[Arnt]

It helps in two cases: ① The airline closes suddenly, as has happened twice in Germany in the past years (Swissair and Air Berlin both left many Germans with paid tickets and cancelled flights). ② the airline cancels that flight or just that ticket, in which case the airline has to quarrel with its customer(s). It's advantageous for the customers to hold the money during that quarrel.

[sgjohnson]

Point 1 is a complete non-issue with a credit card, especially in the UK, where the Section 75 process is quite streamlined, but either way that liability would fall on the issuing bank/insurer at that point.

2. Also a non-issue with a credit card. If you clear your balance in full, it doesn’t really matter that they might take some extra time in getting that money back to you.

So... Just get a credit (or a charge) card?

[Arnt]

I googled a bit now and found several pages written by people who say that you can do a chargeback in these cases, and also found several pages by people who didn't manage to do it. Guess what I did not find.

[sgjohnson]

What didn’t you find?

[Arnt]

I searched in German and Italian about the Swissair, Air Berlin and Alitalia debacles, and I did not find any news articles that said that credit card customers had received their money back.

Come to think of it, there might also be a press release or ad-hoc exchange notice saying "banks had to refund x billions due to visa chargebacks", I could have searched for it, so why not now? I found https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/chargeback_rep... now, which appears to imply that if you win the dispute (should be easy), your chargeback becomes a claim against the bankrupt airline and you'll get something or nothing, depending on how much is left in the airline.

[sgjohnson]

> your chargeback becomes a claim against the bankrupt airline and you'll get something or nothing, depending on how much is left in the airline.

No, you get your money back, and the bank now has a claim against the airline.

I haven't been through this exact scenario in my life, but I've been in plenty of non-delivery situations, however, I can't make a good faith claim that they were flat-out chargebacks, because on all of the cards that I made the purchases with, purchase protection or insurance was a listed benefit, namely on the Amex Platinum.

But there must be a card with similar chargeback benefits that's available to everyone in basically every EU country.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of opportunities to get your money back in such a situation.

[flashfaffe2]

As customer who experienced this not far than yesterday, my priority was to flight asap. Not to enter in litigation with the company ( which is incredibly painful). Moreover if you pay your ticket peanut ( Ryanair or easyJet in Europe), I doubt you will consolate yourself with that advancement.