5 Oneworld Members Open Status-match After Air Berlin Ceased Operation
According to announcement posted on their website at: one world
"Airberlin will cease participating in the oneworld® alliance with effect from the close of business on 27 October 2017, following the filing by Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG’s (“airberlin”) for the opening of insolvency proceedings over its assets.
Airberlin’s affiliate NIKI – which joined oneworld alongside airberlin in March 2012 – will no longer fly as part of oneworld at the same time."
It basically said that Airberlin's royalty program topbonus will no longer be part of the Oneworld alliance, thus making everyone's status matched gold card no longer valid.
"A number of oneworld member airlines are making a tier-status matching offer to members of airberlin’s topbonus frequent flyer programme, enabling them to maintain their Emerald, Sapphire or Ruby status when flying with any oneworld member airline. For details, see individual member airline’s frequent flyer websites, specifically:
I would say it looks like great news to us, however when looking at the eligibility of statusmatch with these 5 airlines, some tough requirement is stated as follows:
British Airways:
"Airberlin topbonus tier offer:
British Airways is offering airberlin topbonus members who are equivalent to oneworld Ruby tier status or above (sliver, gold or platinum airberlin status) the opportunity to join the British Airways Executive Club as a Bronze Member.
if you take 4 flights with us before the 31 December 2017 we will also credit your account with 9,000 bonus Avios – enough for a return reward flight from Germany to London.*
Exisiting Excutive Club Members:
To take advantage of this offer send us an email at ABtieroffer@ba.com with your Executive Club Membership details and attach evidence of your airberlin topbonus tier status by the 30 November.
Not a Member?
If you are not an existing member, you will need to join first before contacting us.
You will also be eligible for an additional 4,500 Avios when you join before the 30 of November, please refer on the link below for more details. "
For British Airways, you would get 4500 Avios for free if you register for a new account, you would get to match your BA avios level up to Bronze by sending them a email at ABtieroffer@ba.com which isn't too big of a perk, and you can get 9000 avios for taking 4 flights with them before the end of the year which I would say, it's not that much time left.
Finnair:
"What’s more, if you’re an airberlin topbonus or Lufthansa Miles & More tier member, we will now match your tier to Finnair Plus Silver so that you can continue enjoying tier benefits. Thus, if you are at least a topbonus Silver member or a Miles & More Frequent Traveller, you’ll become a Finnair Plus Silver member right away.
For topbonus Gold and Platinum members as well as Miles & More Senator and HON Circle members we also offer a Gold Challenge in addition to the instant Silver membership. The Gold Challenge means you can move up to the Finnair Plus Gold tier with only half the usual amount of tier points or qualifying flights within the next six months – that’s only 40,000 tier points or 23 flights.
To match your tier, simply fill in your Finnair Plus number or join Finnair Plus now!"
For Finnair, you can get silver up to 6 months and if you accumulate 40,000 points or have 23 flight segments, they will upgrade your tier to gold.
Iberia:
For some strange reason, their status match website landing page is only in German, thus it may sounds like they are only offering this statusmatch to Germany residents, but many people outside germany have successfully get their Oneworld gold card already.
They would status match your Iberia account to gold level if you send them a email with the form filled here as well as a picture of your Airberlin Gold card to this email at ibpcampaign@iberia.es.
Royal Jordanian:
Royal Jordanian Airlines Status Match:
"Thank you for your email below and for your interest in our Frequent Flyer Program -Royal Plus
Please note that Top Tier Status Match offered by Royal Jordanian for members holding a top tier status from a major competing airline, equivalent to Royal Plus Platinum or Gold only, and holding a valid loyalty card from the airline, and it is based on the following conditions:
1- The frequent flyer member must be a current Elite member with a valid membership from the airline.
2- A recent boarding pass that shows your current status.
3- A picture of the physical card and a statement of account for the past 12 months.
4- Should register in the Royal plus program.
5- Provides a booking and a ticket on Royal Jordanian; noting that the card upgrade and benefits would only be activated after a minimum of 5000 award miles that must be accumulated in the Royal plus account
6- Status match will be granted once only for the same member.
7- Member must achieve 20,000 miles within the first 12 months to keep the matched status, otherwise the card level will be demoted.
8- The processing and approval of each status match request is left at the sole discretion and judgment of Royal Jordanian Airlines.
Thank you once more for your interest and we look forward to welcome you on board our flights at all times.”
Royal Jordanian's also has a requirement which you must have a booking flight with them, the 8 clauses looks cumbersome in many ways but if it fits your situation is definitely worth a try. You would have to send the proof to email ffp@rj.com.
S7:
"As Air Berlin has ceased operating flights, S7 Priority offers the members of the topbonus loyalty programme holding the Elite status the equal status of S7 Priority and the accrual of S7 Priority miles for flights with S7 Airlines taken between 01.10.2016 and 30.09.2017, even if these flights were accounted for in the topbonus programme earlier.
Instant Elite Status.
Elite members of topbonus can become members of the S7 Priority loyalty programme before 31.12.2017 and submit a photo of their topbonus Elite status card or a screenshot of their topbonus personal account via the feedback form in the S7 Priority Personal Account. The equivalent status of S7 Priority will be assigned to the member after he or she takes the flight with S7 Airlines as an S7 Priority member if the flight is taken before the end of 2018."
Again, the same problem with S7 it's that you would have to take a flight with the designated airline in order to have the status for a year, and probably not so many of us will come across S7, so I wouldn't consider it as a ideal case.
Bottom Line:
The best one to simply statusmatch with Iberia, they only require the picture of the gold card, so it's fairly easy if you have one with Airberlin (Which many people staus-matched to get one) or Lufthansa Senator.
All the other programmes seems more challenging to me with BA < Royal Jordanian < S7 < Finnair in that order or you can consider the rest 4 equally difficult.
I am hoping to get some feedback from your guys regarding the experience with status match with these 5 airlines. Leave a comment about which gold card you are getting ?
