TT-Jones

No matter when I call (morning, mid-day, evenings, nights) - I have consistently experienced wait times of over an hour each time, then I gave up several times. To add insult to injury, on the way into the call the best estimate the system gives is that the wait time "will exceed 10 minutes". If they were to say "more than an hour", at least I could hang up and call again later.
But thanks to the way they are doing it now, I am forced to waste hour after hour for getting something fixed which AB caused.

Any better way to reach a human at this joke of an airline? I would LOVE to go with a self-serve solution, but (of course) for a rebooking due to a time change in departure time caused by AB I must call them because there is not other way to get it fixed, they say on the website.

Concerto

So far I haven't found it quite as bad as that, although bad it certainly is. One question, are you calling the English speaking line only? I always call the German speaking one, so maybe that's why.

TT-Jones

Since I speak both languages, I have tried both intermittently (German during German day hours, English predominantly during US daytime) - with the same unsatisfactory result.

zsalya_fly

I tried to call +49 1806 34 33 33 last week.
Same message about >10 minutes.
After 20 minutes I gave up.
They lost material business as a result.

Concerto

That's really terrible. Just to clarify, we're talking about airberlin here, rather than TopBonus, right?

TT-Jones

Correct, we are talking about Air Berlin, not about topbonus.

The smallest state

If you guys want long hold times, try calling Air Canada in Canada. One guy on the Air Canada board waited on hold for 2 hours, to get a seat for a flight that took 1 hour.

Concerto

Well I'm not in the slightest bit surprised about that. Air Canada, along with UNITED and British Airways, is an airline I boycott as much as is reasonably possible which is pretty much all the time. Not so difficult because of my geographical location.

Something needs to be done about this problem at airberlin though. I get the feeling AB is somewhat sliding down the tubes, like Alitalia. We all know that, of course, but it's really beginning to feel like it.

Jma12

Well, I booked a simple SIN-DOH-CDG with Topbonus and it look almost an hour. The agent said it was an unusual booking

I only have 6 TB miles left, and will unlikely to use this program in the future...

Concerto

Don't really blame you. I've found it more than slightly burdensome working out what to do with the miles before they expire. I'm not in a desperate hurry to keep collecting. Think I'll make Iberia Plus my main OW program from now.

ossa

I made the mistake of booking flights to Germany next month on AirBerlin. There is contradictory information on their website regarding baggage costs versus what the online third party ticket sales company Justfly told me. I've called AirBerlin 6 times in the last month at various times of day and despite holding for an hour at a time I've never reached a human being. Instead I've been subjected to hours of some idiotic James Bond soundtrack song while on hold. AirBerlin sucks, I haven't flown with them, but I will NEVER book a flight with them in the future.

seawolf

Part of the soundtrack is actually from Assassin's Creed. Lol

weekendflyer

The waiting line music is really annoying. Gladly I have the luck not to stay long in their waiting line

Gus2013

I have had the most luck calling the English number during German working hours, especially in the morning.

n_f_c_

Hey

I can second calling the US hotline during German working hours — the CSR was German and friendly / easy to deal with!