airberlin topbonus - Air Berlin (AB) Status match

I recently decided to shift some business to AB as 125 miles are not making me too happy. Did anybody try to get any sort of status match as SEN? Any success?

I wonder how much business LH has lost by reducing the mileage credits to 125 miles for the cheaper tickets ? I know from my own pattern that I now only chose whatever suits my schedule at the best price - usually this is DBA/AB.

Why do you want the status match? What is your usual routing, if you have one at all? If the LH lounges are not too far out of your way, you can use them anyway, regardless of the carrier until you have status with AB.

I guess this is no new information to you :o

Why do you want the status match? What is your usual routing, if you have one at all? If the LH lounges are not too far out of your way, you can use them anyway, regardless of the carrier until you have status with AB.

I guess this is no new information to you :o

Lounges are for sure no reason to get Air Berlin status because there are no Air Berlin lounges. But the answer is easy for everybody knowing about the perks of Top Bonus Gold:

no booking fee for the call center and dedicated number
25% extra miles
free rebooking even for "Sparpreis"
free seat reservation for row 1
dedicated counter
extra free luggage (and even my bike goes for free)
a free master card collecting miles

If you want to do it the easy way: Make four of your friends happy with a one year subscription of STERN and you will be gold or buy the vouchers on Ebay. You should get the 12000 miles vouchers for about 140 Euro. Four of them will give you Gold and 6.4 fully free domestic one-ways for the price of 540 Euro. Air Berlin does (so far) not differenciate between status and bonus miles.

I recently decided to shift some business to AB as 125 miles are not making me too happy. Did anybody try to get any sort of status match as SEN? Any success?

Air Berlin offered me a status match for being a member of the Steigenberger Award Club. But I was too lazy to send in the postcard.

http://www.steigenbergerhotelgroup.com/aw/Konzern/home/Deutsch/Award_World/Award_World/Programm_Vorteile/Kooperationspartner/~esau/Air_Berlin/

Lounges are for sure no reason to get Air Berlin status because there are no Air Berlin lounges. But the answer is easy for everybody knowing about the perks of Top Bonus Gold:
Air Berlin does (so far) not differenciate between status and bonus miles.

And not to foget no stupid fees when booking a feward flight and IIRC no taxes at all!

Air Berlin does (so far) not differenciate between status and bonus miles.

Does this mean that if I transfer a bunch of AMEX MR points or Shell Clubsmart points into TopBonus they will send me the Gold card ?

Does this mean that if I transfer a bunch of AMEX MR points or Shell Clubsmart points into TopBonus they will send me the Gold card ?

Thanks for asking my question. :)

Does this mean that if I transfer a bunch of AMEX MR points or Shell Clubsmart points into TopBonus they will send me the Gold card ?

Thanks for asking my question. :)

Let me give you the only one answer I am qualified to give. I signed for their credit card and got 5.000 miles. I had two flights to PMI and return and bought one 12.000 Miles Focus (sorry, not Stern) Voucher on Ebay and they promoted me to Silver asa. I entered the promo code. I bought two more and became Gold. And I asked for a refund of the CC fee and got that without any hesitation.

On their Website it reads:

Gather Miles with your Top Bonus Card on Air Berlin and NIKI flights or by using the services of our Top Bonus Partners like hotels and car rentals. With the Air Berlin MasterCard* you even earn Top Bonus Miles when shopping.

Your Miles remain valid for three years after the date they were collected, expiring at the end of the quarter concerned. And you are automatically awarded complimentary annual Silver Status once you have earned at least 20,000 Miles within 12 complete months. If you collect 40,000 Miles within an entire year you receive the Top Bonus Gold Status.

So it makes obviously no difference where the miles come from and even using the CC works. I frequently use it now as I consider the earning ratio much better compared to my M&M CC. And at the end of the day, they got a very loyal customer with about 20 flights YTD.

since we're OT anyway... maybe I am blind... but I can't find any remarks about the expiration of AB Gold Status. Any hints on that?

since we're OT anyway... maybe I am blind... but I can't find any remarks about the expiration of AB Gold Status. Any hints on that?

It is different from LH SEN (no longer OT :D). Status starts at the end of the month you reach the threshold, it is valid for 12 months and is renewed if you reach the threshold again within this qualification period.

slightly off topic, but what is the latest to book an award flight in advance? couldnt find anything on the website.

I recently decided to shift some business to AB as 125 miles are not making me too happy. Did anybody try to get any sort of status match as SEN? Any success?
Thomas_B,

I tried it last week and asked politely by fax if they would consider a status match. Got a very polite "no" back the next day.

Cheers,
MCL

Thomas_B,

I tried it last week and asked politely by fax if they would consider a status match. Got a very polite "no" back the next day.

Cheers,
MCL

That is what I would have expected. I spoke to a call center agent last week and he was surprised about my "precious metall". He said there were not to many of these cards around. However, you are still free to get status via the Focus offer.

And this pays off.

Yesterday I booked my first award flight on my DUS - TXL route for tomorrow. It was done in five minutes, no discussion about availability, taxes and 7500 miles only (= 7,5 international flights or 15 domestic flights or 0,625 subscriptions for the Stern. Official ticket price was 169,--. Even if bought on a "Stern only basis" simply a bargain

just get the Air Berlin EC Card (available for free with your credit card) and you can generate your gold-status for just a few cents (depending on the number of transactions needed).

How that? Do shopping at your own store?

How that? Do shopping at your own store?

kind of...

Or any other store that allows cash refund??

If this works it is a cheap way to pay for Award tickets....

I am currently moving Shell Clubsmart points into my TopBonus account.
In conjunction with V-Power (5xpoints) and the ADAC double points promo you can get 10 points per litre of V-Power. This however only really makes sense if you can deduct your petrol as business expenses from tax.
I get about 6.000 points per month that way.

I am currently moving Shell Clubsmart points into my TopBonus account.
In conjunction with V-Power (5xpoints) and the ADAC double points promo you can get 10 points per litre of V-Power. This however only really makes sense if you can deduct your petrol as business expenses from tax.
I get about 6.000 points per week that way.

you use 600 l of gasoline and are LH SEN? your carbon footprint must be huuuuuge! :o

oops, sorry 600l per month not per week. (= ca. 3.000 kms per month, I think there is a hole in the tank of my MB V8!)

oops, sorry 600l per month not per week. (= ca. 3.000 kms per month, I think there is a hole in the tank of my MB V8!)

No, you just have a very heavy right foot :p

oops, sorry 600l per month not per week. (= ca. 3.000 kms per month, I think there is a hole in the tank of my MB V8!)

Can you convert as many times as you like? What's your interpretation of the word "einmalig" on this page:
https://www.shellsmart.com/smart/PartnerForm.html?site=de-de


Shell CLUBSMART Punkte in Top Bonus-Meilen von Air Berlin eintauschen (einmalig)

[mod hat on]

Since this thread has evolved into 'how to get miles/points with AB's FFP', I'm moving this thread to the 'Other European Frequent Flyer Programs' forum.

Regards Oliver2002
mod-in-training
M&M forum

So far I have converted Shell Clubsmart points 10 times to TopBonus.

I think the reference to on-time ("einmalig") is as they used to have an option where you could automatically transfer all points by default to TopBonus. This feature has disapeared now.

[mod hat on]

Since this thread has evolved into 'how to get miles/points with AB's FFP', I'm moving this thread to the 'Other European Frequent Flyer Programs' forum.

Regards Oliver2002
mod-in-training
M&M forum

Hey Oliver,

I think your "moderator in training" time should be ended and you should be given the proper moderator title ! You are doing a great job over at the M&M forum. Keep up the good work!! :)