Originally Posted by
TlvLove
Thanks Gardyloo!
I understand from your suggestion I should probably call AA and "initiate a platinum challenge" which includes a certain co-pay element, if I get it right.
What about a match via the current AirBerlin TopBonus plan to Gold - would similar benefits be available to me even if I am an AB gold/plat and not an AA?
Thanks again, looking at the details for that AA challege now.
From what I can see the AB bonus would be fine; however the perks are considerably lower than AA's (at least for the time being) - lower bonus miles on flights, higher redemption costs (more miles for award flights) etc. Yes, there's a one-time charge to sign up for the AA challenge (I think $240 or so, not certain) but you could make that up in award miles and/or upgrades pretty quickly.
It really depends on how you plan to use your status, and if you'd plan on maintaining your flight activity. AA no longer offers a "soft landing" - i.e. once you fail to requalify for a given tier, that's it, so if you're looking at a short-term romance, then AB would probably be the better bet. Longer term, if you could manage to switch most of your activity to Oneworld, with >50K BIS miles in business class you'd get pretty close to AA Executive Platinum, with its 8 SWUs and many other excellent perks.