handle. When booking simple returns in Europe on short notice, however, I have used online TAs and saved €10–15. Would it in this case be sensible to book with AB directly? If they stop flying, I would/should get my money back from the CC provider anyway, so I guess an OTA would work, too.

Purjelentaja

If points are not of any importance for you and no ow status recognition at all is fine AND you can take possible cancellation on the last minute AND you are paying with credit card that you can later on claim back the payment in case of cancellation, go for it. The loan German government granted was supposed to keep them flying till November, but simple math of their (rumoured) monthly expenses vs loan sum just don't add up keeping them in the air very long, as very obviosly incoming funds are now only a fraction of what it used to be. Beginning of October perhaps, but November, wouldn't put my money on it!

miikkak

It seems that AB stops flying at the end October (or earlier). They sell only full fare tickets for November.

If there is no price difference, you might want to consider booking a flight+hotel package because of slightly better consumer protection (OTA has to pay for return transportation if AB stops flying during the trip).

ffay005

Thanks for your help. Of course, points do mean something but in a normal situation, with such a big price difference, I would pick AB over AY and those AB cheap tickets earn close to 0 anyway.

The package was a good idea, however I only need 1 night in Berlin so it wouldn't work.

Decided to book directly with AB (€6 more compared to OTA). Entering the AB site via Skyscanner saved €7.

Let's see how it works out. Hoping for the best...

Courmisch

And so I received the creditor's bankrupcy notice today... Apparently, they have enough money to send posted mail.

Still not holding my breath.

Jainzar

Since LH did not buy HG AB still needs to pay the government's credit first before anything else will be paid. Let's see what they will fetch from selling the last seats.

ffay005

I would not invest my time in this. There is no chance AB will pay you anything. They own money to a whole lot of entities as well as a hoard of passengers who paid for their tickets but did not receive transportation. They do not have enough funds to cover these, let alone EU compensation claims.

Courmisch

Yeah, regardless of my time, I don't want to pay postage to get naught.