Air Berlin files for insolvency – what happens next?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Patrick says:

  16 Aug16 August 05:51

  Some editing required:

  “Air Berlin will commence to be part of the alliance throughout the insolvency.” This doesn’t make a lot of sense.

  “Be grateful that you do not have any Air Berlin Topbonus miles.” A strange thing to say – HfP has no way of knowing whether or not I own any Topbonus miles.

  • Dolly D says:

    16 Aug16 August 06:11

    “The airline had invested heavily expecting in advance of this.”

  • Dan says:

    16 Aug16 August 07:34

    I take it you got the idea of what the article was saying? No need at all for blunt rude criticisms like that. Jog On!

  • Vand says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:19

    Agree – it is already a member. It will *continue* to be a member of … makes more sense. I had to go to oneworld website to understand what was trying to be said here.

    • anikaanika99 says:

      16 Aug16 August 09:06

      Apologies, it should say ‘continue’.
      Here’s the official quote: airberlin continues to operate as part of oneworld®, following the German airline’s filing to commence insolvency proceedings under self-administration, to enable it to continue with its restructuring process.

  • Mmmmm says:

    16 Aug16 August 16:09

    Patrick, in this new brave world, anyone anywhere can find out info about you…indeed usually info a lot more concerning than any topbonus balance you might have.

• Lammy52 says:

  16 Aug16 August 06:57

  Patrick and Dolly D, when are you starting writing your respective travel blogs? The amount of errors compared to the amount of information Rob provides is negligible.

  • Brian says:

    16 Aug16 August 12:12

    You mean ‘number of errors’… Sorry, couldn’t resist :)) – I personally don’t see any problems with errors in the articles (compare them to other blogs, which are riddled with mistakes – plus Anika isn’t a native speaker…lol) – equally, I think it’s fine for people to point out errors or unclear passages, so that Rob/Anika can correct if they wish! So no need to go to war…

    • Graeme says:

      16 Aug16 August 13:13

      Totally agree @brian the disproportionate reaction to any form of perceived criticism, constructive or otherwise, is strange. I don’t think the comments above were unfair – straight to the point maybe, but you don’t need to tell Rob how much you love him before you point out an error or difference in opinion…

• HAM76 says:

  16 Aug16 August 07:05

  Hooray! I’ve lifetime platinum status on airberlin… My status is valid until 2019, longer than we can expect the airline to be around. What are the chances of Lufthansa matching status over the next few months? At least I got a visit of the First Wing and Galleries First out of my status.

  • zsalya says:

    16 Aug16 August 07:31

    We have silver (but the physical cards never did arrive).
    And enough TopBonus miles for this to be painful unless they get converted to Lufthansa or Etihad entitlements.

    • HAM76 says:

      16 Aug16 August 07:48

      I’ve over 200k… topbonus closed its shop. So, my topbonus miles can only be spend on airberlin flights over the next three months max. I doubt any airline will convert them into their own miles. topbonus is a separate business (a british one, actually) 70% of which is owned by Etihad.

  • hearingdouble says:

    16 Aug16 August 15:04

    Air Berlin issue “lifetime” platinum status that ends in 2019? Either Air Berlin have a funny notion of what “lifetime” means, or they have special plans for you in 2019…

    • HAM76 says:

      17 Aug17 August 18:15

      life time status has never been your life time. Remember those with lifetime status on bmi and what happened when diamond club was merged into BAEC? airberlin and topbonus will not survive this in their present form. My status will be valid longer than either the airline or the FF program exists.

      Not even oneworld partners believe so… BA has some really good fares ex-Germany to SFO and MIA (SFO is less than 3500 in First), both airberlin destinations. Other destinations are as expensive as always.

• Richard says:

  16 Aug16 August 07:36

  I flew with Air Berlin a few months ago. I’ve never seen flight attendants with as little regard for safety. They didn’t bother checking if people had their seat belts on before landing, didn’t make people put their seats upright. They were in the galley with the curtain drawn until right before landing.
  And my suitcase was delayed two days from Berlin – Helsinki even though I was on a direct flight, no connection. No other airline has lost my suitcase on a point-point trip before.
  On the way out they changed the “operator” from Air Berlin to Niki a day before the flight. This caused all kinds of problems since I wasn’t allowed lounge access in Helsinki because of that. But the plane had “Air Berlin” painted on the side anyway.
  Would never have flown with them again, the safety issue especially was inexcusable. When I complained about that later they did not seem that concerned.

  • Fenny says:

    16 Aug16 August 13:32

    “No other airline has lost my suitcase on a point-point trip before.”
    BA failed to load my luggage on a flight from Toulouse to Orly and I had to wait 4 hours for it to arrive.
    One of my colleagues flew BA to Mulhouse every week for 3 months and they lost his luggage every week. He gave up and just left his stuff with one of the local staff at the weekends.

• Noggins says:

  16 Aug16 August 07:48

  We moved all our recently earned Ethiad miles to TB. Would never have known of the option to do so without this site. I should have cashed them in immediately!

• Darren says:

  16 Aug16 August 08:05

  Some articles have said Ryanair was making a complaint under State Aid rules

• Myer says:

  16 Aug16 August 08:09

  Typical German hypocrisy a loan! I thought this would be covered by the EU unfair competition rules, its a subsidy dressed up as a loan nothing more. Angela is simply buying votes to ensure her re election.

  Can you imagine if it was a UK airline, the British government wouldn’t dream of lending them a penny. We play by the rules, (including the spirit of the law). No wonder we are leaving that corrupt organisation known as the EU.

  • Concerto says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:47

    Yeah, we play by the rules. We just abandon loads of passengers all over the place during holiday time, just like any other banana republic would do. Remember FlyGlobespan, to name just one?

    • will says:

      16 Aug16 August 08:58

      But it isn’t about “abandoning passengers all over the place during holiday time”.
      You could solve that by agreeing to keep the airline solvent while it recovered passengers already abroad.
      This is about keeping the airline operating with no fixed date to end support and continuing to take bookings.
      If I were a rival airline I’d call that a state subsidy of a loss making airline.

      • Concerto says:

        17 Aug17 August 07:33

        You are totally right, of course.

  • Chilangoflyer says:

    16 Aug16 August 09:56

    What the UK does, ist the British government decision and problem. But I can asure you, that this loan is within the EU rules (as was the lian for Alitalia) as this was an unexpected move of Etihad and a necessary one to save the employees for the next months.

    Concerning “your” move out of the EU, I do not cry seeing the UK go. Afterwatds everyone in the Union will play by the same rules without any British “extras”. I only hope, the EU will abandon all these extras, if the UK revokes the Brexit later….

    • will says:

      16 Aug16 August 22:38

      It’s quite amusing that it’s seen as a sound business model to be relying on money injected into an airline by another company to cover its day to day losses ad infinitum.

      If I went to my bank and asked for a loan to cover day to day losses and to keep my staff (incl me) being paid they’d have a right old chuckle. It’s like doing that, running out of goodwill at the bank and then rocking up to the government and them doing the same thing.

      I understand that companies occasionally need assistance in bad times, but firstly if state aid is suddenly allowed it shouldn’t be some shady technicality which allows it in some situations and not others.

      Further, this airline has got itself into trouble for far too long to require state aid as a last resort. The last resort was months/years ago.

      • Mzungu says:

        21 Aug21 August 15:44

        +1

  • Alex says:

    16 Aug16 August 15:17

    They need to navigate the pre-election period!
    Politico put it very nicely today:
    “Who says Germans don’t like bailouts? In what might be the wisest political decision of the campaign season, Berlin agreed to keep beleaguered Air Berlin afloat just long enough for the thousands of Germans sunning themselves in the Aegean and the Balearic Sea to arrive home safely and vote.”

• Brian says:

  16 Aug16 August 08:23

  Hi I have a Berlin to Abu Dhabi flight booked using Avios in April 2018.

  Any thoughts on what may happen regarding this booking?

  Thanks

  Ps the full itinerary not on one booking it is Glasgow to Berlin (easyjet) then Berlin to Abu Dhabi (avios air berlin) and Abu Dhabi to Glasgow (avios BA)

  • HAM76 says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:41

    If your ticket number starts with 125 then it is BA’s responsibility to rebook you on the TXL-AUH flight. They might you rebook onto a TXL-LHR-AUH flight, though. If you were only connecting in TXL, you need to check your connection. There’s still plenty of time, though.

    • pauldb says:

      16 Aug16 August 09:47

      It would appear that BA offered to rebook Malev redeemers when that airline collapsed. But I would caution that I do not believe it is BA’s “responsibility” to provide you any more than a refund. BA are AB’s agent in the transaction, not your counterparty.

      • pr99 says:

        17 Aug17 August 19:08

        If BA pays for the AirBerlin redemption seat in arrears then there they have not incurred costs on the transaction if they cancel and refund.

        Where they will loose is on TopBonus members who have flown on BA if they don’t receive the money from TopBonus. Hence they have stopped their losses increasing by preventing more TopBonus redemptions on their flights and are probably trying to settle all the balances.

  • Expat says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:41

    If, as expected, air Berlin no longer exist in April, I would expect BA to offer you BER-LHR-AUH, then AUH-LHR-GLA, all on BA. On the positive side, I doubt BA would ask for the extra taxes in this case

  • Briandt says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:43

    I would read the article again…..what is there to worry about ?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.