Foreign Airline goes bust?

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chalky_bertie
chalky_bertie Posts: 1,154 Forumite
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in Flights, currency & car hire
Could someone advise what my rights, if any, would be if an airline in another country goes bust?


I have already purchased my tickets on SA Airlink from Johannesburg to Madagascar for next year which I purchased on a Credit Card. I have got travel insurance in place. I have read that SAA is struggling and I am led to believe that SA Airlink is a feeder airline to SAA but not sure if these would be affected if anything happened to SAA.



Would I claim via the travel insurance or Credit Card?


Thanks
**BERTIE**

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  • EveryWhere
    EveryWhere Posts: 3,249 Forumite
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    https://www.lv.com/travel-insurance/guide-to-scheduled-airline-failure

    Often offered when you buy your ticket.
  • cazza0104
    cazza0104 Posts: 27 Forumite
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    Hi - I’m in the same boat with £3 of tickets to Madagascar. Have you had any luck with insurance (travel or credit card?)
  • cazza0104
    cazza0104 Posts: 27 Forumite
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    I meant £3k!
  • Alan_Bowen
    Alan_Bowen Posts: 4,850 Forumite
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    Technically SAA went bust at the end of December 2019 so no insurer will offer cover after that point. The government continued to pump funds in to keep it alive but said in April they could no longer do so. The administrators said the only option was, therefore, to close it down for good. Technically it is still alive but on life support, and if, or should I say when, it fails, your claim can only be against the card issuer of the card you used to buy the seats. Hopefully you booked directly with the airline as booking through agents makes it much more difficult to recover your losses without airline failure insurance
  • Westin
    Westin Posts: 5,942 Forumite
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    Keep in mind that South African Airways (SAA) and SAA Airlink were and still are separate airline businesses.   SAA Airlink was structured like a franchisee of SAA, a little like BA and BA CityFlyer and Aer Lingus and City Jet.

    I believe Airlink took steps to separate themselves from the woes of SAA a few months back and now market and operate as just Airlink - www.flyairlink.com.  That said, with Cv19 creating massive decline in airlift demand they now face their own fresh revenue challenges.
  • Alan_Bowen
    Alan_Bowen Posts: 4,850 Forumite
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    In a 'you couldn't make it up' scenario, the SA government coughed up another bailout yesterday to the tune of 3.8 billion Rand, around $211 million for SAA and SA Express but there are no plans on what to do with the money so how long it will survive remains to be seen
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