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Home » Airlines » Air Berlin » So Much for Flying Air Berlin…
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So Much for Flying Air Berlin…

Matthew Klint Posted onAugust 30, 2017November 14, 2023 5 Comments

an airplane flying in the sky

I am on a business trip to Europe to this week and had planned to travel on Air Berlin from Los Angeles to Dusseldorf yesterday. Unfortunately, the carrier’s bankruptcy complicated my plans.

Although this trip has been scheduled for weeks, no space was booked because Air Berlin historically released long-haul premium cabin award space at the last minute. I’ve never flown Air Berlin on a long-haul route and figured it would be a helpful review considering it is (well, was) a great use of AA miles at 57,500 miles for a one-way business class ticket with no fuel surcharges.

But when the carrier declared bankruptcy and its loyalty program soon followed suit, all award space was pulled. I’m so thankful the space did not open earlier.

Air Berlin hopes to avoid shut down, though is considering ending long-haul operations from Berlin and focusing long-haul service exclusively from Dusseldorf. Meanwhile, Lufthansa has expressed interest in in taking over Air Berlin’s long-haul routes.

Whatever the case, at the moment you cannot use points to book flights on Air Berlin. Even if you could, I now question how valuable a report would have been. If the carrier folds (I view it as inevitable), a review won’t help many people…

Interestingly, Air Berlin operations appeared normal at LAX yesterday. The Berlin and Dusseldorf flights were operating on schedule. We’ll see for how long…

CONCLUSION

Since Air Berlin was no longer an option, I flew Lufthansa instead. The LAX-FRA flight yesterday was quite interesting. I’ll have details on that shortly.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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5 Comments

  1. Rob Reply
    August 30, 2017 at 10:29 am

    I have an AA award ticket booked for December that includes JFK-DUS on Air Berlin. Would you just sit tight for now?

  2. A Reply
    August 30, 2017 at 12:32 pm

    If it was a business trip, if I may ask, wouldn’t your employer pay for your ticket? Just curious…

    • Matthew Reply
      August 30, 2017 at 12:57 pm

      I am self-employed. But this trip was not for pleasure or even for blogging.

    • A Reply
      August 30, 2017 at 2:16 pm

      I see. I’m just curious, feel free to ignore this, but may I ask what you do? I thought blogging and Award Expert was your full time job…I’ve followed the blog for a while and remember you used to work at Star Alliance in the upgrd days, but I thought that was no longer the case.

      Thanks as always for the great content!

      • Matthew Reply
        September 13, 2017 at 8:08 am

        spartanstrading.com

        A new business venture.

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