airberlin topbonus - Air Berlin Baggage Question - extra ticket for excess baggage?

We shall be spending a few weeks in Europe and have F tickets for main long haul segments on BA. For a segment between Berlin and Zurich, we shall be buying a separate ticket. I have read good reviews about Air Berlin and their prices for the 1.5 hour trip between Berlin and Zurich is great.

Yet we will not be able to pack as light as 20kg per person given it is a long trip. Plus it will be kind of silly to limit ourselves to 20 Kg each if we have F on other segments.

I note from the Air Berlin site that they charge 8 Euros/kg for excess on that kind of route. Hence, if we are say, 30 kg over in total it will be 240 Euros between us, the price of two tickets between Berlin and Zurich.

Q: Is it possible just to buy one or two extra tickets for the excess baggage?

Thank you in advance.

No, but you can buy a "Top Bonus Service Card" (validity one year) in advance for 40 EUR which will give you 30 kg allowance instead of 20 kg.
http://www.airberlin.com/site/tb/program/cardoverview.php?LANG=eng&cardType=service

Thank you very much Jarino. I intend to join the top bonus service. It seems a very good deal.

It mentions a discount of 10 Euros on an XL seat - what is that?

Thank you very much Jarino. I intend to join the top bonus service. It seems a very good deal.

It mentions a discount of 10 Euros on an XL seat - what is that?

XL Seats are the exit seats in row 12 or 13. I am AB Gold and get these seat for free. Very good comfort for money. Regarding your luggage: I never ever had problems with my hand luggage on AB and I pack verrryy heavy.

And: You can pack everything in a golf bag - they transport this free of charge :p

Flying Lawyer, thank you for your response.

Indeed I was thinking what precisely the other 30kg piece of sports equipment bag meant. We often ski but will not be skiing that holiday. I was wondering whether swimming things including swimming clothes, towels, sandals and other related items would count.

In fact, does anyone have experience as to how the sports equipment bag is treated?

Thank you.

Flying Lawyer, thank you for your response.

Indeed I was thinking what precisely the other 30kg piece of sports equipment bag meant. We often ski but will not be skiing that holiday. I was wondering whether swimming things including swimming clothes, towels, sandals and other related items would count.

In fact, does anyone have experience as to how the sports equipment bag is treated?

Thank you.
It used to be easier than it is now. We live part of the year on Tenerife, Canary Islands and part in Germany. We used to take an extra bag - up to 30 kg. - filled with books, household goods, etc. etc. and top it off with a pair of swim fins, snorkel, and such, and get it checked through as "sports/diving equipment" for our new house on Tenerife. A couple of times at pre-evening check-in I ended up with an Air-Berlin mgr. on duty. He wanted to see the contents of the bag. I said that it was my husband's case and I was just pre-checking us both in, and that my husband had the key for the lock. He actually walked with me to the screening area and had the bag put on the belt. Luckily the young men at the security belt "verified" that it contained sports equipment. YMMV.:D

Tenerife, thank you for the reply.

I am thinking that we will only have one sports bag between the family of 3 weighing probably no mre than 18 kgs - containing things one can actually find in the gym, eg swimming and sports clothes, underwear, sandals, running shoes, goggles, hats, some toiletries as those will also be appropriate for gym bag.

If I do NOT include items beyond what I have stated above, then it ought to be safe?

To quote from their website - http://www.airberlin.com/site/tb/program/cardoverview.php?LANG=eng&cardType=service

and

http://www.airberlin.com/site/flug_gepaeck_luggage.php?LANG=eng#sportgeaeck


their terminology is "One additional item of sports baggage/ equipment up to 30 kg free of charge (e.g. bicycle or surfboard)",


So items I intend to pack (above) ought to come within their rules.

What does everyone think?

This should put you on the safe side. Invest 40 Euro, get 10 kg extra luggage plus a sports bag. We always take our dogs to PMI and they have a foldable cage, pretty heavy. This is always declared as sporting equipemnt, never had problems. We get 10 kg extra each because we stay longer (28+ days), 10 kg extra because of FF status and the sporting cage...

ZRH is a route for business travel. Most people have a small boardcase. I do not expect them to be any difficult....

Thank you.

http://www.airberlin.com/site/tb/program/cardoverview.php?LANG=eng&cardType=service