first Air Berlin flight since joining OW

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dc88

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Oct 18, 2011
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Hi Guys

had my first Air Berlin flight since they joined OW, LON STD > BER via DUS

firstly, staff were friendly and helpful, was a lot like flying BA but newer planes and younger staff.

anyway, I got a really cheap last second flight, thinking I would be able to get an earlier connection once in germany as
i'm a QF WP, landed in DUS, carry on only, 2 flights before mine, not fully booked, no love.
there is no lounge at DUS for people going inter europe just a little section(space for 20people) with free drinks but no food and more important.... no wifi!!!

in the current Air Berlin magazine, at the back there is a cartoon in german, looks like it's about an aussie outback adventure.
there is a cartoon drawing of an Eithad aeroplane which seems to be suggesting that the best way to australia is with there codeshare
partner and not with there OW partner Qantas.

now I know it's just a cartoon but I thought this was a bit off.
there is also a little write up about Australia and they mention Qantas

for those wondering it took about a week for points and status credits to come through

would like to know what people think of there long haul???
 
I'm going to sound petty, but "there", "their", and "they're" are different words with different meanings.

But on topic...yes they shouldn't be plugging travel to Australia in Ehtiad now they are Oneworld, not now that Air SriLanka can be part of the fun!

Sent from my HTC Desire using AustFreqFly
 
SeatBackForward said:
But on topic...yes they shouldn't be plugging travel to Australia in Ehtiad now they are Oneworld, not now that Air SriLanka can be part of the fun!
Click to expand...

Why not? Etihad purchased a chunk of Air Berlin recently.

What lounges can you use at TXL? I'm there in a few weeks time? I have heard that Air Berlin have a lounge in TXL, but it's for their members only so you have to use a shared BA (?) lounge.
 
Read somewhere that they charge a fee to use a person at check-in.

Is this waived for OWE?
 
Ari Gold said:
Check-in & e-Services - airberlin.com
Click to expand...

Sorry, l thought that you implying that, that was the only option in your case? Do you need to use the desk?

I purchased a ticket last week and there was no mention of a check in fee. During the booking process, l was prompted to enter my QF FF Number into the booking and once the payment had gone through, it showed up under QF 'Manage My Bookings' pretty much instantly.
 
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Oneworldplus2 said:
What lounges can you use at TXL? I'm there in a few weeks time? I have heard that Air Berlin have a lounge in TXL, but it's for their members only so you have to use a shared BA (?) lounge.
Click to expand...

Where are you flying to? If departing from Terminal A, use the BA lounge. I was there in April (days after joining OW) flying TXL to MUC. At check-in, the lady said that here was no lounge and BA was too far. Bollocks....

A/ there was an AB "lounge" right at the departure gate,
B/ the BA lounge was about 5 min walk....

Pity you couldn't sample the new BER airport and report back.
 
SYD said:
Where are you flying to? If departing from Terminal A, use the BA lounge. I was there in April (days after joining OW) flying TXL to MUC. At check-in, the lady said that here was no lounge and BA was too far. Bollocks....

A/ there was an AB "lounge" right at the departure gate,
B/ the BA lounge was about 5 min walk....

Pity you couldn't sample the new BER airport and report back.
Click to expand...

BUD-TXL and return.
 
I did a dummy booking from DUS-xAUH-MEL and most of the bookings were only showing flights with Etihad. There was maybe one or two flights with Air Berlin from DUS to AUS. So I guess AB is a bit like Virgin with a virtual network. There are some AB flights that could potentially hook up with QF in FRA and about the only airport internationally I can see where AB could hook up with QF is JFK. So I guess AB can't really advertise/promote QF when code shares have not been established and AB has a limited International network.
I feel this could be a real opportunity for both QF and AB if they did some coordination with flights in FRA.

By the way it was more expensive to book with AB to Australia then with Etihad.
 
I flew last week NAP > BER on Air Berlin for the first time.
I'm QF CL, purchased a discount economy ticket, got a whole 15 QF status credits.
It should be noted that Air Berlin is a discount airline, and feels like it.
The staff, however, are very nice and friendly. I purchased an exit-row seat for an extra EUR20, and had no one else in my row.
Interestingly, the only priority check-in line at NAP was for "Top Miles Gold" members (no mention of OW), but I walked straight up to the priority queue and the lady checked me in.
When booking, my flight was available using QF Classic Awards, however I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to choose my seat (exit row) online, so just paid the EUR100 for the seat.
Interested to hear from anyone who's booking using QF Awards if they can purchase extra leg room during the transaction.
 
I find it interesting that the QF booking engine doesn't really recognise AB when attempting to book flights to Berlin.

A good routing (ex BNE) would be BNE-SIN-FRA-BER, which directs traffic to the QF 747 FRA flight that often leaves with empty seats (as opposed to the more popular LHR A380 services which are often oversold in Y, leaving the A380 seats free for sale to those that won't fly through FRA), avoids LHR, and uses their new OW partner. I know that these things may take time, but the routing it currently suggests is BNE-MEL-SIN-LHR-BER (though you can also click 'select flights' to change the first leg to BNE-SIN)... BA operates the LHR-BER sector.

For SCs, the LHR option is obviously the best (particularly with a MEL detour), but I just find it odd that they wouldn't offer an AB flight, even if you have to dig through all the suggested flight options.
 
I thought AB fly to BKK but turns out they use Etihad.

Would have been good if they fly to Asia.

I've read you can sometimes get sub $1000 J class fares out of JFK at times.

I also like they let you do reasonable priced 1 way fares ala LCC. Could be a nice way to work out a round the world trip.
 
In the US they also fly to LAX and SFO from DUS and TXL. They also code share with AA in the USA. As Jeff said, AB can link up with QF in Europe. AB is a LCC but I think they are headed more in the Virgin direction of becoming a bit more. It sucks the codeshares they with Etihad don't points or SC's.
 
ChrisCh said:
I find it interesting that the QF booking engine doesn't really recognise AB when attempting to book flights to Berlin.
Click to expand...

What's interesting is the Classic Awards booking engine DOES recognise AB when booking, but the full booking engine doesn't.
 
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