Air Berlin has been under financial pressure for quite some time, and they have now announced that their entire longhaul operation will be ending on October 15th:
airberlin will need to cease its long-haul flight operations by 15 October 2017, as the aircraft leasing companies are gradually withdrawing their Airbus A330 jets. The connection between Dusseldorf and Los Angeles will therefore be discontinued on 25 September 2017. Further cancellations will follow on 16 October 2017. On 29 September 2017, airberlin will discontinue services between Hamburg and Munich and between Cologne/Bonn and Munich. We regret the inconvenience for our passengers.
The loss of Air Berlin is a blow to the value of BA Avios as they were a good transatlantic flight option due to their lack of fuel surcharges.
If you have an Air Berlin ticket you can call them to see if you can get rebooked on another airline, but most likely they will just offer you a refund. If you aren’t offered a refund you can always dispute the charge with your credit card as the item purchased wasn’t delivered as promised.
If you are in middle of a trip then they should have to rebook you on another airline, but with the airline shutting down there are no guarantees that that will happen.
Have an Air Berlin ticket? Share your experience in the comments!
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29 Comments On "Air Berlin’s Long-Haul Flights Will End On October 15th"
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We are a family of 7 (2 adults, 4 kids and 1 infant) scheduled to fly Monday after Yom Kippur with Air Berlin to TLV for Succoth. Spoke to AB agent, very nasty, not willing to accommodate us on other airlines and refused to process refund. Called credit card and processed charge back. Booked Al Italia, had to pay $ 2700.00 more.
IF you have any Trip insurance (such as from the Chase Sapphire or Freedom cards) you may be covered to the difference. Check under your Trip Cancellation benefit as it may include if the carrier cancels the flights and you need to rebook.
Spoke w chase. Trip insurance benefit pay back original amounts paid but NOT cost of new booking . So not much help. Plus if you booked at same time other airline would have been much less than booking now. Chase insurance is disappointing. Card cost $450 a year and insurance trip protection is a joke
chase wont pay but Citibank will!up to $5000 per traveler for re-booking as long as the whole ticket was charged to the card.If the ticket was booked with points they will only cover what you actually charged.
Hi Dan, what would be the best option to fly to Berlin now, since AirBerlin is gone?
Thank you
I have a ticket with air Berlin going to Vienna with a stop in Düsseldorf on the outbound flight and on the way back its a stop in Berlin. And the way back they cancelled my flight already! And they gave me only one option to go home from Vienna with 2 stops a total of over 20 hours… What should I do??? My travel dates are Oct 2 till Oct 15
I bought ticket for sukkos to Israel and I called for air Berlin wait on the line 50 min and they offering me refund cuz I booked my ticket after aug 15 or To call 24 hr before the original flight to see if they can rebook me with United or Lufthansa
Hi dan would you be able to tell me what I should do if I have a flight October 1 to Israel for sukkos jfk dus txl and tlv and the way back October 16 tlv dus txl jfk? should I ask to rebook the whole flight? both ways ? or just get a refund and buy another ticket? your opionion would help very much. thank you
meaning can I fly the first leg and book a one way for the other leg?
there not offering to rebook representive told me probably will fly the way there but might not go the way back
Shouldn’t they offer an Alternative to Berlin for at least 13% of customers?
Back in May I crafted an amazing Air Berlin JFK-TLV open-jaw FD ticket with big fat Eastern Europe stopovers. Ha. I thought I was a genius! Very disappointing. Perhaps another airline will honor if AB works out an agreement. Booked with SPG card.
Good luck getting through to Air Berlin. My family is traveling to Israel for Succot via Air Berlin originally luckily some of us were able to rebook via BA since we used Avios miles. @Dan – for any leg of the trip we were not rebooked on can we ask for EU (600 Euro) or Israel (3,800 ILS) compensation from Air Berlin for being involuntarily bumped from flight? I know they are bankrupt and its a long shot but sholdn’t they at a minimum owe the statutory compensation for leaving travelers stranded?
We booked flights on AB last April for November JFK to TLV through Berlin with Chase points. When we asked Chase last month they said to check AB. AB said we would be offered alternative flights when the situation settled. We have not received any notification from them yet. Is there something we should be doing?
Most definitively!!!
Nu dan answer the question already ??
“AB said we would be offered alternative flights when the situation settled.”
My brother, you need reality check. It’s not going to happen.
This Sucks!
Went to Israel a dozen times JFK-TGL-TLV…
Will they still fly to TLV?
Dan any ideas on how to still book NYC to TLV…without fuel surcharges?
Thanks…Gmar Tov
Moshe
Any recent experience Ord-Berlin-tlv?
Have tickets oct 1-16
Is berlin tlv still flying?
Any way to keep that portion?
Thank you
I just flew TLV – Berlin – ORD. Got an e-mail from them that they cancelled my flight but got through to them and they said that while the letter said my whole flight was cancelled, really only the return was cancelled.
Go online and check if you can book for Oct. 1st from ORD to TLV. If your flight is still flying, then you should be good for your entire way there.
Even for the way back, it’s very possible that your TLV – Berlin is still OK (again – you can check online to see if that plane is flying – just try to book a seat. If they are flying, you’ll get a price. If they aren’t flying – it’ll tell you that they can’t find your route.)
Good luck!
p.s. If you have any ideas on us getting back to TLV after Succos, let us know! Tx.
50 min is not bad – I was on hold for over 2 hours! They originally cancelled my flight on Oct 10 since they no longer will fly Berlin_JFK. Rebooked yesterday for 15th through TLV- Berlin-Duss_JFK. Promised me it shouldn’t be cancelled as only cancelling starting 16th. Well, today DUS-JFK on Oct 15th was cancelled and they told me since I booked after Aug 15, I should not have been rebooked to start with – just given a refund so they can’t put me on another flight. I can fly to E”Y, but not get home. – then again, they said, to keep checking your booking, because things change daily and who knows if we will get to E”Y this way either…. The only way I noticed it was cancelled, was by checking my booking
Dear Dans Deals followers,
I buy a ticket from TLV to NYC (round trip) for Simchas Torah.
I receive a message from AB that my flight have been canceled, and if my purchase was after 15 aug – i will be automaticaly refunded. Im still didnt receive my money back. What sould i do?
??
We used Chase Sapphire points in April to book NYC to TLV round trip for November.we have filed an insurance claim with Chase Sapphire. Our adjustor wants proof the airline is not reimbursing us before they will pay our claim. But the airline does not communicate with us beyond a representative saying our flight will not fly. We have made an alternative booking but would like our insurance reimbursement. Any advice? – search results
Just call Chase and dispute the charge. Services not performed.
We were charged points not cash. The insurance payout is in cash. I don’t understand what you mean.
Did you call the Chase flight booking phone line and explain the situation?
Yes. Many times. They said file with the Sapphire Reserve insurance. That is why I say we are working with an adjustor. He wrote us today that “the trip cancellation benefit is suspended till Air Berlin provides documentation of no reimbursement. That can’t be done till Air Berlin insolvency hearings are finalized.” It seems to us this could take years.
Auf wiedersehen airberlin. AB permanently discontinued all operations today. Hope everyone gets their money back. Good luck with that.