airberlin topbonus - Air Berlin business class DUS-BKK

Hi all,

Poking around for a one-way flight from Europe to Bangkok summer 2010, I came across a fare on Air Berlin for $1100 (USD). I have no experience with this airline and information and reviews about business class seem a bit scant...

From what I can tell, and trying to compare the potential experience to one I am familiar with, their business class product looks to be about half-way between (say) EVA's Elite and PL, in terms of seating space/comfort (which is my most important criteria).

They also claim to include a limo service in BKK into the city or Pattaya... not a big deal if staying in Bangkok but could be a nice win if I decide to head directly to Pattaya from the airport.

Is this too good to be true?

Thanks for any insights.

I fly Air Berlin all the time in Europe and they have a Y product which is certainly superior to Lufthansa. Their long haul C product is not en par with LH, more like domestic First in the US. However, for the price it is a steal. I will fly it to HKT in a few days and I appreciated the easy transfer in Berlin and short travel time, which makes is competive (not only price wise) compared to flight from BER-EUROPE-BKK-HKT.

You will find more infos here:

http://www.airberlin.com/site/business_class.php?LANG=eng&checkNavi=1

BTW: They have a pretty generous FFP-

Well, I booked (turned out to be on a day when the non-stop is from Berlin to Bangkok).

Will post back in 7 months after taking the flight :).

Well, I just returned from a DUS-TXL-HKT (and v/v) flight in C for a price about 2k Euro return. Some short remarks:

Check in and lounge:
Easy, lounge in DUS was the old LTU lounge in pier C (which I did not use because the flight left from pier B and I prefer the BA lounge anyway). I Berlin I could have used the AirBerlin lounge in the E Terminal, however, I had a short connection time and did not use the lounge.

Flight:
Flight was on an A330. Seats somehow like old LH Business Class or domestic First Class in the US. Not state of the art and no flat beds, but angled at about 160 degrees. Four rows 2-2-2. IFE was inseat, same small screen as on LH First, no video on demand but two you had the choice of six films, three of these shown parallel. Food was excellent for airline food. Same service style like on LH C (one tray with starter, desert and chese and you get the main course - choice of four different main courses - later). Food quality was close to OS.

FFP:
Amazing value for money. As a AB Gold I got 35976 status miles for this. I got 2000 extra bonus miles, because DUS-TXL is my chosen double mileage route. Considering that 37.500 miles buy you a business class o/w award to San Francisco and 112.500 miles buy you (as a gold) two business class returns to San Franciso, this is amazing.

Thanks for the trip report...can anyone comment on their longhaul Y product? Is it on par with LH or worse? I am flying them JFK-DUS-JFK and wanted to know some more information. Also, anyone know what lounge they use at JFK T8 for C class pax?

hi guys, I am going to fly on AB C class fro MUC to WDH and I am wondering what is your opinion about their ground service, inflight entertainment and seat comfort.