Cofyknsult

Hi All,

Now that AB is a full Oneworld member, I have attempted to book a connection from JFK through TXL or DUS. While I recognize that there is no Intra-European Business Class, I notice that:

1) There is no way, on the AB engine, to identify oneself as an Emerald Oneworld member (AA ExPlat). There is actually no way to enter one's FF number if it is not the AB TopBonus.

2) The first 6 rows of each cabin are not bookable

3) Booking ANY seat is actually against payment.

I am not sure whether these are understandable starting glitches or actual policy, but I think I shall wait until these issues are sorted out.

Does anybody have experience using AB for more than dry sectors between the US and TXL or DUS ?

Thanks.

the810

Seating is not OW benefit, although some OW carriers give free seating to OW elites. AB is not required to provide this and there is good chance they won't (so free seating would only be available for AB elites).

Artur

I had a little chat with a plain-cloth executive at the air berlin counter in JFK.
Even that AB joined OW 3/20, they are far behind in implementing the changes in their internal booking and/or computer system.

AB started out similar to Jetblue trying now to compete with Lufthansa. As an original budget airlines, they have not gotten into catering to elite passengers yet.

I have been flying them intra-european few times. Their current TATL business class product is a similar to a domestic first class with 150 degree angle. New business class seats (refurbished LX no-flat lie seats)are being installed. Etihad forced them to built a 180 degree seat in the code share flights to AUH. So basically, according to the executive it will take till end of the year to complete the upgrade of the business class product, AB will fly 3 different J configuration trans-europe. Other than flying AUH, nobody will know which J class one is flying TATL.

Regarding the seat bookings, we have to wait and see. According to the AB site, it is a OW benefit for Sapphire and Emerald to select seats for free. Some other OW airlines like IB make it also difficult to select seats online. I wonder whether Finnair can see AB reservation now.

Possibly by calling the reservation line, one can book seats without payment, but that would require them to be able to verify status online, so I am not too optimistic yet. Things may work out in time.

More critical than the seat selection I found was the very restrictive baggage and hand luggage policy. I bought a top bonus card (yearly membership) allowing free seat selection and for me to avoid to pay excessive overweight, since there was no way they would let my carry-on on board. According to the website, there is a new policy in place for 5/1/12 more aligning with OW, however you are still only allowed one 8kg hand luggage piece on TATL- flights to US and Canada.

Cofyknsult

Thanks Artur.

It seems that for the foreseeable future, the addition of AB to Oneworld will be about as useful to OW Elites as Mexicana or KIngfisher today... I strongly believe that if they want our business it is up to them to look for it.

mvoight

I would suggest calling... As an AA Executive Platinum, by calling, I was able to book row 2 on a Venice-Berlin flight... However, my daughter has no status and when I was not able to get her a seat in rows 2-6, so we are both in row 7. This is an all economy flight, and we both have business class BER-LAX the next day on the same reservations, as this is an overnight connection.

myefre