Springbok Viking

So I have now been a Topbonus Gold member for a year and I'm trying to evaluate the program. Coming as a * Gold member with SK, I can obviously not avoid comparing, but in spite of all recent enhancements of Eurobonus I find it overall by far much more attractive. I cannot speak for other OW programs.

Let's start with the positive aspects. I appreciate the benefits of free advanced seat selection, additional luggage allowance and elite pre-boarding which is consistently enforced.

My rant, however, comes with their redemption. It sucks. Big time. For a starter finding award availability outside of Europe, e.g. transatlantic or intra-Asian, is close to zero. We're not talking about CX first but just plain econo. Secondly, fuel surcharges and whatever add on surcharges on AB flights makes reedemption on their own metal close to absurdly bad value, e.g. an Y class award round trip from TXL to JFK will set you back 401.08 EUR. Booking the very same flight at full price would cost 385 EUR. What is then the point of offering reedemption!?

Okey, so booking award flights on AA might be slighty better value, but in total I"m pretty underwhelmed by Topbonus. Just my 2 cents...

Jma12

I burned all my 80k on QR J from SIN-CDG via DOH. But yes, YQ is high using TB.

SK2751

I noticed that one can avoid YQ on intra European redemption (but paying a higher point price). Otherwise, the YQ is also over the regular fares. Not only over the deep discounted fares, but quite regular tickets. For me booking intra Europe with YQ included is so so acceptable, but also needed to search several month ahead to find an opening. Much worse than on SK, where every ticket can be paid with points.

Although, presently, due to some promotion I am getting about 5 times more points for AB flights than for SK flights -- it does make me feel somewhat compensated for other problems with the program.

benberg2013

I agree about High YQ. For this reason I have 15k TB miles rotting in my account.

When using my BA Avios for a redmtion on TAM JFK-YYZ BA wanted taxes of $5 and TB wanted 25 Euro.

SK2751

This is partly an oligopoly situation. I think that AB does what LH does ...

WilcoRoger

The funny thing is that if you redeem e.g. BA Avios on AB, there is no YQ. Go figure.

Springbok Viking

I have 94.000 Topbonus miles on my account and I realize they are close to useless unless I book CX out of FRA, DUS or LHR.

Springbok Viking

...And what I totally not get is that AB seems not to charge YQ on award flights booked with Avios.

mlqsko

Or EY out of AUH or Australia. Or US-US/Hawaii/Caribbean on AA. JFK-HNL is just 20k in economy.

90k miles can be quite valuable in some cases if you know how to use them properly.

Rami Tamimi

Apparently,you have not tried the RJ FFP and it's redemption table

Volvic

AB TB gives you more for their own flights, like the 40% bonus as Gold (even qualifying) and on a selected route double base miles. The more expensive the class the bigger the mile amount.

Said that, a number is a number, you and me can agreed that 90 is 2 times 45 but 90K AA miles are not 90K BA Avios or 90K ABTB miles.

Direct, connecting, high, low season, stopovers, partners.... so many variables have many different results.

Personally I do not like ABTB because no First class redemption, if desperate to travel it can save your day on an LH.

ABTB Website is so so... if more than a simple EU direct it can be difficult

And yes, you pay more to redeem with a partner (OW) and even more with Etihad.
But with a connection R/T via DUS, even codesharing, in economy of course, I can get easily 7500 miles, try to get the same amount of miles with AA or BA and you ned to pay two or three times that amount.
I.e. you can get more miles and to use them, you need/pay more. And if you really want to be really hit by high YQ (or APD) try biz via LHR.

Volvic

A bit generic on purpose to avoid ABTB pinpointing me too easily.

I need to fly from Asia to Europe in mid January and my redemption options were:

Biz-one way
AA 52,500 miles and 105 € (mainly the late booking fee, 75 USD), via HKG (required miles will be soon up to 75,000)
BA 97,500 miles and 205 € (via DOH)
BA 87,250 (off peak)or 99,000 (regular) miles and 291 € (via LHR)
AB 80,000 miles and 175 € (via AUH)

Nothing with AA, not enough Avios with BA, so I used AB miles with their partner, Etihad. Quite happy about it. So I would not say Topbonus was the Most Useless OW Program for Redeemption, it worked for me.

james84

I had a relatively good experience last year redeeming FRA-NRT-SIN on JL Business for 80K AB miles despite the very high taxes (200+ EUR)

However having a frustrating experience now when trying to redeem AMM-DOH-DME on QR. The AMM-DOH is only First and Economy (similar to US domestic flights) and AB isn't willing to book First on a Business award. Has anyone had the same experience? So does this mean that domestic awards in the US can't be booked in First?

WilcoRoger

My guess is that you can book First but you also pay for First - even if it's the ME regional F only (or US domestic F)

The upside is, that you should also earn according to F when flying revenue tix on those routes - at least it goes like that with BA.

(I guess you meant that AMM-DOH is First and Eco only)

james84

Oh yes, I meant F and Y. My bad. Thanks for pointing it out.

The problem is that AB award charts only quote C and Y, probably cause they don't have F themselves (similar to DL). I just assumed that in the event of 2 classes of service, they would book "F" under the C rate as AA and UA does, but apparently they won't.