I was helping my boss plan some award travel today, and thought I'd ask AAdvantage desk when Air Berlin/airberlin (which is it?) awards might be available. After some digging the agent found a memo stating a beginning date of Oct. 5th.
Me: "So they're available starting today?"
Agent: "Yeah, I guess they are. Congratulations." (her delivery was brilliant).
AA has updated their site, but no news.
http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea.../airberlin.jsp
Air Berlin has a link in their news section.
http://www.airberlin.com/site/tb/par...-tb-1_american
Now I know most here won't care because there's no first class and it's (gasp!) a LCC, but it looks like a good option for getting to/around Europe for us non-aspirational travelers.
It looks like there are no fuel surcharges, even though Air Berlin charges one to their members. I was quoted 20K + ~$120 in taxes for TXL-JFK (don't think that included the $25 phone fee). Using their website I found available space by registering with their program, topbonus. For a one-way TXL-JFK there are three levels of coach redemption: a 17.5K ("topdeal") and 25K option with 156€ taxes/surcharges and a 35K option where you pay nothing at all. It looks like the 25K option allows changes for a fee. Business is similarly 37.5K + 156€/47.5K. The only date I checked with the AAgent was available, and listed as a 25K redemption on the Air Berlin site. I didn't see any unavailable dates around my timeframe with topbonus miles.
Perhaps others can add experience/corrections? There isn't a whole lot of Air Berlin info out there....