Originally Posted by PaxCGN

My poor judgement should be warning to anyone located in Central Europe and deciding which Oneworld-programme to concentrate on:

In order to remain independent from LH, I have maintained my BA gold status (oneworld emerald) since over 10 years without interruption, parallel to LH Senator (Star Aliance gold), AF/KL gold (Skyteam gold, but not held it continuously) and additionally AB-Gold (now oneworld sapphire) for my econimy flights on business within Europe and my longhaul business class flights.
When AB joined oneworld I thought this would be relief for me, being able to concentrate on only one oneworld program and thus enabling me to get more consistence into my Skyteam status due to less necessary flights.
I opted for AB platinum (oneworld emerald), sacrificing BA gold after 10 years for the sake of priviledged parking at German airports and the additional possibility to collect on EY, also due to the poor customer service of BA Executive Club in Germany.
What a mistake!
In spite of actually flying more oneworld in 2012 (I did even book addition flights just for the reson of maintaining my emerald status), I never made it to AB Top Bonus platinum. BA has just sent me my silver card for 2013 (I am thankful, because I didn't even know they offer a soft landing). But it is sad to no longer have oneworld emerald from January 2013 inwards after over 10 years and my last visit to LHR T5 first lounge in December is also lost due to my BA flights having moved to T1.
The reason is very simple and I should have paid more attention to this before opting for AB top bonus:
Top Bonus gives more than fair credit for their own flights (shorthaul economy), but very poor credit for business and longhaul and absolutely no additional status points for status members on oneworld (and Etihad) flights!
A business class flight on BA from Germany to London can get less credit than an economy flight on AB within Europe. A longhaul flight in business class on BA or EY receives less credit than three shorthaul flights in AB in economy! Credit for a Finnair return flight in economy is a joke!
Had I continued to collect in BA executive club I would have maintained my emerald status by far. But AB top bonus is only interesting for customers who mainly fly on AB metal within Europe!